10 Legitimate Alternatives to Attending University this Fall

Avoid paying tens of thousands for Zoom lectures and questionable outcomes, while also limiting covid-19 risk

“Haha, that’s funny. You mean to tell me that I am paying the SAME PRICE to sit at home and watch dry online lectures as I would be if I could experience the college social scene, tailgate at the football games, make hundreds of new friends, join an array of new clubs, experience the history and culture of campus, and all else that college enables??? You surely must be JOKING!”

Yeah, that’s seriously what’s about to happen in a month when students are set for fall semester. Full disclosure, at Reverse Tide, we have long been commenting on how universities offer a subpar education product. The experience is great, yes, but could be replicated in many other ways. However, the education methods and subjects lag other methods, while outcomes for all but the top schools and most job-ready majors are on the downtrend. And that isn’t right considering the absurd tuition price tag.

If a good alternative existed, we have been poised to recommend skipping the university in favor of something better. For years, we assumed universities would get their act together and do what’s right for students and their own future. However, they haven’t changed their basic model for 100 years… only how much they charge for it (an amount that has vastly outpaced inflation for decades and is wholly unreasonable for an 18 year old to be burdened with).

We’ve been disgusted enough that we wrote an article University Alternatives: Beyond Traditional Ed. These themes from this article still hold true. There are highly viable alternatives that spans across a university’s educational, social, and career path benefits. However, some of those options like travel and school abroad aren’t as feasible in today’s covid-19 environment.

So what alternatives exist? Is it thousand dollar Zoom classes or life failure? Is it going to the few schools reopening campus and exposing yourself to coronavirus or giving up on the college dream? The answer is that there are alternatives! Good ones too. And our alternatives aren’t simple fixes or shortcuts. They take a lot of work, focus, and performance to maximize their outcomes. Let’s explore…

1 — The coding route.

Yes, we know it’s a little overused to tell people that are looking for jobs “just learn to code”. But there’s simultaneously a lot of truth to it, especially as covid-19 has accelerated all things digital (including job demand). The nice part about coding skills is the versatility across a wide range of highly demanded careers. Not everyone sits in a basement writing code all day. Instead, we see people building cool thing — apps, hardware, robotics, websites, games, and much more. Learning a little code can also set you up for other jobs. Every industry from health care to finance to media to education is increasingly going digital. By learning to code, you can position yourself to solve some of the biggest problems… finding cures for diseases, bringing opportunities to the less privileged parts of the world, solving environmental issues, and anything beyond. So how can you do this?

The starting point is learning a coding language. Many are uncertain which language to begin with or how to get started. The good news is the online education in this subject is stellar from absolute beginner to advanced levels. You can learn from anywhere, including the comfort of your home. No formal education program needed and barely any money needed.

A few resources to get you started:

• Reverse Tide’s Programming — we build a curriculum around how and where to learn this skill and then advance toward getting experience and jobs.
• We also have specialized pages in other ways that programming can be applied — data science, web development, virtual reality, blockchain/crypto, and more to come!

The good news doesn’t end there. Our learning pages are all about self education. And we recognize that this takes motivation. However, programming has some amazing formal resources too.

• We love the idea of coding bootcamps and these are all over the place now. It gives you the more formal instruction and group collaboration but is typically much cheaper than universities.
• As we’ll talk about later, there’s an abundance of certifications in technical subjects and skills
• There are many collaboration opportunities available online including coding challenges, collaborative projects, help boards, and other interesting communities

As you learn and look ahead, jobs are easy to get once your skills reach a certain level. Programming jobs increasingly don’t care if you get a degree. They want proof of your skills (which you can get through project work). And we help on Reverse Tide with programming specific resumes, portfolios, and other ways of getting the right experience.

All in all, we wrote a lot about this subject because it’s super topical. As time goes on, we think coding will be required for about half of all jobs, including management. If anyone has doubts about university, this is our suggested path. At worst, give it a try. With university if you make a mistake, it’s a huge cost in time and money. If you don’t like programming, your waste is 99% less.

However, there are many more alternative university options including…

2 — The marketing route.

