To anyone who feels they didn’t/don’t learn enough in high-school, I’m creating a series of letters that will address some real-world basics that I think every high-schooler must know.
Today’s letter is on Post-Secondary Education. A.K.A College. Is it really necessary?
Let’s get straight to it.
Somewhere along in high-school, you’ll get asked about your future career path. This will most likely be talked about in a Health/Career/Planning course. Most students will answer a random career just for the sake of answering the question. As your high-school life comes to an end, you will start to take these questions more seriously.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10? 20?
What career path are you going to take? ( Do I have to choose one? )
What do you want to do with your life?
The truth is, most students won’t have an answer for that right away. Especially for the third question. Most adults don’t even know.
The common notion in high-school is that you’ll be going to college after grade 12. It is hinted that your life will look somewhat like this…
Go to College —> Get a Job —> Settle Down —> Retire
Now this may not be a route for everyone. So what information are high-schools missing?
What Are Your Options?
There are a plethora of options besides college. Here are some career pathways that are rarely talked about in high-school.
Let’s start with Trades & Labour.
You can earn more money than most high-school teachers by simply doing a trade or labour.
In-fact, a trades career path earns as much or more than most recent college graduates. Check this link out for some crazy statistics.
What if you don’t like hands-on work but still want to express your creativity? Music, Film, Art, Sports, Writing and Design are just some of the many industries that have great pathways.
For example, when I started working on the set of tv shows and movies, I met hundred’s of people that were apart of the production team. Actors, Directors, Producers, Stylists, Hairstylists, Sound, Special Effects, Stunts and so many more.
You don’t need to go to college for any of these positions. You might need a certificate for makeup, hairstyling, sound effects etc but that won’t require as much money and time as college. For the most part, if you’re good at something and keep putting yourself out there, you can get gigs pretty much anywhere.
The same goes for all the other creative positions listed. A sound producer or a ghostwriter don’t need to go to college. It may be a-lot cheaper (and smarter) to get a certificate on a special skill (coding, makeup, trades, design etc.)
We can look at sports as another example. If you have a passion for sports you can work in the sports industry. Commentators, Coaches, Trainers, Athletes, Sports Directors, Sports Writer, Sports Photographer, Event Coordinator, Sports Columnist and the list goes on.
Next, we can look at one of the most popular “new” career paths out there today. Social Media.
This includes blogging, influencers, video games, marketing and a-lot more. High-Schools are failing to change their curriculum to keep up with current times. 10-15 years ago, no one would have thought that you could play video games for a living? Or commentate on video games for a living? In-fact, playing video games was looked at as a sign of a bad student. How about making videos on Tik-Tok or Youtube? Photos on Instagram? Information on Twitter? You can monetize all forms of online content.
The beautiful thing about the world is that it is ever-changing. New career pathways are created everyday.
Cost of College + Loans?
Let’s say you really want to go to college. The next step is to figure out where. Domestic students pay a MUCH lower tuition fee than international students. This means that if you live in California and attend a college in your state, you will play less than someone coming from Canada, China etc. You will also pay less than someone coming from an out-of-town state, like Houston or New York.
As a reference, I attend a college in my own state and pay ~$3,000 a semester. An international student pays ~$9,000 at my college and with three semesters in a year, that totals to ~$27,000.
That part is simple but what about other expenses?
On-top of tuition fees, you most likely will have one or more of these costs
living on campus? rent for apartments close to campus?
transportation (bus passes, parking passes, gas etc.)
Books (if you’re witty you can download ebooks for free but this doesn’t always work)
E-learning platforms (basically access to online homework for your classes)
School & Activity Fees (use of facilities etc.)
Basic personal expenses like food, phone bills, laptop/desktop?
As an example, here’s the average yearly cost of going to UCLA taken from their website.
If you can fit most of these things into your budget for approximately four years (length of a regular bachelors degree), you should be okay financially.
If you can’t fit those costs into your budget then you can consider student loans + grants. These aren’t talked about at all in high-school and it is a major mistake.
Student grants are given by the government and you don’t pay them back (free money in a sense) but there are rules and exemptions for these grants and typically they will not cover 100% of your tuition fees. Student loans are great for helping you get through school but dealing with them is akin to dealing with a volcano that can erupt at any moment. Student loans cover all your tuition costs but you have to pay the money back regardless of whether you finish your degree or not.
As of 2020, in the USA alone, there are $1.6 trillion dollars of student loans outstanding. 1.6 TRILLION! The average debt per student is ~$37,000. This debt compounds at an insane pace once a student has graduated. The average undergraduate interest rate is ~4%. I’ll show you what this means.
Let’s say you graduate with $30,000 of student loan debt. An annual 4% interest rate will start accruing and within 12 months you will owe $31,200. In 2 years you will owe $32,448. I used a figure on the lower spectrum of average student debt but if someone were to have a debt of $50K, $100K or more, the compounding interest gets scary. You will have to budget accordingly to pay off your debt once you graduate.
This isn’t meant to scare anyone from going to college. This is to inform those who may not understand the severity of student loans. There are people who have used student loans to fund MBA’s and PhD’s and they end up with over $100,000 of debt along the way. If your future projected earnings won’t pay off your student loans then they are NOT worth the hassle.
Pro Tip: If you’re going to college, apply to as many scholarships as you can. You don’t need straight A’s to get scholarships. Just fill out as many applications as you can. Small amounts will still help you. You can use this link to make your scholarship search easier.
My Personal Experience
As someone who’s gone through 3 years of university, I can personally say that I haven’t learnt as many applicable skills as I thought I would.
Yeah, Quantum Mechanics and Astrophysics are cool things to know but unless I want to do research or teach, I probably won’t need those skills. I might also add that the effects of COVID-19 and online learning further emphasized the fact that I can learn things on my own and don’t really need college to teach me.
The cost of university has been a pain in the a**. I’ve consistently worked alongside school due to the continuously increasing costs of tuition and living. I personally feel like the money I’ve spent on tuition could have been better used to build a business or invested somewhere else. The positive side of my degree may be the “safety” of earning decent future income BUT that doesn’t apply to all degrees.
Obviously hindsight is 20/20 but if I were to go back a few years, I would have just worked in an interesting industry before deciding to go all in on school. For those that have specific career paths in mind (doctor, lawyer, teacher etc.) then by all means carry on with your studies BUT for those that aren’t sure, it’s okay to take time to really figure out if you need school. It’s also very easy to waste your time so don’t take a year off from school just to fool around. Use the time to build your net-worth, your network, skills, personal-self and ideas.
Feel free to comment below if you have any questions.
Thank You,
Harman
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This letter is for entertainment purposes only. Please do your own due diligence.