Top 7 Reasons Why College Is Important
With more and more careers requiring advanced education, a college degree can be critical to your success in today’s workforce. Research indicates that earning a degree can have a significant and expansive impact on your life. It also has the potential to help you positively impact your familyand the world.
Here are 7 reasons why college could be important for you.
Strategy : Proactively Manage Your Time And Workload
Time management is critical to success when going to college as a working adult. If youre going to pursue your degree online, you want to make sure your flexible curriculum doesnt become a detriment to your success. You need to proactively plan your schedule to make sure you dont procrastinate or fall behind. You also want to make sure youre maintaining balance between your educational, professional and personal pursuits.
Here are some tips to help you stay organized and on schedule:
- Create a dedicated, quiet workspace that allows you to focus on your coursework.
- Download a task management app like Todoist to manage your workload.
- Block off time each week on your calendar to dedicate to your coursework.
- Regularly check your course website to track your progress on assignments.
- Break up work and set personal deadlines to pace out the completion of larger projects.
In addition to basic time management best practices, choosing the right college degree program can make it easier to manage your workload.
Success Strategy: Look for a college that offers a balanced workload format that makes it easier to plan around your college courses.
Can You Succeed Without College Yes But Its Complicated
How far can you really get without a college degree?
Bill Gates started Microsoft when he was 19 and has since become one of the worlds wealthiest people. Mark Zuckerberg owns one of the most highly-valued tech companies in the U.S.. Steve Jobs founded Apple in his garage.
What do these three people have in common? None of them finished college in fact, Bill Gates is considered Harvards most successful dropout. Whats more, there are countless others who have gone on to start successful businesses without first earning a bachelors degree. So, considering modern opportunities and technological advances, is a degree still necessary? Or is it possible to succeed without college?
The short answer is yes. It is possible to succeed without college. But the longer answer is that succeeding without collegeespecially to the level that Gates, Zuckerberg, and Jobs didis the exception, not the rule. To have a truly successful career, earning a college degree gives you a clear advantage.
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Organize Your Study Time
You have the planner thats helping you stay organized. Thats it right? No! You need to continue planning and staying organized to help you succeed.
Set a day out of the week to plan your week ahead and get re-organized.
Every Sunday night, Id set aside time to plan out my week, and get back on track with organizational habits. Then Id block the days and times when Id plan to work on assignments and for what classes.
But the organization doesnt stop with planning. It involves your physical items too.
- Have a desk? Keep it as clean and organized as you can. A clean area helps improve productivity. An unorganized or messy area can be a distraction.
- Use a backpack? Only have items you need in there. Your binders, or notebooks, pens, paper, highlighters. Throw away any unnecessary paperwork.
- Where do you keep your notes? How do you know what notes are for what class? Have a binder or a notebook for each class. If you want to take it a step further, purchase different color binders or notebooks. It will help with knowing what color goes with what class.
Yes, I was also one of those students who had a binder for every class. In every binder, I had a list of assignments and exams to always remind me of what I needed to do next.
The more you stay organized, the more productive youll be.
Do You Need College To Be A Police Officer
A college degree is not required to become a police officer. In fact, a high school diploma is the main educational requirement that many law enforcement agencies require from your end.If you want to stand out of the crowd, your past experience as a service member or security personnel can help you achieve this feat. While it is a way to be successful without college as an entry-level officer, earning a bachelors degree can boost your chances of climbing this career ladder.
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College Improves Your Earning Potential And Networking
“I firmly believe that college is essential for a prosperous future. According to the APLU , a college education improves a person’s job prospects and earning potential. Bachelor’s degree holders are half as likely as to be unemployed as high school diploma holders, and they earn $1.2 million more over their lifetime.
“However, it is not only your earnings that rise. Attending college allows you to learn alongside like-minded people, allowing you to make lifelong friends while also gaining a wealth of knowledge. I don’t think I would have been as open-minded as I am today if I hadn’t shared my education with such diverse people.
“People believe that college is pointless if you are not looking for a nine-to-five job, but as a travel blogger, I got to learn more about the world through the diverse people I met, which inspired me to learn more.”