This is one of the easier skills to learn and become job ready in. Not to mention, it’s really fun as you combine creativity, psychology, and business analysis into one core skill. As more marketing shifts to digital, it works in your favor as well. The online learning for online marketing is unsurprisingly very good. And a lot of it is experiential rather than boring, useless theory that you’d learn as a university marketing major.

Marketing is important for all businesses. Even in a covid-19 environment, revenue stricken businesses need marketing support to reach customers in new ways, take care of existing customers, and adapt products to a new business environment. That’s where marketing comes in. Marketing helps businesses build awareness, persuade customers to buy, price products and services correctly, distribute them in a way that sells, and do so cost effectively.

Getting experience in marketing is quick and easy and leads to some awesome possibilities. It’s not just about creating ads or doing Facebook posts. It can lead to strategy, analytics, product management, and management positions as well. Or use that revenue generation skill-set to create your own business.

Like programming, if you don’t like it just switch. It’s cheap and easy to learn, incredibly useful, and plentiful in job demand now and forever.

What’s the best way to get started?

Once again, it’s super easy. We suggest learning general marketing skills first. And then you can go channel (email, social media, etc) or function specific (marketing analytics, creative, etc). A good marketer can do all of them but as you get into the job market, you’ll likely specialize. We detail all of this in our Marketing Curriculum page, with special emphasis on how to get experience quickly and put it to great use within your career.

3 — The passion liberal arts method.

We get it. Part of the university appeal is to learn a lot of broad subjects and expand your mind, critical thinking skills, and communication capability. The assumption is that with diverse knowledge and ability to apply it, you’re setting yourself up well for ANY career path. Most 18–22 year olds don’t know what they want to do for the rest of their life. We agree and don’t think you should be pressured toward lifelong commitments at such a young age. We’d personally pick programming or marketing but everyone has their own unique interests and talents.

Our argument against liberal arts is not the subjects within. Learning history, arts, social sciences, etc are simultaneously useful and fun. Paying tens of thousands is what spoils it. Especially when many of these subjects are available for free online.

Rather than do liberal arts as a major, spend tons of money, get into debt, and then graduate with minimal job prospects, just make it a side learning endeavor. During this time or any time really, pursuing learning passions is amazing. It just doesn’t HAVE to be during formal education. And then stick to the subjects that provide a better return on investment when you’re paying the big bucks.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand. Why is this an alternative to university?

• For one, you can get university replica classes through Coursera, EdX, and FutureLearn. It gets the fun classes in for a reasonable or even free cost and then if you opt for the degree, it’s in something a little more useful.
• Alternatively, you can go to a community college while self-studying and then switch to a major in a job-generating field after two years (cutting the cost in half).
• A third option is even trying to pursue a career in liberal arts without a degree. If your career ambitions aren’t weighted toward the monetary side, it’s silly to go into huge debt for something that doesn’t necessarily require a degree. Many careers in the arts are more portfolio than academically based. Use that fact to your advantage and make both learning and career about your passion.

4 — Future proof your life and career.

You’ve probably heard how most jobs are changing. We have new technologies coming into the world, many jobs are primed to be automated, and customer trends and demographics are rapidly shifting. That means the jobs that service this new world are poised to evolve just as quick.

One of our biggest criticisms of universities is how slow they are to prepare for the career world. We’ve seen studies showing how poorly trained kids are at graduation. While university isn’t and shouldn’t purely be a training ground, it’s pretty shocking how behind the times the academic world can be.

Technology lags industry by years. Teaching methods are still roughly the same as decades ago. Too much theory, too little experience. These are the criticisms.

Where’s the proof for this? We regularly write all about the future trends in the world. Virtual reality. Augmented reality. Cryptocurrency. Blockchain. Artificial intelligence. 3D printing. These are where most jobs will sit in future years (and are already the biggest growth areas). Yet even though this is obvious, some universities don’t have a single VR or blockchain class. The leading ones might have 1 or 2. Definitely no degree programs or specializations though. That’s sad. That’s like a university having no computer science class in the mid 90s. Look where all the jobs went. That would have been super useful to anyone at that time.

