The Case Against College

The following article is a preview from my upcoming book ‘Modern College’

In my last post I broke down some of the things that college is good for. In this post, I will give an argument against college. This boils down to 4 negative aspects of college. These are:

• High cost
• Serious time commitment
• Locks you into 1 path
• High stress

Again, some of these downsides are more objective than others. However, it is important to consider all of them when weighing your decision to attend college.

High cost

College is extremely expensive. For many people, it will be one of the largest investments they make in their entire lifetime. But unlike typical investments, the return is indirect and hard to correlate. Just how expensive is college? Let’s take a minute to look at the numbers. According to research by the College Board, the average cost of tuition at a public 4-year college education can range from $10,440/yr for in-state, to $26,820/yr for out-of-state. For private schools, this number jumps to $36,880/yr in tuition alone. But with a college education, tuition is only the beginning. For both public and private four-year universities, you can expect to take on an additional $16,000/yr for room & board, supplies, and other expenses. In total, this brings the cost of a year of education at a 4-year University anywhere from $26,000–53,980 on average. Spread across 4 years this range rises to $104,000–215,920.

So from a strictly financial point of view, college is a very steep investment. You are essentially making a $100–200K bet that college will give you at least a break-even return in terms of intangibles (personal fulfillment, knowledge, and experiences) + tangible returns such as future earning potential.

This high cost is only amplified by the financial structures that surround paying for a college education in America. If you’re a college student reading this article, it is likely that you will fall under the growing number of students who have to take on a sizable chunk of debt from college. As of 2019, close to 54% of college attendees had taken on debt to finance their education. This has led to a collective $1.4 trillion (yes trillion with a t) in outstanding student loan debt in the United states.Currently student loan debt is now the second highest consumer debt category, above both credit cards and auto loans. I could continue to layer on statistics, but I think you get the point. The high cost of college is causing major problems for a lot of students in the form of debt.

Time Commitment

As of 2017, the average life expectancy for a US citizen was 78.5 years. If you choose to attend college, realize that you will most likely be devoting 4–5 years or roughly 5–6% of your life to a higher education. If you factor in your pre-college education, you will spend close to the first 22 years or ~28% of your life in school. In many ways this was my greatest internal dilemma when it came to college. I always found myself questioning “Is this the best way that I could be spending my time?” The issue with devoting so much time to college, is that it really limits what you can do during the time period that you are an undergrad. In most cases, you can’t start a serious professional career or venture while in college since your education will soak up the majority of your time. So there is a real opportunity cost associated with attending college on top of the financial cost. It is 4–5 years that you could be earning money, gaining experience in the professional world or even growing a business of your own.

To tell you the honest truth, I don’t think I optimized my time during those 4 and a half years I spent in college. I think I would have been better served spending 2 years learning in a classroom setting and then heading out into the real world to gain practical knowledge and experience. Unfortunately, we live in a society that still puts an emphasis on educational milestones. So rushing my education or cutting it short may have limited the options that I currently have access to now.

In the end, it’s up to you to gauge if the time commitment is worth it to you or not. However, I would not brush off this aspect of college when making your decision. I think a lot of people really underestimate just how many of their formative years they are committing to when they sign up for college.

Locks you into 1 path

This sort of piggybacks off the last point, but going to college has a tendency to lock people into one specific path, at least for a period of time. In some ways this can be a good thing. If you have your heart set on doing a specific thing in your life, college can be a great mechanism to hone your focus and help you reach that goal. However, there is also a negative aspect to this as well. A college education can sometimes put blinders on people and limit the different paths they consider in life, which is a problem if you initially choose the wrong one.

While I was halfway through college, I began experiencing a strong case of the sunk cost fallacy. The sunk cost fallacy is the idea that as humans our decisions are influenced by the emotional investments that we accumulate, and the more we invest in something, the harder it becomes to abandon it. It took me 2 years to course-correct from my original path in college, because the longer I spent in my major the more I felt like I was too invested to back out.

College is dangerous because it encourages us to fall victim to the sunk cost fallacy based on its structure. You are expected to make really important decisions right away, and these initial decisions have consequences that can actually affect you for your entire life. That’s one reason why I advocate for a gap year in some cases after high school. At least then, you can spend a year of your life exploring before you put blinders on in college.

High Stress

College is not inherently stressful, however for many students it does end up being a stressful period in their lives. For those who have not experienced true independence, the move to college can be a shock to the system. The skills required to succeed in college extend beyond the classroom, as one must find a way to take care of themselves in the process. Many students come to college and immediately set their sights on their future, without first establishing a stable footing in the present.

There is also a competitive nature baked into the college system that can cause it to feel like an acutely high-stakes environment. Many universities have exclusive programs that are only made available to the top performing individuals out of the class. This turns the educational setting from one of intellectual enrichment to direct competition among students.The stress that this competition breeds can take a toll on a lot of students, and have ill effects ranging from a decline in mental/physical health as well as wasted time and energy from putting on mental blinders.

I firmly believe that one of the prerequisites for incoming college students should be stable mental health. If you do not get this under control beforehand, it will be like trying to sprint before you can walk. Unfortunately, colleges tend to focus on the other aspects of their candidates such as how they look on paper, however we must continue to push to amplify the conversation around mental health among college students.