Aiden Higgins, The Broke Backpacker
You Probably Wont Get The Education Youre Paying For And It Doesnt Come Cheap
Lets be honest, we all spent thousands of hours in classes through our high school education studying topics we never thought about again after graduation. When was the last time you thought about the Pythagorean theorem? Sine, cosine, tangent? Punnett squares? The rules and characteristics of Shakespearean sonnets and iambic pentameter? Reciting the periodic table? Or what about stoichiometry?
Then we get shuffled into college courses re-learning those same topics at what is supposed to be a higher level, but for many, it just feels like a repeat of high school all over again.
To make matters worse, the goalposts have shifted. Where the standard once was spending two to four years in college education, students are now being encouraged to spend six years, and in some cases even eight years, working on their undergrad. At the same time, graduation rates are stagnating for Bachelor’s degrees and theres a societal push for post-grad programs. Is it really worth going from graduating high school at age 18 and then possibly having to postpone your life to finish six to eight years of your undergraduate degree, just to be told you should probably get a Master’s or Ph.D. to earn more?
Americans took out over $1.7 trillion in government loans to pay for their college tuition.
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Do They Have The Result And Success That I Want
The question is or the challenge is, is the pressure that you feel, your friends and family telling you that you’re stupid, society telling you that you got to do this and that, always ask yourself, do they have the result that I want? Do they have the success that I want? Why would you listen to society? Most of the society, man, 99% of people in the world are broken, struggling in their life.
99% of people in the world are in debt. 99% of people in the world are at a job that they hate. They’re not happy, they’re not fulfilled. 1 in 2 marriages ends in divorce. 1 in 3 people dies from cancer. 1 in 2 people dies from heart disease. Most people are depressed. Most people are on medication in their life, some sort of prescription drug.
99% of people, man. Why would you listen to 99%? Not unless you want to be one of them, but if you want to be in the 1%, you got to do things differently. You got to go against what everyone else says. You got to learn from the people that are doing it, the people that are in that 1%. I only learned from people that are more successful than myself, people that have the results that I want.
I find and seek out this people, and I learn from them. It’s like, would you take advice from someone who’s overweight and try to give you health and fitness advice even if they have a certificate? No, because they don’t have any credibility. They’re not congruent with the advice that they’re giving you because they haven’t done it themselves.
What Are The Cons Of Going To College
Disadvantages of College Education
- College can be pretty expensive.
- Many students have to get student loans for college.
- Children from poor families often can’t afford college education.
- College education has lost its reputation.
- Quality of education greatly varies across colleges.
- Not everyone gets a good job afterward.
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Paths You Can Take Besides Attending College
However, you might not benefit from college at all. These days, you can pursue various careers without additional schooling whatsoever. Its possible to teach yourself everything from video editing to writing code to land yourself a job. There are ways to find a role you love outside of college.
You could find college to be a waste of time and money when you can pursue other routes. Its common to go to trade school as an alternative. If youre inclined to be an electrician or plumber, you should skip attending a four-year university so that you can achieve those goals.
Its also possible to get into the workforce immediately after high school. You can always try to obtain an entry-level job while you figure out whats on the horizon. Theres a chance youll come to love that career path and want to rise in the ranks. If anything, you have an opportunity to make money in the meantime.
Know Your Goals And Values
Acknowledging your goals can be one way to visualize your version of success. Recognizing what it is that you are trying to achieve by pursuing an education can help illuminate your values, and you can use those values to motivate yourself as you work toward your idea of success.
For example, if your goal is to secure your bachelorâs degree in order to get a job, then you might note that you value independence and providing for yourself. Ultimately, your version of success might be to achieve independence.
Holding onto your values as you interpret your success might help you stay focused on your individual version of success and avoid falling into comparison traps.
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College Might Not Actually Make You Smarter
The last con of attending college is that going to one might not actually increase your intelligence.
A 2011 study found that 45% of 2,322 traditional-aged college students studied from 2005 to 2009 made no significant improvement in their critical thinking, reasoning, or writing skills during the first two years of college. After four years, 36% showed no significant gains.
More recent studies have shown similar trends among those with either some college or a degree. Given the cost of attending college, youd hope that higher education would have a dramatically positive effect on these skills for all studentsbut this might not actually be the case.
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Plenty Of Successful People Have No Degrees
While the figure makes it obvious that a vast majority of mega-rich people have degrees, it also makes it clear that you can have all the money in the world even without going to college.
