Lies We Were Told About What A College Education Will Do For You

Over the years, the media has hyped up a college education as the thing to have. And every year millions of kids go to college with a head filled with unrealistic expectations of what they’ll get out of two to four years of college.

As a college graduate, I want to set the record straight and let everyone know about all the LIES we’re told a college education will get them.

A College Education will make you smarter. One of the biggest misconceptions about college is that people who go to college are smarter than people who haven’t attended.

The American people, especially American employers need to understand Educated does not mean smart. A person can have a college education and still be as dumb as a box of rocks.

What people need to understand is Educated and smart are two different things. A college education will give a person knowledge in a certain subject area if you pass all the required classes for a major.

However, what makes a person smart is how the individual APPLIES the knowledge they have learned in life. Smart people know how to take the information they’ve learned in college and utilize it towards creating a profitable business venture for themselves.

A College Education will give you skills. Many people go to college and think because they majored in something like Anthropology or Women’s Studies they instantly have skills. And while they may know how to use a computer program or two, and have a basic understanding of concepts for a subject matter, they don’t get any business skills that will help them in the job market.

Moreover, many more go into college without any LIFE SKILLS. Most college students today don’t know how to create a budget, how to manage a schedule, or even how to address an envelope. Most Professional skills are taught on the job and honed on the job and the only way to get experience is to have a job or a business.

People need to understand College can only teach kids about coursework in subject matter. It can’t teach a person business skills or social skills.

All College Majors are the same. Most kids these days take easy majors so they can say they have a college degree. What their parents don’t know is that they just flush money down the toilet.

Majors in Liberal arts, Women’s Studies, History and social sciences are WORTHLESS in today’s job market. In fact they’ve been WORTHLESS for the last 40 years. People who take these majors waste time and money.

If you go into college with a PLAN you will have a CAREER. Most people who went into college with business skills who got a business degree opened businesses. Most people who had hobbies BEFORE college turned that hobby into a BUSINESS. And others who came into college  with a plan to get specialized skills such as Medicine, science, and engineering became doctors, scientists and engineers.

If you go to college to party, bullshit, coast through classes and have as many bed partners as possible chances are you won't have anything to bring to an employers table four years later.  

College is the only way to be successful. Most people have bought into the idea that a college education is the only way to achieve “success”. And that if they don’t have a college degree they are losers.

I’m sorry but that’s not true.

Contrary to popular belief, College is NOT FOR EVERYONE. College is not a good fit for many in society. Some people would be better served by the skilled trades others by starting their own business.

The most successful people over the last 40 years like Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates found college to be stifling environment that hindered their creativity and innovation. For them College and its monolithic way of teaching people how think didn’t work.

Over the last 40 years Americans have bought into a one-size-fits all idea for the American job market. The whole idea that a college graduate is a better worker is choking the life out of the country. Not everyone was made to go to college and everyone who went to college isn’t guaranteed to be successful. There are a lot of talented people out there who don’t have college degrees and many of them are more successful than today’s college graduates.

College will make your child more well-rounded. People think that sending their kids to college will make them better people. If anything Campus living tends brings out the worst in people.

In most cases bigots become racists. Douchebags become assholes. Sluts become whores. Drunks become alcoholics. Simps become Tricks, Potheads turn into dopefiends. And liars turn into bullshitters. And this is amplified by ten thousand when you bring in the alcohol and drugs that float around freely on campus.

The truth is living on a college campus only gives people an opportunity to be who they truly are. And in most cases after showing their classmates their true character, they cover up who they truly are by the time they march down the aisle by graduation day. So at the end of the day a child becomes well rounded. Well rounded in dysfunction.

College will teach your kids how to be responsible. People believe that sending their kids to college will make them responsible adults. This is the biggest LIE to ever be told.

Looking at people over the last 20 years, why are so many college graduates with jobs bogged down in credit card debt? Mortgage debt? Why can’t many balance a checkbook? Why can’t some even manage to take care of a dog these days? And why are so many grown ass people living in their parents’ homes instead of on their own?

