Is College the Best Road to Success?

Not so long ago, college was a given if you wanted to get a job that paid a living wage.

But, as always, the times they are a changin’.

And the question of whether you should insist, or whether your child should even aspire to go to college, has a far less certain answer.

If she wants to be a doctor or lawyer, sure, sign her up.

If she want to be an auto mechanic, no, head to trade school instead.

But for most kids, the answer falls somewhere between these two bright lines.

Coming out of high school, a lot of kids don’t have a certain career path in mind.

So they look at the list of available degrees and pick the one that sounds most fun and/or profitable to an 18 year old.

And it used to be that was a very safe road. Get a degree, get a job, and boom, you’re set for life. (Although whether you were actually happy for life was a whole different story).

But a college degree no longer carries with it the kind of safety and security it used to.

So before you develop a fixed mindset that of course your children will go to college, let’s consider five things.

1. The Growing Number of Other Opportunities

Your options without a college degree used to limited. 

Flipping burgers for eight bucks an hour isn’t a desirable life for anyone.

And sure, there’s an impressive list of people like Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg, and Bill Gates who never went to college and make far more than $8 a second, but what are the chances that your child will invent some groundbreaking new technology or stumble upon the next Facebook?

Certainly not high enough to encourage him to hedge his bets, skip college, head to the basement and start inventing.

But the internet and our society’s love of doing business online has drastically multiplied the options out there. 

You no longer have to be Richard Branson to start your own business.

You don’t have to have a trust fund or the credit needed to secure a big bank loan to start your own business.

With an internet connection, a few hours a week, and couple thousand, or even a couple hundred, dollars you can build a business that at a minimum provides you a living wage. 

2. The Numbers Don’t Lie

The almost guaranteed pathway from college to a stable job you’ll have until retirement is all but gone.

If you were to survey the education level of the crew at your local Starbuck’s, you’d probably find that most if not all of them have a college degree.

This growing segment of college graduates is known as the “underemployed,” those who have a degree, but are working in a job that doesn’t require the degree.

A new study shows 43% of recent college graduates having jobs that did not require a bachelor’s degree. 

More troubling, two-thirds of that 43% were still underemployed five years after graduating, and three-fourths of those graduates continued to be underemployed 10 years after they began their first job.

Even formerly “sure thing” jobs like being a lawyer no longer provide the guarantees they used to.

A recent Gallup poll of over 4,000 adults who earned a postgraduate degree between 2000 and 2015 found only 23% of law school graduates saying their education was worth the cost. (Although 58% of medical school graduates believed their education was worth the cost.)

The dissatisfaction among law graduates is likely related to the sagging job market. 

Of those who graduated between 2009 and 2017, only 44% reported having a “good job” waiting for them upon graduation.

We could go on all day with numbers like this, but to sum it up, the unfortunate truth is that a great number of college graduates aren’t finding the success a degree used to virtually guarantee.

3. It’s All About the Money, Money

What college graduates are still finding is a potentially overwhelming amount of student loan debt.

And of course, the debt repayment isn’t tied at all to what your salary is after graduation.

Which means post-graduation can, at the very least, be a let down when your job pays less than it should given your qualifications, yet your debt assumes you got the job you earned.

Student loan debt isn’t the only consideration here. There are grants, and scholarships you can get to reduce the debt you take on.

You can also at least start at a community college, which averages around $3,000 for tuition, compared to the approximately $10,000 for an in-state public, four year college.

And if the debt is going to mean you make $30,000 a year more than you would without the degree, it’s certainly worth it.

You just have to take a realistic look at the numbers here.

What could you make in four years if you didn’t go to college?

You could build a six figure business in less than four years if you have a few entrepreneurial bones in your body.

But if you do start your own thing rather than going to college, it won’t start out as a six figure business, and will you be able to fund the business and pay the rent until you are in profit?

There’s no right or wrong answer here.

The point is simply that rather than blindly leaping into college as the next best step from high school, it’s essential that you spend some time with your child figuring out his real goals and interests and figuring out what makes sense financially.

Remember, college will always be there.

4. Is There a Better Way to Get Trained

Just as you may want to consider starting at community college, look at whether there is an alternative to college for the career your child is interested in.

There are many different ways to learn these days, thanks again to the internet.

There’re online courses from traditional colleges, as well as places like Lynda, Skillshare, Udemy, Coursera, and Codecademy that can provide an education and training that’s just as robust as a college degree.

And yes, it’s possible (though not a given) that you may have to start out as a freelancer or with a lower paying job if you don’t have a traditional college degree in certain fields, but look at where you could be with four years of real life experience, compared to where a new college graduate would be just starting out after four years of school.

Chances are the salary or income numbers favor an alternative learning method, especially in certain fields like graphic design and marketing.

5. It’s About More Than Just the Education

While you’re being all practical, one thing you won’t want to ignore is the experience college life gives you.

Let’s face it, college is fun.

And even if your degree doesn’t give you the on-the-job experience you really need, simply being a college student does teach you a lot about growing up.

College is a nice bridge between being a kid and being an adult.

In college you have a lot of the freedoms of adulthood such as essentially living on your own, while also retaining a lot of the freedoms of childhood such as not having much current financial responsibility.

It’s really the best of both worlds and a nice transition period where you can screw up a little without having disastrous results.

So if you can do it without taking on a scary amount of student loan debt, maybe the combined benefit of the degree and the life experience is worth the time and money.

A final consideration here is that even if you don’t end up using that degree, it can still be valuable to you and open up options you might not otherwise have.

Despite the negatives that surround college these days, simply saying you have a college degree usually gives you an automatic dose of credibility.

If nothing else, you’ve stuck with something for four years and focused enough on it to graduate. 

Join the Fun at Kids Party Characters

Whether you barely made it through high school or have a PhD, Kids Party Characters offers a great example of a alternative to the traditional 9 to 5. 

Owner Cheryl Jacobs understands first-hand that not everyone has the time, money, and/or interest in spending four years learning before you’re ready to start making a living wage.

Cheryl became an entrepreneur when her hand was forced and she had two young children who couldn’t wait four years to eat.

Fast forward several years and Cheryl started and grew Kids Party Characters to a six figure business she operates from her home.

She now focuses on helping others who feel the pull of entrepreneurship.

By offering memberships to Kids Party Characters, Cheryl gives you the opportunity to have your own business without the overwhelm and steep learning curve that often comes with starting from scratch.

With membership, you’ll get your very own Kids Party Characters business, including an exclusive territory in which to book parties, the right to use our 200+ costumes, and access to our acting coach and casting director.

You’ll also get business training and support from Cheryl, including an online course she’s developed to specifically walk you through the steps needed to start your own Kids Party Characters business.

Book a friendly and free chat with Cheryl right here and she’ll answer any questions you have about this fun and unique opportunity.

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