That device you are using, social media you are posting on, TV show you are watching, music you are singing to or hamburger you are eating could be a courtesy of someone who did not graduate from college.
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Do You Need College To Be A Firefighter
You dont need a college degree to be an entry-level firefighter. In such cases, you can easily use your high school diploma to try for a job at your local fire station. This helps you enter the workforce while doing some good in the world.But getting an associate degree or a bachelors degree in subjects such as fire science can increase your chances for advancing in this line of work. This makes it important to get a degree if you want to make a career out of helping people.
Level Up To Stay On Top Of Your Game
With a solid foundation built, it’s now time for you to continue to grow and charge more for your skills as you refine them. Own your abilities and take pride in what you’ve accomplished.
Do this by embracing your role. Print those business cards, put your name on the door and make it Facebook official. Let the world know you’re open for business. Your confidence will encourage people to hire you and will help build your following.
Hold your own by offering advice and sharing guidance in your expertise. You’ve done the work and you know your stuff. Now position yourself as the expert you are.
It’s common for people to experience imposter syndrome, when they feel as though they’ve come across their success simply due to sheer luck and are only pretending to be an expert. If you can, try to reframe your thoughts and take a positive approach to any feelings of inadequacy you may have.
Set goals and deadlines to keep yourself accountable. Celebrate small victories. Every accomplishment, no matter how small, is a step toward reaching your ultimate goal.
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Build Skills Relevant To Your Coursework
As you work toward your degree, you may notice certain types of assignments coming up repeatedly. An English major may have to write a lot of essays, while a chemistry major may work through countless lab reports, and a math major may take sit-down exams that require memorizing complex equations.
If your measure of success involves academic achievement, you might consider honing those skills that you are most frequently tested on. Take note of how you might leverage your strengths, and try not to judge your perceived shortcomings. To help with your areas of improvement, your school or department might have other peer-review resources available to students, like writing workshops or group study sessions.
The benefit of sharpening your academic skills will likely extend after you acquire your degree: oftentimes, the skills that allow you to become academically successful in your major are also the skills that will show up as you pursue a career in a related field.
So Can You Make It Without A College Degree
Why do so many people think that you have to go to college to be successful? Its likely because they have experienced the benefits personally. Yes, its possible to succeed without a college degree. But with so many programs designed to take you from having no experience in a field to being highly-skilled and job-market ready, having a college degree offers a clear advantage.
Most of us arent Steve Jobs. And most of us dont come with a vast network that we can fall back on when things get tough. A college environment provides the kind of support most adults need to not only get a degree, but start a life. Success, for many adults, starts the day they get that bachelors degree.
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Essay On Successful People Without A College Degree
Careers in carpentry, electrical, ironwork or pipefitting require only a high school diploma to get started because skilled professionals in these crafts can learn on the job and through specialized craft training. Take computer science, for example. Hiring Manager For better or worse, there is an algorithm to hiring nowadays. Start-ups in technology, for example, may be more interested in your skillset and potential than a degree. As a result, parents and grandparents of African Americans stress the important of their children obtaining a college degree. Everyone who goes to college has struggled with the early classes the late-night paper cramming and the finals horror week. As a student myself, I know exactly how misleading this teaching can be.
Do You Need A Bachelors Degree To Have A Successful Career
College Vs. Debt Vs. Career
Conventional wisdom in the USA has always said that a bachelors degree from a 4-year university is the best way to get a job that pays well. But many 4-year colleges and universities have different priorities than their students, and many students graduate into major debt without a reliable career secured. Many recent graduates find that they do not even have a clear path to entry-level employment.
All of these factors lead many people to the logical question: Do you need bachelors degree to have a successful career?
Luckily, the answer is no. A bachelors degree is not the only way to land a high-paying job, create a secure retirement, or have a comfortable life. You may not realize that there are many new jobs being created that require specialized training, and employers who would prefer someone who is highly-focused on their field. A bachelors degree may qualify someone for a wider range of jobs by having them study many topics, but many new jobs need candidates who are willing to dive-in and do intensive learning on one topic for 6 months, 1 year, or up to 2 years.
Focused Job Training for A Solid Career
The old advice that you have to get a 4-year degree is proving to be out of date. The education you need for your dream career may be even shorter than a typical 2-year associates degree. It really just depends on what you want to do, and then finding the right training to get you there and get you paid well.
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