You Get One Chance At Going To College

In 2017 I was teaching a weekly life skills class to freshmen in high school.  One of the topics that was of regular discussion was the issue of paying for college.  I often encouraged the kids to understand that I wasn’t against college but I was for being debt-free or incurring as little debt as possible in life.  I 100% still think this way and don’t see a scenario where that will change.  I personally don’t want to deal with any debt whatsoever.  But I recognize that we live in a world where debt is accepted as normal.  Particularly, debt for education is seen as essential to a good life if a student is not blessed with the means to have that education paid for by someone else.  I encouraged my students at the time to be aggressive about seeking out scholarships and be open minded to alternative routes to higher education like community college and military service (understanding the risks).  From now on I want to add something to these conversations about college that I think is very important:  A person considering college for the first time must consider how many times they’re going to be willing and able to go to college.

Again, I’ve contemplated going back to school many times but the risk of taking on student loans and potentially hating the career field I choose, is far too great for me.  Especially considering that’s exactly what happened the first time I went to college.  It’s simple, if you are coming out of high school and parents or scholarships are paying for college, you want to consider how many times in your life you will have this opportunity.  Or, if you’re like me and you have to take on student loans for your education, how many times are you going to be willing to do that?  My guess is that over 90% of people in either scenario are only going to get one chance at this.  Given this understanding we should really take our time with choosing a college and choosing a field of study, right?  It seems that taking some time after high school to expose ourselves to various industries would be the best course of action before taking on a highly expensive endeavor like college.  The only issue is that most people who don’t attend college right after high school, probably never go back to school.  Being a student is probably easiest when you’re in the habit of being a student.  

So what does a person do about this reality?  Cultivating  a habit of reading and learning in our own personal lives is probably the most essential task here.  Specifically, I recommend learning about diet, exercise, and personal finance.  These are all incredibly crucial parts of our daily lives but my suspicion is that most of us will receive little, if any, instruction on these topics in our formal education.  Read books on these topics and then implement the strategies in your own life.  Journal to synthesize your learning into digestible chunks (500 words or less) that could be easily communicated to someone else.  Keeping that learning muscle strong is important throughout life, college or not.  If you are going to take a couple years off from school and then go back, it becomes that much more critical to keep your brain in good shape.  Furthermore, if you are an adult in the orbit of any young person, it is critical that they see you learning and growing in some way.  They are unlikely to  exhibit behaviors they’ve never seen.  Therefore, if school is simply a speed bump on the way to becoming an adult who just goes to work, pays bills, and comes home, then that’s what they’ll do.  My instincts tell me that learning as an adult is often incentivized by leisure or income.  We learn because it’s fun or it makes us money.  Learning for the sake of growth can be fun, but initially it probably feels like work.  However, if we maintain learning as a skill, when presented with the task of learning in a school environment later in life, we most certainly will be less intimidated by that task than if we hadn’t maintained that skill.  

Now, I’m going to be very realistic.  Most people will probably not do this whether they are a kid or an adult.  It’s a sad reality but it is reality.  In light of this I will try to make one more argument to move us all to action here.  One of the few regrets I have in life is the way I did college.  I wish I would have gone to a local college and I wish I would have changed majors from engineering to exercise science while I was in college.  I don’t beat myself up about it because I didn’t know what I didn’t know.  Also, I don’t in any way find myself bitter about my current existence but if I could go back I would do things differently.  I would study something I was truly interested in at a reasonable price relative to my potential income opportunities in that field.  Of course, the interesting thing is that I’m doing this right now and have been ever since I left college.  Buying books, listening to podcasts, and watching YouTube videos is a lot cheaper than college tuition.  I just don’t get the degree that signals to the world that I’m an expert in a particular topic.  I also don’t lose the time, energy, and money that would get poured into that degree.  Everything has opportunity costs.  Furthermore, learning about diet, exercise, and personal finance though easily accessible learning resources has paid off in ways that I think are probably more valuable than any degree I could get.  

Again, I’m not knocking college but we have to remember that going to college may be a once in a lifetime thing for most of us.  It’s just as important a choice as who you marry and many people do that 2-3 times (This is debatable but you get my point, I hope, lol).

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