Should You Go To College?

Here is a question that the majority of people never REALLY ask themselves.

Sure, people DECIDE to go to college, but are you?really?deciding? Or are you just being pressured into doing it via fear and manipulation?

I’d like to start off by saying that I went to college. In fact, I have a Master’s Degree in Marketing & Advertising. And I have no problem at all with colleges. I definitely understand why people attend them and I believe they have utility.

Having said that… Should you go to college or not?

It depends.

First, allow me to talk about WHY most people go to college: It’s only because they’re told to.

Ever since you were been born, there’s a 99% chance that you’ve ALWAYS been told that your path in life should be to study hard, get good grades and find yourself a job so you can be financially stable in life.

That’s pretty much it.

You tell a young child something and they will believe you because you’re an adult. A source of authority. When we’re little, we don’t assume to know better than our parents, EVER (unless we’re defying them because we want something they won’t give us of course).

Now, you keep telling that child the same story throughout their whole life, and guess how that turns out? You’ve implemented that idea into their mind. It is almost as if it is pre-programmed.

From that moment on “Going To College” is, by default, the safe and smart decision to make.

THIS is all it takes for the majority of people to go to college. And it’s not a minor thing at all. It’s literally YEARS on YEARS of brainwashing. And it’s not even that hard to do this brainwashing because, as humans, we tend to be attracted to SAFETY. And that’s the picture that people draw up of college, that it’s the SAFE route in life.

Obviously, this is… inaccurate.

The first thing you need to think about before deciding whether or not you want to go to college is what you want out of life.

Yes, that’s the first step. I know it’s scary and almost impossible to know when you’re 18… BUT that should be your very first step.

Why do people skip this step? Because nobody wants to go to college in their mid-twenties.

Why doesn’t anybody want that? Well two reasons: the first reason is simple, it’s just because most people go to college when they’re young (so, a form of indirect peer pressure). The second reason is that they want to be making money in their mid-twenties and not studying and being broke (which is totally understandable).

But screw all of that. If you don’t know what you want to do in your life in your twenties, you’re either?ignoring a possibility because you don’t think you can do it?OR you are?too inexperienced to know.

For the first case, the solution is “simple”: just believe in yourself and go for it. Do whatever it takes. Don't limit yourself and what you can accomplish.

For the second situation, instead of just going to a random college course, GO LIVE LIFE.

Go experience the world, get a bunch of terrible jobs AND GROW while you’re trying to find your passion in life. College will still be there once you know what you want to do.?And maybe you won’t even need to go at all.

And in case you're thinking "I don't have time for that, I need to make money before I'm 30!", I wouldn't say you're wrong, but rushing big life decisions and going down the wrong path is the most likely way to end up broke at 30 years old. Patience always pays off.

(Now, I do want to write down a small disclaimer: if you want to go to college for partying, having fun and meeting new people, by all means, go ahead and do it. Disregard everything and stop reading now. HOWEVER, momentary fun doesn’t prepare your future to be awesome. If you don’t care about your future, it probably won’t be a very nice one, unless you happen to be extremely lucky in life.)

But back to the decision… Let’s assume you know what you want to do in life. Now it’s time for step two:

Is it worth it?

You need to research to determine if it is worth it. I will give you two random examples here: Person A wants to be a lawyer and Person B wants to be a graphic designer in the advertising industry.

So, in Person A’s case, it’s SUPER SIMPLE. To be a lawyer you need to be part of an official organization that pretty much dictates whether you’re an official lawyer or not (The Bar). So, no brainer there. Same for doctors, psychologists, etc… If the job you want requires legal and official approval from some sort of organization and that organization requires a college degree, obviously you need to go to college. You literally don’t have a choice if you want to go for that career.

But Person B has no such obligation to any organization. So, what Person B needs to do is talk to people who do exactly what they want to do: be Graphic Designer in the advertising industry.

Person B needs to talk to as many people as possible and ask them if they have a college degree in graphic design or anything of the sort, and also HOW they actually got to where they are.

You don’t even have to know anybody. Go on LinkedIn or Instagram and message 100 people on both. It’s a numbers game. At least 5% of people will reply to you as long as you explain you’re just a young person trying to figure out their future. They’ve been in your place before and they WILL relate and help you.

Once you have this information, you’re cleared to make a decision. If you live in America, you should DEFINITELY also run the numbers to see if the HUGE investment pays off.

But that’s about it. Another reason that might be making you want to go to college when you don’t need to is fear. Maybe you’re afraid that, on your own, you can’t make it. Maybe you think “I can only learn this in a college-like environment. Never by myself”.

The thing is… Whatever narrative you tell yourself about yourself will be the truth. So take that into consideration!

ANYTHING is possible, as long as you believe you can do it and that you’re the type of person who can pull it off.

There is SO MUCH information online about so many different things that it is actually EASY to learn on your own. It just takes time. But also, the advantage that people who don’t go to college have over people who do go to college is?execution. Because you only really learn when you execute. And most college courses are heavily theory-focused. That is actually my biggest knock on college. The focus should be 80% execution and 20% theory, but it’s the other way around in most cases.

Before I wrap this up, I just want to say: Never believe the myth that you won’t get hired without a degree. That’s only the case for shitty companies with poor management teams that don’t have faith in themselves to find the right candidates, so they just rely on certificates. You shouldn’t want to work for them anyway!

Never stop hustling & never stop dreaming,

- Dez

P.S. I’m a Success Coach and I’d be happy to help you through tough life decisions like this one! You can check out my official website?https://kaidezen.com/ for more information

P.S.S. I just also want to say that there are a few elite universities out there that do a great job of preparing people for the job market! They're just rare, rather than common. There are always exceptions to rules.