Is College A Waste of Time? And Ways To Approach Higher Education
Opinions from a recent graduate
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This week’s newsletter is a few days late because yesterday marked the submission of my last assignment for my honours year. This is the first time in about five years that I’ve finally caught a break from the academy, and I’d like to take this chance to share my thoughts on a question that I’ve been pondering ever since my freshman year: should you go to college and if so, what is the right way to approach it?
Times are changing, and an argument can be made that you can learn almost anything from the internet at a fraction of the cost. The same goes for practical degrees in design or STEM. There are thousands of hours of great content on the internet that can teach you how to code, illustrate a beautiful brochure or start a business. Granted, there are harder pursuits (advanced mathematics, for example) that require professional assistance from academics, but most of the time, unless you’re pursuing a strictly professional degree in law or engineering, going to college to acquire a skill just doesn’t seem like the right choice.
For instance, I do not have a background in film or online marketing professionally. However, I learned how to use a camera by volunteering as a grip on a film set and used YouTube tutorials to set up my entire business. I owe my entire skillset to the internet, and this learning experience is much more exhilarating than endlessly rehearsing imaginary scenarios in a commerce tutorial room. And recently, I was fortunate enough to share what I’ve learned on SkillShare under a creative partnership. Things came back around full circle for someone who didn’t have a business degree but learned everything by doing.
Here's my opinion: when we pursue a degree that doesn’t guarantee a direct professional pathway (commerce, media, political science, etc), we’re not there for the skills but the permission to practice those skills. Every lecture at best is a rehearsal and at worst causes students to overthink everything instead of learning through trial and error. And since students have been programmed to have extreme aversions to failure (the world crushing bad grades), sometimes the theory is just dead weight that acts as a security blanket. So, I say if you’re interested in something, learn by starting independent projects. Make a fool of yourself, have fun and see what sticks. The insights you’ll gain from these free mind-wanders will be way more valuable than getting lost in the theory of a skill.
Does that mean college is completely useless unless we’re pursuing a hard degree? If you were to ask me five years ago, I’d say yes. The only reason why I ended up in college was because in Australia, student fees for certain degrees (Literature and Languages) were reduced and I was able to land a government-supported funding scheme that gave me a relatively affordable education. I was also curious to see what an education looked like if a career wasn’t a concern. So, against the advice of all the well-intentioned people around me, I majored in English Literature and French studies, and what I discovered there was nothing short of a miracle.
In short, if we strip away all practical concerns, college is essentially about teaching us how to learn. Instead of treating assignments as ends in themselves, I learned how to gather resources effectively, and budget my time during crunch periods and most importantly, the difficulty of the material (heavy literary theory and French compositions) fundamentally heightened my tolerance for information. Instead of learning a hard skill, an education for me was a software update that replaced fear with curiosity, and struggle with patience and ultimately, it taught me the art of a slow and deliberate way of thinking about the world. In other words, I discovered the pleasure of thinking that I’d normally write off as empty speculations. This shift, though subtle, gave way to a completely different way of approaching the world as I realized that a degree is only just the beginning of a lifelong love affair with learning.
Though I do believe that this skill set could be acquired outside of a university setting, having a structured setting expedites this process. In-class discussions forced me to jump out of my limited perspective, and it quickly developed a mental flexibility that would otherwise be difficult to achieve if I were to read everything alone in my room. Likewise with research skills. Being forced to write a 5,000-word essay in a month pushed me beyond my limits, and when I returned to writing for pleasure, those hidden avenues of thinking made way for more nuanced perspectives.
This isn’t to say that it’s impossible to acquire these soft skills independently. One of my passions is to make these skills accessible through my writing and YouTube videos, but there is a steep learning curve. In addition, this problem is exacerbated by a utilitarian focus on producing the greatest number of graduates instead of investing in the slow and deliberate journey of education. As a result, we’re seeing millions of students graduating with soft degrees, feeling like they haven’t learned anything besides having read a few more books than their peers.
When we look at College from that perspective. Yes, it is a high-level scam and there are better ways to learn precisely what the system claims to preach. But it helps to clarify this problem so that we can choose our paths wisely instead of jumping into a pool of debt for no reason. In summary, if we want to acquire permission to practice what we love from college, then a degree is entirely useless. But if conditions allow it and if we head into a degree to learn how to become lifelong students, then we might stand a chance to get a beautiful education without falling prey to the game of academia.
After I headed in my last assignment yesterday, I’ve been taking some time off from reading to watch some good TV shows, and currently, one of the soundtracks from Westworld is stuck in my head and it essentially captured the mood for the entire week. Instead of recommending books and articles, enjoy this soundtrack!
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Faa5b1b7e-37d9-46f1-abda-b1596a13d46b_2048x1152.jpeg)
And that’s all I have for this week. Thank you for your patience and I’ll see you next week. :)
Robin
I enjoyed your write up on this subject; all aspects covered. This question often echoes around the hustle culture arena and to an extent it works. As more people (from the hustle culture) "graduates" into starting a business and hiring people the idea of going to college to succeed will keep on taking punches.
So many strong points raised in this 👏