Is Attending College Overrated
Theres one thing I know for sure college is extremely expensive! As the College Board highlights in a recent survey outlining changes in college tuition between 2008-2009 and 2018-2019, tuition is on a steady upward climb that shows no signs of letting up.
Over the last 10 years, the average cost of a 4-year private degree has risen over $7,000 by 2019, perhaps making the idea of getting that beloved college degree diploma a pipe dream.
There are a vast amount of careers that you can obtain without an actual college degree, but most require either a trade school certification or just time on the job and working your way up through the ranks.
Formal education will make you a living. Self education will make you a fortune. Jim Rohn
- http://www.payscale.com
- http://www.collegeboard.com/student/pay/add-it-up/4494.html
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Buy A House And Rent It To Others
This is a bit of a long shot for many college students, but we dont want to rule it out. Perhaps you have a family member thats willing to cosign with you on the mortgage, or perhaps youve inherited property from a relative.
If this is the case, then you can make a very substantial income by renting this property to others. For more info, check out this guide from Listen Money Matters.
Buy And Resell Textbooks
When you were in high school, you had no idea how much money textbooks cost, did you? Ouch. You know you can earn a little cash back for selling your textbooks at the end of the semester.
But you can go beyond that and actually start profiting from textbook sales.
Instead of relying on your own collection, buy textbooks online from sites like eBay and resell them on a site like BookScouter.
Before you shop, you can look up a books ISBN on BookScouter and find out how much its worth. That way youll only buy books you know you can sell for more than what you pay.
Profit margins arent huge on textbook reselling, but if you can average $5 per book and sell five per day, you could earn $750 each month. Thats a solid side hustle!
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Share Your Opinion With Survey Junkie
Your high school English teacher may have told you that your opinion doesnt matter without evidence to back it up. While thats true for essays, its not the case at Survey Junkie. On this site, you can get paid to share what you think about a range of topics. Survey Junkie uses this information to help brands deliver better products and services.
In exchange for taking the time to share your response, you can earn points to redeem for gift cards to stores like Amazon or Target . Start getting paid to share your opinion.
Firefighter Or Police Officer
If you feel like giving back to your community after high school, then why not sign up to be part of the local fire or police services? These community services offer free training to cadets, and a guaranteed spot on the team if you pass the tests.
While the starting salary for a rookie police officer or firefighter is not outstanding, should you choose to make it your career path and end up in an executive position, you can expect to make more than 6-figures a year.
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Line Installer & Repairer
- Degree or Certificate Requirements: High school diploma or equivalent required, with at least one year of algebra coursework a one-year certificate from a vocational school or two-year associate degree may improve job prospects
- Training Requirements: Many line installers complete apprenticeships, typically lasting three years otherwise, extensive on-the-job training
- Median Salary : $65,700
- Salary Range : $32,590 to $94,880
- Growth Outlook : 0 new positions
Line installers and repairers install and repair electrical and telecommunications transmission lines. With median earnings about $5,000 higher, electrical line installers and repairers make out better than telecom installers and repairers. But both do just fine, especially considering neither job requires anything more than a high school diploma and a willingness to complete a three-year apprenticeship or comparably long on-the-job training though some vocational school work may improve job prospects.
Unlike many tradespeople, line installers and repairers arent required to be licensed however, like vocational school work, voluntary certification such as fiber optic certification through the Fiber Optic Association may improve job prospects.
Line installation and repair workers operate downstream of professionals in a number of other utility specialties that dont require college degrees. These include but arent limited to power plant operators, nuclear power reactor operators, and power distributors.
What Is A High Income Skill The Difference Between A Skill And A Job
A skill is something you do. Hard skills are things like being able to type, whereas a soft skill would be more nebulous like a good communicator. Soft skills are often much more challenging to learn than hard skills, partially because everyones perception of what constitutes a good mastery of a skill is subjective.
It is easy to see if you can type 65 words per minute with no errors, while it is not easy to know if you will be able to get along with your team members.