Our biggest advice to young students is to follow the trends and where jobs will be in 5-10 years. That’s the field you want to go into. And it doesn’t hurt that these are some of the most interesting topics. Our top are the ones we mentioned before and two additional topics. One is biotechnology (the merging of tech with biology). With covid-19 and such significant attention in public health, that field will skyrocket. And second, environmental sciences where incredible money and attention are being poured into subjects like climate change, clean energy, and clean water.

We spend a lot of time on these subjects. Core subjects like programming and data science fit neatly into many of these specialties. However, we also have many curriculums, perspectives, and resources at Reverse Tide to help track these trends and thrive in whichever you choose to study.

Yes, you can go into any of these fields through studying at a university but it’s cost and time inefficient in rapidly evolving fields, where the instruction in forward-looking subjects is poor. Instead, get in on the ground floor, build skills, and see what happens. Worst case, you go back for that degree later.

5 — Entrepreneurship for the same cost as college.

The all in cost of college is expense here in the USA. Add up all the costs and you might be looking at over $100,000. Imagine if you had the option. Invest that in a business or invest it in a degree. Which leads to the better outcome?

Many look at entrepreneurship as a gamble. That’s mostly because today’s tech startups use an all or nothing approach. They are funded by venture capitalists that want you to either achieve multi-million or even billion dollar valuations or to go broke trying. Plenty of small businesses can be legitimately started with $100k or less and aren’t all that risky. Think about a corner store or real estate investment. While those businesses aren’t always successful, it’s rarely an all or nothing gamble like VC funded tech startups. And maybe you even grow into those lofty values.

Entrepreneurship is a better education than most college programs as well. It might not be a prerequisite to advanced graduate degrees or certain job types like a college degree is (if you want those, college degrees are required). But it teaches you more. An entrepreneur must navigate their industry, perform every function (finance, accounting, HR, legal, operations, marketing, sales), be a decision making, and leader. Where they lack expertise, they must find it. Compare that to most study programs and jobs that are specialized and focus on singular functions.

Truthfully, everyone should try to start a business. And now is the perfect time to make that attempt. Not all require that $100k investment (freelancing, which we’ll get to soon, being one such business). The education value is amazing, the financial upside is better than anything else you can do, and it’s pleasant to be captain of your own destiny. It sure beats having a nasty boss setting your hours and the work you have to do. Worst case, you take a risk after minimal investment and try again. Some of the best entrepreneurs fail a few times before eventually getting it right and hitting it big.

How can you get started? Two suggestions:

• There are some definite core skills that are worth learning. We go over them in our Entrepreneurship curriculum. Everyone should know how to do their own accounting, market a product, and sell. That will get you started and let you take a business any direction you want.
• Entrepreneurship is not about planning the nth degree of every detail. Business plans are a myth about good entrepreneurship. It’s about doing and doing rapidly. Make mistakes… that’s ok. The biggest mistake is waiting around planning all day and not building a product, finding customers, and adapting as needed. Take whatever skills, experience, and interests you have and just start doing. For a younger student, you have plenty of time to pivot to something better and learn from any mistakes made.

6 — Certifications replicate degrees.

Let’s go back to the education side for a minute. There are hundreds of certifications anyone can go get. Project management, product management, business analysis, cloud computing, cybersecurity, network administration, design, user experience, and plenty more business and technology subjects have great certifications. It’s all self study and you come out the back with your name on a document proving the skill. It’s a much cheaper and more efficient way to gain a qualification.

Later on, if you really want the degree then go to a foreign university for cheap, community college, or enhance it with a domestic university degree when the money is a bit more plentiful and worth the investment.

This one is simpler than most because the curriculum is and test are all planned and accessible for you upon sign-up. Don’t overthink it. A simple Google search will yield many options. Pick something interesting and commit to it. If you don’t find any that sound appealing to learn and make a career out of, a different one on the list is probably better suited.

7 — Software packages.

One that is closely related to both the technology and certification options is to learn a commonly used software package. Most of the big software companies will provide training, certify you, and may even link you to jobs. This path boxes you in as far as potential applications of the certification but it’s a good way to learn highly relevant job skills. Which software companies are we referring to?

