Some of the country's most successful people do it all without a college degree.
LeBron James didn't need it.
Ariana Grande didn't need it.
But unless you're LeBron or Ariana, you're gonna need it.
Ivy Leagues, state schools, tertiary education, gap years, vocational schools, internships,
apprenticeships, jobs, community college.
These are just a handful of options for emerging adults or those aged 18 to 29.
They're not really adolescents anymore by the time they get to that age period, but
they're not fully adult either.
You have more freedom in "emerging adulthood" than you ever had before and probably ever
will have again.
In fall 2018, 69% of those who completed high school entered college.
And it's a proven path toward future success.
Lots of studies find that compared to young people who don't go to college, those who
do, they tend to have greater lifetime earnings, greater access to health insurance, less likely
to live in poverty, things like that.
Others have found happiness elsewhere.
And I just stopped going to class after that like, that was it.
Ever since that day?
Extraordinarily happy.
The Covid-19 pandemic has forced many institutions to shift to online only for fall 2020 and
beyond.
Some students are left questioning whether higher education is still their path.
So, do you need a college degree to be happy?
The literature on happiness and education is a bit mixed.
Education is probably more strongly correlated with future happiness throughout adulthood
than any other variable.
The Happiness Research Institute says that education is not as directly related to our
happiness as, say, our relationships, our salary or our health.
Others say there's delayed gratification from earning a degree that kicks in in your 30s.
But the college experience itself is associated with "constant pressure" and "high psychological
costs."
Dr. Kendall Cotton Bronk is a professor of psychology at the Claremont Graduate University
in Southern California.
Hedonic happiness is really focused on feeling good, just feeling good in the moment where
eudaemonia, on the other hand, is really focused on a deeper sense of contentedness.
You have a lot of sense of meaning and purpose in your life.
In the long term, there's actually some research to suggest that having an education does contribute
to this eudaemonic form of happiness.
With more education, people are more likely to be able to do the things that give their
lives purpose.
Her research indicates that a sense of purpose is key for adolescents to be happy.
As college-age students are figuring out who it is that they want to become many of them
are also reflecting on what it is they really want to accomplish in their lives.
For some young people, they do find their purpose in their careers.
Young people find purpose today in serving their communities, in supporting social or
political change, living life in accordance with their religious beliefs, different kinds
of artistic pursuits.
Not all of those forms of purpose would require a college degree.
And there are feasible options that don't require a college degree that can improve
happiness.
It doesn't have to be everyone goes in right after high school and gets a degree in four
years or, you know, goes to school for eight years to do this or that.
Meet Ogo.
He earned a full scholarship to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and enrolled for fall
2016.
In the middle of a marketing exam toward the end of his sophomore year, Ogo decided college
wasn't for him.
I just remember looking at the question and just sitting there for five minutes, just
kind of thinking about life and college and just, my options.
And I was like, no.
Just like folded the test, handed it in and walked out.
And then I just stopped going to class after that.
Like that was it.
So that's when I was like, I'm done with this.
But ever since that day, extraordinarily happy.
Ogo left college and moved to L.A. to pursue a career in marketing.
Now he runs an influencer marketing company called Thirteenth.
There's definitely times where I get stressed out by work, but like it's a way different
stress than like having to write an essay or do an exam that you just like don't care
for.
Is college for everyone and do you need to go to college in order to be happy?
Absolutely not.
Alex Bernadotte is a first generation college graduate and founder of Beyond 12, an organization
that guides underserved students toward completing their college degrees.
But if you have not gone to college and you decide not to go to college, let it be because
you have considered all of the options ahead of you, and you are making that decision based
on your choices, based on your interests, but not because our education system has failed
you.
The reality is, some folks simply cannot or will not take on the financial burden.
That's because college prices have been rising so rapidly.
Two to three times past the rate of inflation every year consecutively for the last 20.
The average cost of attending a private college for the 2018-2019 school year was nearly $50,000.
Of course, there are opportunities for scholarships and financial aid.
I wasn't in a situation where I was like if I didn't get the scholarship, I wasn't going
to go to school.
I have a mom who has a good job with good credit and access to loans where it's like,
I wasn't going to be forever in financial ruin if I didn't get these scholarships to
go to school.
Where you come from or your socioeconomic standing can have an effect on your future.
In terms of college graduation rates, only about 9% of students from the lowest socioeconomic
status can expect to earn a bachelor's degree by their mid 20s, versus 77% of their higher
income peers.
