Today, we're going to tackle a pretty tough question: Is college worth it?
To help answer that question, I'm going to enlist the assistance of my good friend, Tony
Hawk.
The question "Is college worth it?"
is a pretty loaded one and there have been a lot of studies done and a lot of opinions
are slung around and usually, the answer comes out to be, yeah, in the long run college is
worth it.
However, I don't want to focus on any of the big, giant studies right now.
I want to make it more personal for you and I'm going to add a couple of qualifiers to
this question in order to do that.
When I'm asking "Is college worth it?"
I actually want to ask "Is college worth it for you?" and "Is it worth it right now?"
Before I ever had any real aspirations to go to college, I was obsessed with skateboarding
and the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater's Series was my major source of inspiration to start skateboarding.
I want to use this game series as a sort of metaphor for figuring out whether or not college
is a good investment for you right now.
If you grew up in the 90s like me, I probably don't need to explain how this game works
to you, but here's the ten-second version of it.
You're a skateboarder and you skate and do tricks and try to string together huge combos
and get lots of points.
One of the major moves in the game is the grind and when you grind, you get this curved
meter that pops up.
This meter is going to serve as our little metaphor for answering this question.
Now, in the game, if you keep your little needle in the middle of the meter, you're
going to keep sustaining that grind, but if it goes to either side, you're falling on
your ass.
Here's the gist of the illustration: either side of this meter represents a situation
where college isn't a good investment for you right now; the middle of the meter means
it is.
Let's break down what each of these three states could possibly be, and at the end of
the video, you'll be able to assess where you stand right now.
Let's first look at the left side of the meter.
In this case, I'm going to say that you simply aren't ready for college right now and that's
what makes it not a good investment.
I think there are three possible cases that could make you unready for college at this
point.
The first one is you simply don't know what you want to do yet.
Most students don't know exactly what they want to do, but at this point, you really
have no idea.
If you go to college, you're going to be an undeclared major.
If you're in a financial situation where it really doesn't matter and you can afford to
take a year to just kind of putter around and take whatever classes are interesting
to you, then by all means go to college.
But, if you're in a situation where you're going to have to take out loans to go to college
and you really, truly don't know what you want to do right now, then maybe an expenditure
of tens of thousands of dollars is not the best way to figure that out.
There are a ton of other things you could do to start getting experience and figuring
out what you're interested in.
Here's just a few.
You could look to get an internship in an area that doesn't require you to be a current
student right now.
If you're good at networking and you could go to some events and meet some people, this
can be an option.
You can look for volunteer opportunities, try traveling is you have a little bit of
extra money and time, or simply just get a job and spend your free time working on personal
projects, reading a lot of books, and generally building your interests up.
A little bit down the line, you'll know what you want to do at least roughly and then you
can apply that to a college education.
The second case where you just might not be ready is that you really aren't mature enough
for college and if you're watching this video, I don't think this probably is going to apply
to you, but it might.
If you know you're the kind of person that just can't manage a demanding workload, then
college is going to be very challenging for you.
In this case, I want to point out something in the game.
When you're grinding, it's your job to keep moving the needle back and forth so you stay
in the green and stay on the rail.
If you don't feel like you're mature enough to go to college yet, maybe you can make some
changes in your life, maybe you can get organized, get a little bit disciplined and stay in the
green and make college a worthwhile investment.
The third, and honestly the worst reason that college might not be worth it for you right
now, is that you really, truly can't afford it.
This is a case that you're only going to know about after you've exhausted a lot of options
so make sure you're looking for scholarship opportunities, look for grants, and try to
get a part-time job or have your parents help you save some money so you can make it more
affordable.
Also, you don't have to go to a super expensive private college to get a great education.
You can find community colleges or an in-state public university if you aren't able to secure
enough financial aid for something more expensive.
Let's look at the other end of the spectrum, the right end.
At this point, you don't need to go to college and that's why it's not a worthwhile investment
for you.
It might be the case that you're completely, 100% self-driven.
You're an autodidact and you know exactly where to go to figure out what you want to
learn.
If you're in a major area that doesn't need a whole lot of crazy, big university resources,
say you're not going to be a molecular biologist, then you can probably find the resources you
need to learn what you want to learn for free or for a lot cheaper than you'll find at a
college.
If this is you, you also know how to set goals and create a plan of action.
You know exactly what you want, you can define a concrete end goal and then you can break
that goal down into mini-missions, which you can then pursue.
Remember, college is a huge bucket of opportunities and lots of people who want to learn things,
but at its core, it's a curriculum, it's a path that's set up before you and if you're
capable of creating that path, then maybe you don't need to pay somebody else to do
it for you.
Another reason why you might be in this area, is that you can make connections by yourself.
Networking is incredibly important and a lot of the best things that will happen to you
will come out of making relationships with other people.
If you don't need to be forced by a professor or a club or an internship program to go out
and meet people in your area of interest, then maybe you don't need college.
But, you need to be willing to get out of your comfort zone to show up at events where
the people that are going to help you along your path are going to be.
If this is you, then maybe you don't need to spend a whole ton of money on college.
Instead, go read books like The 4-Hour Workweek, Hacking Your Education, and The Personal MBA.
Then, get to work.
That brings us to the final position in the meter, the middle, which represents that college
is indeed a good investment for you.
There are certainly career paths and areas of study that require college, but for most
job paths, I've seen college as sort of a middle ground.
There's a lot of work and you have to be organized and self-driven to get through it, but at
the end of the day, it's primarily a curriculum.
It's a learning path set out for you and if you're able to create that for yourself then
you don't need it.
However, I know a lot of people want to have that foundation that they can build off of
and if that's you, then college is going to be a worthwhile investment.
Hopefully this framework has helped you get a little bit closer to deciding whether or
not college is a worthwhile investment for you.
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Every week, I'll be releasing more videos on helping you become a more awesome student.