Gen Z Says College Is A Waste Of Money (They're Wrong)

Is college still a worthwhile investment? The popular belief is that college today isn't doing enough to prepare its students for the real world. With the price of post-secondary education increasing, people are left wondering whether it is still worth the money and the time.

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Hello 👋 I’m Humphrey, I used to be a financial advisor, worked in gaming/tech, and started my own eCommerce business. I make practical, rational content on investing, personal finance, the news, and much more with a data-backed approach. My goal is to help you with financial literacy and creating wealth.

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⏱️ Timestamps:
0:00 - Start Here
0:47 - Value of College Back in the Day
2:26 - Why College May Not Be Worth It
3:50 - Why College is Still ROI Positive
10:00 - Intangible Benefits

[yakefromstatefarm]

Its all about treating your degree as an investment opportunity, not just the mandatory next step after high school...

[rockerdude]

Your closing remarks are spot on. A two year technical degree to get you relevant skills and a job early is a great way to start your career with little to no debt. If you want to expand your job or progress your career, take advantage of your employer’s tuition assistance programs to get an advanced degree at a discount.

[austintaylor]

Just graduated and already have a job lined up as a Software Engineer. Every job I’ve applied for requires a degree and work experience, never one or the other. My advice is: don’t go to a college out of state due to the high fees, don’t go to college for something that isn’t difficult and doesn’t put you in a field that pays well, unless you are at a prestigious college, you need to be aware that college teaches you basically nothing and treat it like a license that allows you to drive but doesn’t mean you actually know how. Yes, depending on the field some jobs don’t require a degree but I haven’t seen one yet. Try your best to never do something for a living that someone could in a day-month of training. “If anyone can do it, make sure you don’t”

[Art_Nelly]

I failed at college so I joined a program to get a corporate internship and now have a job at 60k. Not a crazy salary, especially in the Bay area, but still see potential to grow in my field and am happy I'm not paying student debt.

[MsKateCK]

It's only been a few years since I got my bachelor's in mechanical engineering and it's already paid for itself many times over, incl getting a graduate degree 100% paid for by my job. I definitely think a big issue in the US is that people are going to university for the "experience" and don't really plan a career out for what they're actually studying. What makes that worse is not understanding how their student loans work and the predatory practices of these loans makes it so that people are paying astronomical amounts of interest in already expensive tuition costs

[Meedster]

college also gives you a specific type of life experience which may be priceless to some people. To each their own

[Motivatd]

I make $110k salary without a degree. I invested 10 years in the same company and worked my way up starting at $16hr.

[rosepink]

In the bay, had no degree when I started my job. Worked my way up from 60-80k salary and just spent the last year getting my BS remotely while I worked. It was hard, and I spend minimal money but the long term opportunities it’s bringing me now that I’m looking for a new position is likely to net me closer to 120-130k TC. It definitely pays for itself. I only spent 20k on my degree.

[anastasiabalynska]

Worth it! I did not go to college, and I think I made the right choice for me. But I agree that some people should go to college, especially for hard sciences and technical fields.

[aliali-ceyf]

Only go to a 4 yr college if you plan on becoming an engineer, for computer science, pharmacy, nursing, or eventually going to grad school to become a doctor or lawyer. Ideally go to community college for the first year to get all the intro courses out of the way for cheaper.

If you want to become a teacher or social worker - go to community college all the way.

Other than that, there is no point for college. Go to a trade school and/or get an apprenticeship OR get a job in the postal service or join the police force or armed services

If going to a college, never go out of state unless you're going to an Ivy or Stanford, and only then if you're getting a full scholarship.

[notNaB]

Idk much about the cost of college, but being on the hiring committee for a large biotech company in San Diego, I can say that many of the new graduates we interview do not seem to have the ability to think critically about a problem. Many simply expect to get a job because their degree matches the title of the position they are applying for. Now, I am only in my 50s, and maybe my experience is not the norm, but it seems that kids nowadays are just going through the college degree printing machine, and graduating with X degree, without actually knowing basic concepts I. The subject. Idk, just my opinion based on what I see on a weekly basis.

[richardc]

I've been working as a mechanical engineer for ~7 years now (with a BS degree), and I was VERY fortunate that my parents were able to pay for my tuition. I DO NOT regret the friends and memories that I've made in college, but I honestly do not think that the pure education aspect is not worth today's cost. I could honestly do my job with ~1-2 years of specialized training instead of a 4-year degree where they force you to take classes that don't relate to your field (in my case: English, economics, anthropology, music, photography, etc... I could learn these things on my own instead of paying for a filler class). Also, a lot of my professors were f*cking horrible and I had to learn most of my material through textbooks! Now, would I have gotten my job without a 4-yr degree? Probably not... But I do acknowledge that I only use a small portion of what I learned in college for my job. Let's be honest, the whole system is f*cked.

[Flaccid_Banana]

I graduated with a mechanical engineer degree. Now I work in an industry that does not need a degree and I make $170k a year plus overtime. Most of my coworkers have degrees but a few don’t. I would say if you don’t have a degree you can make it, but it will take a lot of applicable skills.

[mister]

I appreciate your insight and honest perspective....please keep doing what your doing 🤓

[ismaelderas]

Went into a trade school for electrical paid 20k for everything. Was able to secure a job paying 73 a hour!

[Kevin-fnrn]

Unless it’s for stem, it’s more than worthless

[miguelortega]

I agree with your points. I went to college to get a degree in order to become a teacher, and I love it. I think college can be worth it, as long as you are pursuing a field that is in high demand and where jobs are needed.

[Baiyoubai]

I’ve been working in the science field for over 20 years, and I can say my college and grad school education is absolutely not required for the work I’ve been doing. My work requires analytical skills, communication skills, knowledge in spreadsheets, etc, and a lot of common sense stuff, and none of those actually require anything more than reading work instructions and having someone show you how things are done My college and grad school diplomas were only useful as far as serving as entry tickets to the industry, as evidence of my capabilities. My side hustle, which also earns me another six figure income, requires no formal education at all, but that’s a special case. Until the whole system changes, getting a college degree still provides a chance (albeit not a guarantee) to get a stable and higher paying job.

[jctable]

I’d also add that depending on your situation, financial aid could help cut the cost of going to college and improve the overall ROI drastically. I’m referring to more than just student loans (i.e. scholarships and grants). The ticket price of going to college isn’t always the final price, but that can vary tremendously given your financial situation and what type of aid you qualify for.

[Mike.D.Lindley]

a major problem is the other face of the "a degree no longer gives you a competitive edge" coin is that NOT having a degree now puts you at a significant DISADVANTAGE when it comes to entry level work (where nobody has the experience/skills that companies supposedly value more). When it comes down to any pair of basically equal candidates, one WITH a degree will almost always get chosen over one WITHOUT a degree even if the field of study for that degree has nothing to do with the job itself. The company needs SOMETHING to be a tie breaker between equal candidates, and the degree is an easy one for them to choose.
Until companies resolve to no longer giving preference to an entry level candidate who has a degree in an unrelated field of study, this dynamic will continue to exist. People will still "need" college- not for the competitive edge, but to avoid the competitive disadvantage of not having one. Due to this, the demand for college degrees will still be unending, and if students continue to be lent ridiculous sums of money to pursue degrees that don't actually make any financial sense to earn (which banks will happily do because they can't be discharged in bankruptcy) there will not be the proper market forces to make college costs regress to the mean.