| IMHO the more reasonable reaction is to take an objective look at what you want to do with your life and a hard look at what the requirements are for achieving that. Some fields require a post-secondary education. You can't get around that. If you want to be an engineer or a doctor, you need to go that route. In that case, I agree with you. Look for more affordable options and figure out how to meet the requirements without bankrupting yourself. Understand what you are getting involved in before you make any commitments. Barring the above, I do tend to side with the OP that it is time for a cultural shift away from college / university for the sake of college / university. I know of a lot of people who really valued "the experience", and felt like they found themselves and made valuable networking connections etc. and value those things above the diploma itself. None of that is a bad thing, but ask yourself what kind of dollar amount you are willing to pay for that. Don't assume that you will be resigned to living under the poverty line if you don't pursue that. I am undoubtedly biased because I have enjoyed a 25 year career in software engineering and this is a niche field where we see tons of self-taught engineers who, in many cases, have a higher work ethic and measurable productive output than their college educated peers. I don't pretend for a second that that can transfer to every other field. But does that mean the idea transfers to zero other fields? You don't have to disvalue higher education to question whether or not traditional formal institutions are providing the value that they promise, or to seek alternative ways of achieving that higher education. |
A lot of people will judge you for not having a college degree, and choosing not to get one will put you in a position of either having to just accept that or work harder to prove yourself (and you may not even be given that chance).
Also choosing to forsake a degree just plain blocks off a lot of paths. Say, in your late 20s, you decide landscaping ain't for you, and you want to become a doctor. If you never bothered to get an undergrad degree because if some impression that the direct value wasn't worth it (e.g. I don't need those "networking connections"), making the switch got a lot harder: you're going to start from square one, at a life stage where that will be more difficult. If you already have a degree, you can get in the position to take the MCATs and by rocking a semester and change worth of basic science classes. Landscaper -> doctor is a pretty extreme example, but the same situation applies to other areas. I know developers who switched careers from other fields. I don't think they'd have been given the chance if they went high school -> landscaping -> coding bootcamp. Even (early in my career), I knew one developer (who was pretty good), but only had a 2 year associates degree, and the fact that he lacked a 4 year degree hobbled him in many ways.