I don’t see how college teaches kids to be responsible. If we look at society most of the world’s most incompetent and irresponsible people have a brand-name college degree behind their names. George H.W. Bush. Bill Clinton. George W. Bush. Barack Obama. Jeff Zucker. Dan Didio. People who have book sense, but don’t have common sense .

And look at the people who caused the subprime mortgage mess a few years ago. All college graduates. Look at Congress. All College graduates.

If being educated makes you smart, then why can’t these people with college degrees from prestigious universities find a way to solve problems? Why aren’t their lives BETTER than their moms and dads who had bought their own home and were managing a household at 25 with a high school diploma?

When it comes to people what you see is what you get. And a person who was an irresponsible fuck up before college who bullshits in college will still be an irresponsible fuck up long after they graduate.

College will teach you how to think. Another misconception about college is that people will learn how to think. 

Yes, College will teach you how to think these days. But you learn how to think like a consumer. All a college education does these days is brainwash people into buying into a consumerist way of thinking. As they’re attending schools they can’t afford they’re bombarded by company pitchmen selling them an American dream filled with products they won’t be able to pay for. When they graduate with a bunch of credit cards, they learn how to become dysfunctional adults who buy, buy, buy without a plan for how they’re going to pay for it.

Debt is a good thing. Because college students learn how to think like a consumer, they becoming an American worker who thinks debt is a good thing. This keeps them stuck in a vicious cycle that keeps them chasing products and coveting a lifestyle beyond their means. And as they try to achieve that lifestyle, they amass huge amounts of debt that can never be paid for even after their children die.

The only person debt is good for is the credit card company, the mortgage company and the banks who finance the student loans. The interest they make on that debt is good. Good for their bottom line. Not good for you.

A College education will guarantee your child will get a job. The big promise many are told about college is that a degree will put someone on a fast track to a job. This is not true.

For years we’ve been told we can make $30, $40, and even $50 thousand dollar a year starting salaries. I’ve been out of college 20 years and I’ve yet to see a starting salary in that range at any of the jobs I’ve been offered.

Most people out of college get jobs that pay anywhere form $8-$10 an hour. Why? Because most employers want experienced workers. An experienced worker has a proven track record that can leverage a higher salary from an employer during an interview negotiation.

Most employers have always valued experience over education. Experienced workers especially those who have specialized skills have a proven a mastery over certain areas of craft and show a consistent record of tangible results. That has a higher value in the job market than a kid who did an internship or two or is graduating with just a degree. A person with a high school diploma who can say they sold 50,000 units on their own is more valuable to a sales department than an intern who says I made copies and got coffee at a fortune 500 company.

Moreover, they value connections over education and experience. If a person knows someone they’re more likely to hire a person based on their referral than if they got a cold resume through the mail.

A college degree does not guarantee a job or a better paying job. It may sway an employer to give a graduate a call for an interview, but that does not mean that person will be hired.

A college education is an investment towards getting a job. One of the most idiotic things to come out of colleges in the last 40 years is the idea of going to college to get a job. It truly shows how retarded the thinking process most college educated types have.

Why would ANYONE spend this kind of money to learn a set of skills to go and work for someone else? It’s just ILLOGICAL. Why would someone spend $120,000 to go a school to get a job paying $40,000 a year to give a billionaire their best years, their best work and their best ideas?

The reason why we have no new jobs in America is because Americans aren’t creating them. Everyone wants a brand name job at a brand name company so they can look like a big shot. They want to say they went to an Ivy League school, work at a fortune 500 company where they wear an Armani Suit and carry a Gucci bag. This is what consumer education teaches kids to become: Label whores.

I’m sorry but that’s not how America works.

The ultimate goal of getting a college education is to get the skills to start your own business. People say there are no jobs out here. Well, that’s because Americans aren’t creating new ones for themselves. Everyone wants to work for someone else. The American dream has become an obsession to work at a fortune 500 company for someone else.

However, no one values themselves enough wants to create their own company and create their own brand. No, they’d rather run around wearing someone elses’ brand on their backs. Not understanding this is slavery.

