Education Is Changing. College Is Not as Valuable.

Stop going to college and do this instead.

After receiving a Ph.D. in Chemistry, I have focused most of my life on education. However, if one day I have a child, I would not push them toward receiving a college degree. Millennials and later generations have been taught that receiving a college degree means that you will be productive in society.

There are millions of college students every year believing that if they just study hard enough that they will be set for the rest of their lives. They believe that all of their troubles will be over when they graduate in a few years.

They will have a great job, a great paycheck, and can live the American dream.

This is a lie. It was true in the past, but it is not true any longer. As someone who has a Ph.D. in science and partnered with someone with a Bachelor in Engineering and Masters in Management, we struggle as a couple to pay our bills every month.

If we didn't have thousands in student loan debt, we would be able to actually afford to live in our current situation, but not live the life we thought were getting when we went into college.

My mom with an associate's degree makes more than double what my partner and I make combined.

College Has Lost Value.

When colleges started in the U.S., they were meant for higher class men who would receive general education and become Christian gentlemen that would run a family business. Today, college is seen as a stepping stone to getting the job you want. However, college programs do not support this system of learning, which has caused a divide between those with degrees and those who have jobs.

As more people flock to colleges, the job market is oversaturated with college graduates. There are not enough jobs to allow every college graduate to be in their field of choice. Therefore, the pay for college graduates has not increased to keep up with inflation and the thousands in debt the graduates will have from school.

Another problem is that the job market prioritizes experience over degrees. When we go to college, we think that by getting our degrees we will have multiple job offers on graduation. The reality is that — unless you have internships during college and gain real-world experience — you will likely not be the most qualified for a job.

We think of college as a trade school, but the colleges have not changed to satisfy this need. By going to college, you waste thousands of dollars taking classes to fulfill the general education requirements that are not necessary for the job you want. In reality, preparation for the job that you want would likely only take 1–2 years, instead of 4 years.

This is true for many different career choices, except scholarly/academic careers. If you desire to be a professor or perform higher-order research, then college is the correct system for you to go into.

However, there are many jobs where college is simply unnecessary. For example, a photographer, audio engineer, engineering designer, and a business person does not need a college education to be successful.

What Should You Do Instead?

If you don’t go to college, how do you gain experience in these things in order to be hired? In comes the importance of online education. I’m not talking about online colleges. I am talking about businesses that produce online courses that act as a trade school, teaching you exactly what you need to know to be successful in that field.

Take 1–2 Courses

You could spend $500 — $1000 and learn all of the basics for your field. In fact, you could use sites like YouTube to learn the real basics and make sure that you enjoy the field before you pay for a course. Now, just because you took this course doesn’t mean people will hire you, but even getting a college degree doesn’t mean people will hire you.

When you decide on a field that you are interested in, I would search for blog posts or YouTube videos about that field. Many people who create this content sell full courses that teach you exactly what you need to know.

For example, when I started creating a business and YouTube channel, I didn’t know what I was doing. Instead of getting a degree in writing, video production, and business, I spent a couple of thousand and bought 3 products: Video Ranking Academy* (affiliate link) by Think Media for YouTube, Automatic Income Academy by Graham Cochrane for my business, and Medium Mastery by Tom Kuegler for blogging and Medium.

In these courses, I first investigate the creator through their blog or YouTube channel. I wanted to ensure that I would actually enjoy learning from them. Unlike in college, when you choose specific courses you actually get to choose your instructor and find someone you will enjoy learning from!

If I really like what they taught and how they taught it, I would then look into what courses they provided that would dive deeper into the topic and provide me with what I needed to know to be successful. Many of these courses are much cheaper than even a single college course and come from people who are leaders in the industry of what they are teaching. Also, many have 14–60 day refund policies. If the course isn’t worth it, you can easily get your full money back, unlike in college.

Build a Portfolio

Next, you want to take what you have learned and build a portfolio. This is what industry or potential clients want to see. They want to know that you are skilled in the job they are asking you to perform, not where you received those skills.

In fact, even after spending 50K on a college degree, you still may not have this portfolio causing you to be rejected from jobs in your field.

Once you have a quality portfolio and feel good about the work you are doing, you apply to jobs or look for clients. For many different jobs, this system will be tens of thousands of dollars cheaper and you will likely make more money in the end compared to those who seek college degrees in a similar area.

For me, once I took the course, I started putting it into practice. Producing content on YouTube, writing for my blog and medium, and building courses for sale in my business. From this work, I have gained coaching clients and made money through my writings and courses. People are choosing me to work with not because of my degrees, but because they see what I can do for them

College Is Not Superior

To all millennials and later generations — who have placed those who have college degrees on a pedestal — a college degree does not make you any better than anyone else. We shouldn’t be going to college to figure out our lives or decide what we want to do. This is setting us up for a hard road in the future with debt and low-paying jobs.

Instead, discover what you want to do by actually doing the job, take courses for things you are interested in, and then build a portfolio that showcases your skills. This way, you spend less money, are more likely to get a career you enjoy, and can even get higher-paying jobs.