A job requires you to trade time to start making money. It is where the acronym J.O.B. comes from. You are expected to employ skills to perform work for an employer. In the end, it still is directly trading time for money unless you are being paid for piecework .
There are very few high-paying jobs that do not require a college degree of some kind. Even for something like project management, most employers will expect some type of underlying college degree.
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Elevator Installers And Repairers
Median annual wage: $79,780Projected job growth through 2026: 12 percent
These workers install, fix, and maintain elevators, escalators, moving walkways, chairlifts and other lifts. Elevator repairers typically earn a little more as their job requires a greater knowledge of electronics, hydraulics and electricity than do installers, since a large part of maintenance and repair work is troubleshooting.
Becoming an elevator installer or repairer starts with a four-year apprenticeship program sponsored by a union, industry association or individual contractor. To enter such a program, you’ll need a high school diploma. Even after the program, on-going training is required and 35 states, currently, require an installer or repairer to be licensed.
Sell Your Video Game Accounts
Maybe you were a video game addict in high school and no longer have time to play them & still get good grades in college.
If thats the case, you might be able to sell your video game accounts online at sites like eBay to the highest bidder. You worked hard to make all that process, and it can be a quick way to make some extra cash.
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How Much Can You Really Earn Without A College Degree
While getting a college education is never a bad thing, you really dont need one to earn a good salary.
At the time of writing, the federal minimum wage in the United States is $7.25 per hour.
So, a person earning minimum wage who works 40 hours per week, 52 weeks per year would earn $15,080 annually.
Even without a Bachelors degree, you can earn far more than minimum wage in fact, most of the jobs on this list pay double, triple or even quadruple that amount.
So, if you dont have a college degree and maybe you dont have much experience either, but youd really like to save more and gain financial security, like most of us do, then you should consider going into one of the professions listed below.
These positions pay well, you dont have to get a degree, and for some of them, you dont even have to worry about having any previous work experience either.
Some of these positions require previous experience or on the job training, and others you can do from the comfort of your own home, wearing your pajamas if you want to!
Theres really a wide selection to choose from.
Highest Paying Jobs Without A Degree
by Lauren Bennett – Last Updated January 3, 2018
Dont have a college degree?
Well, dont assume that you cant get a high-paying job.
Even if you have no experience, there are still dozens of jobs out there, in a wide range of fields that will pay you far more than minimum wage way more in fact.
You just need to know what they are, where to find them, and how to snag them!
Some of them are work at home jobs that only require internet access and a working phone.
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In this post, weve compiled a list of the best paying jobs with no Bachelors degree needed. Some of these jobs also require no Associates degree and no prior experience either.
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What Is The Highest
The highest-paying job without a degree is that of a commercial pilot, which was found to have a median annual wage of $121,430. The only education requirement is a high school diploma or equivalent, although all commercial pilots will need training and to earn their commercial pilots license before being able to start the job. Below is a list including 19 other careers that pay well and dont require a college education.
20 Jobs That Earn the Highest Annual Salaries Without a Degree
When Is It A Good Idea To Go To College
If youre entering the STEM fields, Studying will serve you well for the foundation of knowledge you need to flourish in that specific STEM career path.
In this case, education is unavoidable and necessary to achieving success in the future. The aspiring student should show natural aptitude in their chosen field, and should not be committing to college just because their parents demand they do so.
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Ways To Educate Yourself Without College
It’s popular to criticize college today. No matter which way you look, somebody is writing about a student loan horror story, , disruptive technological change, or the narrow work options available to graduates.
Criticizing is easy, of course. Offering solutions is hard.
The reality is that college fills many valuable roles today. It offers young adults the chance to build hard skills and soft skills , be part of an exciting community, live independently, get exposed to new ideas, and signal employers with an college degree. College is pretty much the only place that bundles all these good things into one convenient package deal. That’s why, despite the voluminous criticism, college as we know it won’t disappear anytime soon.
But in an era of skyrocketing tuition fees combined with widespread economic austerity, millions of students will find themselves unable or unwilling to finance the college package deal. Yet they’ll still want, and need, to gain a higher education.
