Is Going To College Or University A Waste Of Money (As Well As Time)?

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 - Going to college and university may mean gaining new skills and knowledge in your particular area and meeting new people on your course, but it doesn't teach you or grant you the life skills, soft skills nor does it teach you how to think for yourself. By soft skills, we mean communication, character and personality traits, emotional traits and these include (and are not limited to) adaptability, creativity, confidence, conflict resolution, work ethic, integrity. These skills are fundamental and alongside working with your work colleagues and, but for say, the former, character traits and character building, confidence, motivation and working to your potential, are all things that tutors and lecturers never truly pass onto us.

- Nobody is guaranteed a job straight away after graduation - far from it

- At least half of the stuff you learn you can obtain or learn for free on Youtube or apps such as Kindle or through self-taught, personal and life experiences that cost you nothing; learning a new language? Use Google translate, go on holiday and/ or converse with people in general in their native/secondary language and pick up a few choice words and phrases or watch Youtube vids. Interested in art or dance? Just practice and practice without enrolling onto a course

- Going to college and university, just because it is something that 'has to be done' and if you don't go, you are a failure or you're branded as one - this is something that I see in relation to the vast numbers of Asians and Asian Americans and people of Asian descent studying and working hard, not just to get a well-paid job, but it is a necessity on their parents behalf. We are told by our parents and teachers we won't amount to anything, nor do well when we don't meet their 'standards'. In other words, this is more about pleasing them and making them feel good than you and making you feel like you owe them something. 

- It's not a waste of money if you are studying law, business, IT - anything else, such as liberal, expressive/creative and performing arts (art/design, dance, acting, music), these sectors would involve a lot of personal networking and finding people who work in those industries who could help you land a job in those areas. Having practical skills alone is just not enough. If you don't have that, then it becomes increasingly difficult to secure work. The lack of support and resources I had meant I gave up on a pursuing a job in the media.

- But for law, business, IT, teaching, medicine, the overwhelming majority of professions and sectors do NOT require degrees in their fields 

- I figured or I'd thought at in my 20s that by having a piece of paper with my name on it, would lead to something bigger for me, career-wise, but eventually, that never materialised.

- Leaving university with a huge amount of student debt to be paid off - thousands of pounds or dollars worth of debt that you need to pay back if you are earning over £10k/$10k in your job is hardly the stuff of dreams, really


*Bottom line: I majored in BA Hons Media arts and journalism with a 2.2 almost over 10 years ago, following on from my Access to Higher Education Media Studies college course (where I secured a level 3 qualification), but I couldn't and wasn't able to find work, so after a couple of months later and lacking on-the-job training and work experience in the media, I eventually turned to retail. Currently, I work at Costco and I feel as though that besides the money, the positive, as well as negative experiences I have obtained in the real-world has given me a sense of perspective as a person and knowing what I can achieve, as well as to what I still need to work on by being in work....something that college and university, well, the last few years of college and uni never provided me. I am in a job that has nothing to do in relation to my degree, and quite frankly, as I get older, it doesn't bother me that I am don't have a media-related job. Come to think of it, as I reflect on this, I don't spend time thinking about college or doing a course, anymore. Why? because it is not a requirement or something that I feel that I have to or must do in order to fulfil me as a person. 

Do I regret going to college and university when I could've found myself in employment earlier on and earn more money? In fact, I sometimes do.

Higher education is linked to higher earning potential; if that is the case, then why are there people with communications and media studies degrees slumming it out at Starbucks, flipping burgers at Mcd's or working in a retail chain and especially for minimum wage and still saddled with thousands of pounds/dollars worth of debt they have to write off? 

I'm not telling you not to go to college and university and not to get yourself an education, but, and speaking from personal experience, I am also saying that education isn't just strictly limited to the classrooms -, and they don't need to cost you a dime, either. Don't do something by following the crowd, because that is what society tells you. Think long and hard about it and weigh up the pros and cons. If you go to college, apply for and undertake a vocational course or trade school that involves and provides you with the hands-on training and practical skills that employers look for in potential employees. 

Just keep your options open until you find one that works. But at the end of the day, it's about getting a job and making and earning money. & most of the time and depending on some courses, college and university just isn't the gateway to that. 

& that's life (un)fortunately.