I was talking to one of my cousins a while back and he was talking about how proud and impressed he was that I was trying to get my Ph.D. There were two things in his voice: 1) a level of disappointment in himself that he didn’t try for more schooling and 2) an assumption that I was going to make lots of money because of my advanced degree. This led to a valuable conversation where we cleared up our misconceptions. The question became: Is College a Must?
My cousin was, at the time, driving a forklift for a soda company. He was also working as an apprentice to an electrician. His view was a “grass is always greener” perspective. Rather than being excited and proud of his accomplishments he was proud of mine. While there is a certain assumption of pretension and snobbishness associated with academics there is also a certain assumption of accomplishment. My cousin could deal with simple (and complex) electrical problems in his own home without burning it down. I have no such training or skill. I would burn my house down. While I can analyze a play (useful in some respects) my cousin can wire a house (arguably more useful).
There was also the assumption that I would make more money upon completion of my degree. I’ve seen the national averages for my field and the numbers don’t support that assumption. In fact, he should be making almost twice as much as I do when I have my degree. This, of course, has been argued before. Do teachers make too much? I don’t think so. I can tell you this though, my cousin will (and does) make more than me.
The question then, is this: Is College a Must? Do you have to go? Dale’s latest blog spoke about taking a year off between high school and college for a variety of reasons. One of the reasons to consider whether or not you need to go. I’m currently dealing with extremely difficult time management issues (and time issues in general) because of the wide variety of things I’m doing for my degree. It’s worth asking what the degree is worth. There are a lot of skills you can learn on the job that can’t be taught as well in the classroom. It is something to think about.