[nchmy]

Undergrad is wholly unnecessary for most people. I don't have a particular solution for you, but where there's tremendous issues, there's tremendous opportunity. So, I'd encourage you to focus on trying to address the needs of your community and broader country, in one way or another - perhaps digitally, perhaps not. Look at what Grameen did for some inspiration.

[wenc]

In many developing countries, I would say it's the reverse. Undergrad is actually "necessary" for most average people -- it's the minimum bar for white collar employment; the only exceptions are people who are have rare, valuable skills.

In Western countries, it's way easier (it's more difficult now, but still fairly easy) to get to a middle-class life without a college degree. I've lived in developing countries and when I moved to the west, I realized America, and many western countries, are actually outliers. In a developing country, especially populous ones, this is decidedly not the case.

In many third world countries, the path to a good income for people without college degrees is typically to run your own business (not everyone makes it, but at least it's a reasonable path). It requires working long hours, business acumen (understanding velocity of money, not just profit margin [1]), and pivoting a lot. Many of my family members without college degrees made it this way.

An uncle apprenticed with a carpenter to learn the furniture business, and slogged for years. But he saved aggressively and managed to open his own business, and understood the business cycle -- optimizing for cashflow rather than profit. He's doing well today.

[1] https://commoncog.com/what-the-ceo-wants-you-to-know/