Part Two: 7 Things Every Kid NEEDS to Know About College

Read the first part of Things Kids NEED to know about college HERE.

Yes, it is true that on average, college graduates earn a million dollars more. However, before you get too excited, subtract the 4 to 7 years of college tuition, loans, and unearned income.

Also, remember that not all degrees are equal. If you are majoring in women’s studies, you will be lucky if your degree earns you a penny, much less a million dollars!

Finally, we have to ask if the degree made the man, or the man made the degree. You see, when you pound it into little children’s heads that the only road to success leads through college, the success driven children are likely to head that way.

It ends up being a self-fulfilling prophecy. Bar the way to college, and those same high achievers will find another route to their million dollars!

5. Party Life:

Believe it or not, there is a growing number of students who go to college for the “experience.” They watched Animal House one to many times. They don’t have the slightest clue what they want to study, but they go to college to party. This is why every year there are dozens of new Top Party School Lists.

So, if that is your plan, if you are going to college and party like an animal, I need to warn you first. The truth is most college parties aren’t anything like the ones depicted in movies.

For the ones that are, it is probable that you won’t be invited anyway. In that sense, college is just like high school. The hot girls that rejected you in school will also reject you in college. If its loose women that you want,  you can find them in bars, clubs, strip joints, or anywhere else.

By no means am I recommending that, I’m simply saying that if you want to waste your life on wild women, you can do that outside of college just as easily.

However, if it’s beer that you’re after, be warned before you blow tuition money. Once beer is legal, it loses its novelty.

Your parents can buy all the beer that their hearts desire, but they don’t because once they become adults, the prospects of drinking themselves into oblivion every night loses its luster.

6. Worthless Degrees:

If you must go to college, please don’t buy yourself a worthless degree. It must be so painful to spend the same money on your women’s studies degree as an engineer spends on his engineering degree, only to discover post-graduation that no employer in America is looking for experts in feminism.

If you want to be an artist, a degree may help you develop the skills that you need, but it isn’t likely to land you the job. People hire artists according to their portfolios, not their degrees. Study art on your own, build a strong portfolio of outstanding art, and people will hire you.

History is another worthless degree. Look, I love history, and I study history, I just don’t fool myself into believing that historians are in demand in corporate America.

The point is, kids can’t just buy the degrees that interests them the most. They need to be sure that opportunities for livelihood exist within their field of study.

7. Getting Accepted:

Kids don’t need to kill themselves in high school to build a perfect resume. College is a business. If you have money for tuition, you will certainly find a school to take it.

So, relax. Never pull an all-nighter. Never get test anxiety. Never waste your weekends in SAT prep courses. College is not the most important thing in the world; stop treating it like it is!

If you enjoyed this article, you will love my book REVEALING school.