Luckily, higher education doesn’t have to be delivered by a college institution. You can gain skills, community, independence, exposure, and work opportunities by piecing together a self-directed, a la carte curriculum of real-world projects. It’s a like a design-your-own-college-major program but without college or its inflated costs.
Here are 12 ways to begin pursuing your own self-directed higher education, right now, without college:
Become A Personal Grocery Shopper
If youre one of the few college students to own a car, your friends might constantly ask you if you can go to the store to buy food for them and theyll pay you back.
Buying groceries, snacks, and beverages with the ibotta app lets you get cash back on many items that college students want without having to go to the cafeteria.
Activate your first ibotta offer and get a $10 cash bonus. You can request payment via PayPal or gift card once your balance reaches $20.
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Drive For Campus Transportation
Whatever the size of your campus, all universities need people and things driven around. Large universities operate bus services to get people from one end of campus to another, all colleges need vehicles to transport heavy furniture and equipment, and some colleges even operate special late night shuttles to help drunk students get home safely.
In some cases, students are eligible to work as drivers for these vehicles. Requirements will vary based on what youre transporting, the size of the vehicle, and local laws.
Youll need to take a class on how to safely operate the vehicles in question, as well as have any other necessary licenses . These jobs are an opportunity to meet a variety of interesting people, explore your campus, and drive vehicles that you might never get to otherwise.
A Few More Jobs You Can Do Without A Degree:
There is certainly no shortage of available jobs you can leverage to make six figures. In fact, in any industry, there is someone who makes six figures and there are others who don’t. Always keep this in mind.
Before going over a few more of the best jobs without a degree that can help you land six figures, be sure to recognize that staying with a particular company or within a niche is key to moving up the ranks so to speak .
Other jobs to make six figures without a degree:
- Grocery Store Manager
- Logistics and Warehouse Management Supervisor
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Start A Pet Sitting/walking Business
Pet owners who arent home often want pet sitters and dog walkers. They dont want their beloved pets being home alone so long each day.
This makes home pet sitting can be cheaper than taking them to a pet daycare.
Maybe, you can offer dog walking or pet sitting services. Besides asking your friends, there are several ways to find clients.
One way is to advertise at pet stores or vet offices. Another option signing up with Rover.com. This is a great way to get and organize clients, as well as build a pet sitting business.
Believe it or not, some pet sitters earn over $100,000 a year. If you love animals, this can replace your day job in the future.
Still Cant Decide Try A Gap Year Or Work Experience
Dont worry if you are about to leave school and you still dont know what you want to do. Some people dont realise their calling until much later in life.
If you cant decide right now and do not want to commit to a university degree, you could always take a gap year to learn more about yourself and figure out what you want.
But try not to spend your gap year doing nothing. Try to travel a little, read books, get some work experience or even give an online business a chance while youre young without too many financial commitments.
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Icipate In Medical Experiments
There might be medical experiments and psychology experiments you can get paid for offered on-campus. Or, your local hospital might be conducting a legal trial as well. Depending on the experiment, you could earn up to $20 per hour!
Should you want to add medical guinea pig to your resume? Lets not go that far, but you can at least enjoy the extra cash today without spilling the beans about how you made ends meet as a college student to your future employer.
Monetize Your Unused Space
Just as cars sit around doing nothing most of the time, unused space is just, well, unused space until now. Do you have an extra closet, shed, room, or garage thats sitting empty? Why not rent it out for a set fee to someone who needs to store some of their stuff?
Neighboris an app that lets you do just that. While the idea might take some getting used to, once you wrap your head around it, it actually becomes an attractive proposition to allow people to store things in your space. After all, if its just going to sit empty, why not put it to work?
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Get Paid For Completing Small Tasks On Amazon
Have you heard of ?
Create an account, and start performing human intelligence tasks. These tasks range from answering surveys to transcribing interviews to creating spreadsheets. You can pick and choose what you want to do.
Penny Hoarder contributor Michael Naab shared that he made an average of $500 a month through Mechanical Turk.