In naming a few:

• Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS, and Google Cloud are used across the business world for cloud computing, data storage and manipulation, and many more technology applications. There are tons of great certification programs to learn these platforms or the common applications sitting on top of them. Great choice for those interested in this subject.
• Salesforce and Adobe have great product suites for sales and marketing automation. They have robust training and certification programs.
• Cisco offers tons of interesting network certifications and are the leader in that space.
• Giants like Oracle and SAP have software that covers a wide range of business applications and is widely used across the business world. They have certifications across many different paths.
• We mostly mentioned data science in the programming suggestion but big data companies like SAS, PowerBI, Tableau, and many others are worthy suggestions. Differentiate between what you like. Is it data storage and infrastructure? Is is data manipulation? Data visualization and reporting? Each has their strengths and available software options.
• The list goes on. Think of any function a business performs and there’s likely a bunch of software companies offering a certification for it. It’s their incentive to train new developers, administrators, and users so outside the most popular software certifications, these are typically offered at a reasonable price point.

A great way to figure out if these are worthwhile is to scour job boards with the certification name in your search terms. Then use sites like Glassdoor to determine salaries. You will find that this is a solid path in lieu of or to accompany a university degree.

8 — Freelance, freelance, freelance.

This is one of our favorites on the list. Freelancing is a great opportunity for anyone to pursue and the good news is that nobody asks about degrees when hiring freelancers. It’s all about what you know and how much you hustle to sell your services. There’s no formal definition for freelancing but it’s really about finding smaller, short-term gigs across a wide range of topics.

You can freelance in easy tasks like writing articles for businesses, managing their social media pages, designing marketing materials, or conducting research. You can also do some more advanced topics like building a website or mobile app for businesses or providing specific business strategy expertise. Some freelance jobs are indistinguishable from real jobs, except that they are temporary. Employers are incentivized to do this because they don’t have to commit to full employment. Freelancers benefits because they’re easier to get informally or through special freelance marketplaces.

We have a big long list of possible freelance jobs in our article The Most Common Freelance Gigs — 33 Jobs Anyone Can Get. Having a fancy degree from Harvard versus no degree is equal in the freelance world. It’s about putting together good business proposals and having an interesting resume and portfolio of work. That also means it aligns our learning alternatives from earlier in this article like coding, software, and marketing. Learn a little. Do a few projects. Assemble a sleek resume and portfolio. And sell your work.

Where can you find these gigs? How can you build that freelance resume? What resources exist to help you? How can you best position yourself for sales and eventually even build a lucrative business? We help with all of that at Reverse Tide Freelance.

We love freelancing. When you get good at this, you’ll laugh at all the people paying to learn theory in classrooms while you’re learning twice as much and getting paid to do it, all while building your resume into something spectacular. Think about it… do 10 freelance gigs and you’ll have a better resume than people with 20 years of industry experience that do the same job over most of it. You will have real experience and skills, compared to your peers that sit learning outdated subjects from textbooks and lack a real resume upon graduation.

Don’t like it? Prefer formal studies? Don’t want temporary gigs and prefer a full-time job? Try it out before making judgments. Expect it to go slow at first but you’ll learn along the way. You can put up a business website for cheap, start a business, get a bank account, and learn how the pros do it. Even if you didn’t get much success, the learning from doing these things will be worth it in the end.

9— Experiment with various other businesses

Not ready for serious freelancing or ambitious entrepreneurship? There are plenty of other great options that many take.

• A lifestyle business. Some people start businesses that are meant to be small and stay small. It might be a blog and you earn light advertising or get paid for product endorsements (aka influencer marketing). Some write newsletters about topics of interest and earn through a platform like Substack. Maybe you want to write a book or produce an independent movie. Maybe you can become an artist or sell other simple products online. There are many options for this that don’t require intensive business and technology skills.
• Trades. It’s amazing how much certain professions make. Plumbers, electricians, mechanics, specialized technicians, and the list goes on. Google it. These professions typically make salaries well above the average wage. No degree required and the world will always need them. This is a vastly better option that a costly education in a non-job generating major. As you get established, you can even start businesses and scale this out toward some highly lucrative earnings.
• Brokers and sales. These are jobs that don’t often require degrees. If you’re really good at sales, you’re wasting time in school. Go sell insurance as a licensed broker. Or sell software products. Or just about anything. Selling isn’t something you learn in a classroom and some are just gifted at it. Great salespeople can earn some of the biggest amounts, when commission is part of their salary. Try it out!

