What else can I do?

There is a lot to be learned from managing capital and credit. Aspects of personal finance that I was oblivious to while digging into debt for a degree.

And in France, if you don’t have a degree you can’t be recognized for what you’ve done, and you can’t pretend to “white collar jobs” without a good degree. The jobs market is much more

Knowing that, I think every people who could go to college, should go and graduate.
And I do not take into account, all the memories, the true life-lasting friendship you could make, and the few more years of innocence you can grab.

Of course, not everything you study in college, will be used later in your life, and your reasonning coudl be totally true IF you make valuable the time save by doing something useful, but we both know that is rarely the case…

Class distinction in America is everything, and not having a college degree is absolutely frowned on by many people.

Imagine that you are in a business meeting, I have been in 4 this week. In not one of those meetings was there a single person without a bachelors degree. Over 1/2 had an MBA and a few also had JD (who were not lawyers.) many of us attended small private Universities, Ivys, or little northeastern Ivys.

With the exception of a few finance classes, micro and macro, and the MBA and law school guys, most of these degrees had very little impact on our business dealings. Instead these sheepskins are just an entry ticket to get into the door.

The problem is that without a degree, you are viewed as just another unwashed striver. Why should I listen to someone’s business idea? I get pitched ideas all of the time. I have found that the younger, poorer, and less educated that you are, the more likely it is that you “want to go into business” or “want to be an entrepreneur

I could not agree more. I support education but the reality is that college is not the only way to receive education and college isn’t for everyone. Most people learn by actually working and gaining experience. Another thing that should be abolished is “Education Discrimination” which means being discriminated for not having a certain diploma or degree. It should be illegal for companies to have as a requirement that employees need to have a certain degree or diploma to be able to be employed in that company or be able to pursue a higher position within the company. If you have the knowledge and experience you should be given the same opportunity.

Imagine if Bill Gates applies for a job at Microsoft and Steve Jobs applies for a job at Apple and Mark Zuckerberg applies for a job at Facebook and all were denied because of ” Education Discrimination”.

This happens everyday so you could imagine all the talented people that are being denied better jobs or jobs period. Not only do they lose but all of society loses.

I can keep on going but lets just leave at that for now.

Failures are my best friend..

– Jess

I am another one of your young readers, 19 this year, on her way to university after taking a gap year. Obviously, being Asian (I can relate to the book Tiger Mom), not going to university is a huge no-no. I have been accepted into a number of presitigious universities to do biology/zoology, but am thinking of rejecting them all. What’s the point of spending $120,000 to get a piece of paper that qualifies you to work in a field that will pay you less than $2,000 per month?

After my gap year, I began to view university as an option, not a necessity. It is an institution that churns out desensitized people with a piece of degree, saddled with debt, who think that finding a well-paid job working for someone else is the way to success and alas, find that elusive idea we term happiness. I was brought up to think this way – but I longer do.

I have sent you an email James regarding some advice needed. Hope to hear from you again.