College educated people are better workers. Most employers believe that a college education means a smarter worker who is more productive.

I’ve worked on jobs and the college educated workers were some of the LEAST productive in the workplace. Most are so full of themselves they can’t see their own mistakes. Many more THINK so much that they overanalyze things and don’t focus on simple solutions. And quite a few lack social skills to practice basic business etiquette.

In most cases the college graduates I’ve worked with were petty, vindictive and arrogant. They put their personal grudges above the business. And they put their egos above the needs of their employees. Instead of creating a team environment, these narcissists made everything all about them.

Many more college graduates I’ve worked with don’t understand things like professionalism, courtesy, and conscientiousness. They don’t act in the best interest of a company or make good business decisions. Many of today’s college grads are so afraid of RISK they don’t learn anything that helps them GROW into a professional that learns a CRAFT.

American employers need to understand that a college degree doesn’t mean a better worker. A jerk with an education is still a jerk. And a jerk is usually not a productive worker because they’re an asshole who alienates people instead of bringing them together.

College educated people are more committed to their jobs. An idiotic notion many employers have about college graduates is that because they committed for four years to college that they’ll be dedicated to their jobs.

I know this isn’t true at all. If you really want to see commitment, try writing a book or a screenplay.

From what I’ve seen in the workplace the college graduate is the FIRST PERSON to head for the door in the AmeriKKKan Job market. The minute things get hard or there’s a crisis, the college graduate is usually the FIRST person to take a job someplace else.

In many cases from what I’ve seen, the college graduate is a major league bullshitter especially when they work in corporate America. They’re the kinds of employees who talk a good game, but when the rubber hits the road can’t do anything. Again, when a crisis comes they don’t hunker down and develop a plan of action. They head for the door after they turn in their resignation.

And College graduates are usually not loyal to companies. Why? Because they know they can leverage better deals for themselves because they have gained work experience and in-demand skills. Many use jobs as stepping stones to get where they want to go, not stay in a company and learn a business. The longest most college graduates stay at a company is two to four years then they’re gone.

A College education will mean an increase in salary. A college education used to mean a bump in salary. Back in 1985.

In the 1970’s and 1980’s when the college boom was going on, college graduates were the exception and not the rule. Because so many dropped out of high school and college that made the limited supply of college graduates with specialized skills an asset to employers. Because they had specialized skills they could leverage a higher salary from management.

The truth is today there’s a GLUT of college graduates all over the world. And most of these graduates just don’t have the skills most employers WANT. People take easy majors such as Anthropology and Women’s studies but employers need people with business, tech and science degrees.

And because there are so many college graduates with the wrong degrees chasing a limited supply of jobs salaries are stagnant. Some are even declining. Employers have the leverage in today’s job market and can decide what they want to pay someone.

Believing that a College education will eventually lead to someone being smart enough to build wealth. I may not have passed algebra in High School, but I sure as hell can do math. And when one does the math on American college today it’s a recipe for economic disaster.

Let’s see someone spends $120,000 over four years to get a job paying $40,000 a year so they can pay off $100,000 worth of student loans. At the end of the day the bank makes $480,000 off interest payments on said student loan. What intelligent person would sign up for this kind of raw deal?

Compound this insane mathematical formula with a graduate degree for another $40,000 to $200,000 in student loans and a mortgage for $300,000 five years later. No wonder so many college kids are in debt today.

Plain and simple, you can’t build wealth with debt! All today’s consumer education does is teach people how to create debt they can NEVER get out of.

People go to college expecting the world. But they don’t go to college with a plan. And because they don’t have a plan for the next four to six years they wind up stuck in a series of dead-end jobs working for someone else instead of making their education work for them.

The truth is that a child only gets out of college what you put into it. And all a college gives you is a comprehensive education in the subject someone majors in. It does not guarantee someone a job. It does not guarantee someone will be rich. It is not a magic bullet for “success.” A college education is just one of the tools a person can use to move ahead in life. How they get to where they’re going based on the EFFORT they put into it.