African-American students earned bachelor's degrees at 1/2 and Latinx students at 1/3
the rate of white students.
And students from homes where neither parent has gone to college are twice as likely to
drop out before their second year as a student with at least one college educated parent.
I expect, in the years to come, that college will change and that the costs will have to
come down.
Once it's out of the reach of the average American, it's just not sustainable.
Which leads to very legitimate questions about the return on investment of a college degree.
As of April 2020, college graduates made a median of $1,416 a week, while their peers
without a college degree earned a median of $789 a week.
That's nearly 80% less.
A bachelor's degree increases your earning potential, decreases the probability of criminal
involvement, increases job security, among other factors.
But graduates of the class of 2018 owed an average of $29,200 in student loan debt.
As a whole, Americans, owe $1.67 trillion in student loan debt.
Paying tuition or paying off student loan debt is a top stressor for emerging adults.
Of the 37 countries in the OECD, eight do not charge tuition for public higher education
for national students.
Higher education is typically paid for by the government, often from taxes.
Could the U.S. adopt a model like this?
Students have gotten more creative over the years to make college more affordable.
Deirdra Williams has been a school guidance counselor in North Carolina for nearly 20
years.
Whether it's through taking AP courses to prepare for AP exams, they want to figure
out how to spend less time in college because that means that's less money.
Deirdra says some students have started their college careers at a community college, which
is much more affordable, and then transferred to a four year school and still graduated
at the same time as their peers.
Often when people go at the age of 18, they have no idea what they're doing there.
And so they squander it, especially the first couple of years.
They drink it away.
And that might lead to a lot of fond memories, but those are very expensive memories to get.
First generation college students face additional challenges.
You're carrying the weight of your family.
You're carrying the weight of your community.
You're carrying the expectations of your ancestors, the legacy that you and your family want to
leave behind.
So internally, it felt very daunting and very heavy.
And it led me to just want to retreat inward.
I was afraid to ask for help.
Alex had to take an academic leave-of-absence early in her college career because she struggled
to navigate the college system.
She eventually came back, graduated and went on to pursue her master's degree at Stanford.
The stakes are high for first generation students, but the benefits can be huge.
The ability to help your family and to help them achieve, to help lift as you're climbing
your own ladder of success.
Those are the opportunities and the privileges that a college degree affords you and that
a higher education affords you.
And that is the link, for me, between a college degree and your education and your happiness.
The Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce defines a "good job" as one that
pays at least $35,000 a year for workers aged 25-44 and at least $45,000 a year for workers
aged 45-64.
About 56% of all "good jobs" require a bachelor's degree.
Today more than ever, you have to get an education to have a good economic future.
It's the privileges that the degree offers you.
So one is economic ease.
So, because having a degree allows you to change your economic prospects, it also allows
you to change your personal prospects.
The college years are a really prime time for identity exploration.
I think that's really, from a developmental perspective, the hallmark of this stage of
life.
I walked away with a network of individuals, a group of friends who are still in my life
so many years later.
I walked away with lots of good knowledge.
I became a critical thinker, a better listener.
I became an activist.
So ultimately, I do think that it made me happy.
From fraternities and sororities to young professional groups, access to professors
and their peers, college is a huge networking opportunity.
I even got my first job from a career fair at my college.
Now that the covid-19 pandemic has brought college online, students are questioning college
even more.
I think the pandemic has already changed how students and families view everything about
education.
Their college is not just a place where they go for lectures.
It is their primary source of security, their primary source of stable housing, stable food,
stable health care, their primary source of employment.
And so, as colleges and universities closed and they went online, it left lots of students
scrambling.
Many are wondering when we can "get back to normal."
Alex Bernadotte has a different suggestion.
I would challenge institutions not to go back to normal because we have to acknowledge that
normal was inadequate, insufficient and did not work for so many students.
How could colleges kick-start this change?
Number one, let's look at the cost of a higher education degree.
What are the costs that are necessary in terms of preparing students to live purpose-filled
and choice-filled lives?
And what are the costs that are associated with maintaining the status quo?
For many higher education institutions, the big draw for students is the sports team or
the stadium or the big fancy campus.
But are these really contributing to the education of these students?
College could be and should be more accessible, but it's not the only path toward success
or happiness.
It's just the most direct path to success in our society for now.