Dear fellow college students, do you feel like you’re getting scammed too?

Amidst a long lunch in the DC with my roommate, I felt it. I feel the trap. I feel like I am being sucked into a way of thought that will get me nowhere in life.

I was so excited to start college, and having a keen interest in economics and business, I was excited to take super interesting college courses on the matter. In my ignorance, I had forgotten all about the general education requirements set out by my UC.

It really made me question the purpose of college. Why am I paying so much money to take classes that I feel will have no bearing on my life whatsoever? I want to study economics because I enjoy that, not a class about revolutions.

I want to be an economist so I can make enough money to buy real estate and invest more in my current stock portfolio and open small businesses. This is where I want to go in life. I want success. I want financial and personal freedom. I do not want to be another graduate stuck behind a desk.

Sure, we need college. We need doctors and architects and engineers. But what about the other 98% of college graduates? Working for a massive company, toiling endlessly for a job that you could be so easily replaced in? Is that truly the image of success in our youthful generation?

Why shouldn’t I just live at home, go get a minimum wage job, and save as much as I can until I can open my own small coffee shop, or put a down payment on a house and rent it out, or have enough funds to start up the skill of day trading?

I have the motivation. I have the intellect. I have the willpower. I made it to college. Isn’t that what they look for?

I feel I am better than paying to work tirelessly in college, to just work tirelessly behind a desk to pay off the money I used to work tirelessly.

Does anyone else feel the same way? That you don’t need college to be successful with your own dreams?

Is it not a scam sold to the masses when only a majority of them actually need a college degree to be happy with what they are doing?

Maybe I’m the idiot. Maybe.