Many go to college thinking it’s a requirement for every job. Not so with these. No need for debt or the time commitment if you’re not going to use it.

10 — Pursue a degree later but at a reasonable cost

We get it. College is an appealing option for many. On the one hand, society pressures you into it. Many parents would be appalled if you willingly decided to forego it. High school counselors, college admission offices, and your friends will all pressure you. And even though this is changing, many good paying jobs still require a degree.

And then there’s the fun of it. Many will say college is the best time of their lives and tell nostalgic stories. The movies glorify it. All for good reason. It’s fun. You get to be young and stupid going to dorm parties, dating around, and being goofy. On top of that, there are tons of cool clubs, nice campuses to explore, and history to consider. It’s awesome. All this can be replicated in other ways but still… it’s fun.

So if you want to go, we’re not ones to stop you. However, there are two suggestions we have.

First, try some of these options out as supplements to a degree. For example, you can freelance throughout school and earn some solid money. When you graduate, your resume will far outpace your peers. Another option is to pursue a major with interesting job prospects, while learning tangible skills like coding. Again, a really solid choice in setting yourself up for success.

Second, is to manage the cost. Especially in current days where you’re paying dumb prices for the caliber of education and experience you get in coronavirus times. At the time of this writing, universities are trying to figure out what to do. At worst, everything will be online. The ones that do open are unlikely to be anywhere close to as fun as the movies show if they shut down parties, clubs, and other fun things. So how can you manage the cost?

• Consider going abroad. Some countries you can even get school for free. Others are considerably cheaper. If all you’re after is a piece of paper saying you graduated and to have a good time, this option offers it just fine for a fraction of the cost (or none at all). Meanwhile, you can learn new cultures and languages along the way.
• Use community college. You can almost cut the cost in half by starting at a community college and transferring to a full university after two years. It’s the same thing because those first two years are just general education classes anyway. The trick is to attend a community college on a university campus and that way you’re participating in the college fun for all four years. Great trick to save a lot.
• Don’t go to the fancy private schools or out of state schools unless you get a scholarship. Maybe the top 10 schools are worth it for the prestige and reputation. But the others are not, no matter how much you might love the campus. It’s a really bad decision that you will regret. Trust us. A good state school is good enough. It’s not worth paying twice as much as an already hefty state tuition cost.
• Major in something useful. Learning is great. All subjects. But when universities have forced you to pay life-altering amounts, it needs to see a valid return. Minor in these other subjects. Double major. Take side classes. Take the online courses. Pursue that passion after graduating. Anything. Don’t let universities get away with a $100k degree in something that has no job path. If you don’t think that will happen to you, ask the university how many people graduate into a job within their major and what the average salary is. It’s likely less than the trades we mentioned earlier. It’s not worth it. Especially so in the deep economic depression that the global economy finds itself in.

Ok, there we have it. Alternatives exist and they’re getting better each year. Fewer employers require degrees because they realize graduates aren’t learning the tangible skills they need, while accumulating life-altering debt. Meanwhile, education startups like Reverse Tide, coding bootcamps, and certification programs are providing comparable education for significantly better cost and time efficiency. More innovation is coming and formal university degrees will soon no longer be the default option. Especially when universities refuse to adapt, even in the face of a global pandemic. They haven’t been customer (student) first in a long time and this is the final proof point we need to really question their value.

Whatever you choose, we hope this is helpful and are here to help with learning and career enhancement resources. Best of luck!

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Reverse Tide is the leader in learning and career enhancement. By examining modern trends and future perspective simultaneously, we provide resources for people to improve and accomplish their goals.

Our learning paths provide high quality opportunities to learn technology, marketing, and business skills. Our career resources help people get experience, submit winning job applications (resumes, portfolios, and more), upskill toward better career prospects, start businesses, and freelance successfully.

More to come but visit us today!