Don’t Go To College Until You Answer These Questions…
The Amplified Impact Podcast
August 14th, 2023
Remember that “Regrets from My Twenties” video? I spilled about one regret: college.
Today, let’s dive into the college dilemma.
First, the cash myth. College ≠ instant riches.
Around 90% of degrees won’t magic up moolah. Unless you’re chasing careers like law or medicine, self-education can be more rewarding…and cheaper.
Next, time matters.
College can be a cushioned transition to adulthood. Just remember, you don’t need Ivy League bills for the experience.
Lastly, friendships fuel success.
College is a goldmine for connections. Build your network wisely, invest in relationships, and reap the rewards.
In a nutshell…college isn’t all-or-nothing.
Calculate costs, think goals, and don’t rush into debt.
TWEETABLE QUOTE:
“If you are going to college because you think it will increase your earning potential, then you need to be very intentional about what you study, because 90% of degrees are not actually going to increase your earning potential.”- Anthony Vicino
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Episode Transcript:
Anthony Vicino:
So one of the most popular videos that we’ve ever done on YouTube was something called Five Regrets from My Twenty S. And in there, I just shared the five things that I regret most about my my twenty S. And one of them was having gone to college. And I shared, like, my experience in there with having gone to college and why I regret it. And a lot of people reached out and they were like, well, that’s your perspective. College is great for the X, Y, and Z reasons. I think you’re discounting this benefit and this and that and the other thing. And I wanted to talk today about college and if you’re young and you’re thinking about, should I go to college? How to think about this decision, and maybe some of the pros of going to college versus some of the cons of it.
Anthony Vicino:
And I’m not necessarily going to say you should or shouldn’t go to college because I don’t think it’s that black and white. I don’t think it is a yes or no for everybody. It just depends on what you’re aiming for and where you are in life. And so the first thing I would say about going to college is if you are going to college because you think it will increase your earning potential, if that’s the reason for going to college, then you need to be very intentional about what you study, because 90% of degrees are not actually going to increase your earning potential. And this is really, really important. I went to school. I have three degrees in religion, English, and psychology. None of them coming out of school increased my earning potential.
Anthony Vicino:
Now, I’ve used all of those things in my life to write books, to become a pretty proficient marketer, right. To understand human psychology. I’ve used those in growing my businesses, but they did not increase my earning potential as a result of having done those things and getting the degree, learning about them increased it, but the degree did not. And what I would say is Jim Runs said it best when he said, a formal education will make you a living, but a self education will make you a fortune. And so the degree that you get in school is only going to increase your earning potential if that degree is tied to your ability to go forth into that industry. So if you want to be a lawyer, yeah, you got to go to school, get your degrees. If you want to be a doctor, yep, you got to do that if you want to be a CPA. I actually don’t think you need to go to school to be a CPA, but if you want to be an engineer, you sure as heck do, right? So there’s these fields where by going there, it will increase your earning potential later on as you come out and be able to apply that degree in a very tactical way.
Anthony Vicino:
So if that’s your mental jujitsu of like, oh, I will go to school to increase my earning potential, then only do that if the degree is required to continue forward in that industry. Otherwise, you will probably be able to learn the thing more quickly, more deeply, and with far less expense than going to college. Focus on the self education. And what I mean by that is, again, psychology, marketing, if those are the things, or economics, like, you don’t need to go to school. You don’t need to pay 2030 $40,000 a year for that. You can get that education way cheaper, way quicker, and way more at a higher level, like taking classes from world class economists online, way better than going to a school. Okay? So that’s number one. And I think that’s an important one because most young people think going to school is going to increase their earning potential because you hear like, college degrees make more money on average than high school degrees.
Anthony Vicino:
And if you really do the math on this, it’s abstracted out towards those degrees that really do increase the earning potential, but 90% of degrees do not. So use that mental calculus number two, the number two reason to go to college. And this is why, if I was going back to being young, I probably would, in fact, go to college. It’s because of this one, I needed more time. I needed more time in a sheltered environment to mature, to grow, to come outside of my bubble before I was thrust into the real world. And so college was they called a moratorium, like this period of time where you’re not quite fully adult, you’re not quite a kid, you’re figuring out this thing called life and kind of in a safer environment with your, what do they call, training wheels on. And that was actually very beneficial. Now, I do not think I needed to go and spend as much money as I did on buying more time.
Anthony Vicino:
I went to very expensive private schools, and I should have probably just gone to some cheap state schools or community colleges where I could have still gotten the benefit of time and perspective to kind of ease into adulthood and figure out how I’m going to function as an adult for way less money. But that’s actually not a plus to overlook because sometimes you come out of high school, you’re like, I’m 18. I don’t know what I want to do yet. I don’t know how to be in this world. And college can be kind of a safe way to step into that. And I think I discounted that too much. In my video that I did on YouTube, where I talked about my five regrets, I did not give that ample kudos, we’ll say. And now the third thing I would say in the pro column of going to college is relationships.
Anthony Vicino:
More so than anything else, the relationships that you make in college are probably going to serve you way better than what you learned there or the time that you had. And so going to college is less about the degree, I think, and more about the people that you meet along the way, but only if you do this with intention. This is something I did very poorly. I did a bad job of getting out of my shell and going out and making new friends, meeting people, and then sustaining those relationships over the year, over the years. We hear all the time that you should start investing as soon as you can in life. Like, the sooner you start investing, the better, because it’ll compound you’ll become a millionaire. Whatever. We heard that.
Anthony Vicino:
But the thing that I did not conceptualize when I was younger is that investing in your social capital is equally as important. So, as a result, I came out of college, and I really didn’t do a good job of maintaining meaningful relationships. I didn’t go to college thinking, my primary job here is to meet and become connected to people. And then coming out of school, I was not thinking, my goal, my job here is to maintain those relationships. As a result, I did not get nearly as much out of college as I could have. And so if you’re young and you’re thinking about going to school, I think it’s important to recognize that one of your most important jobs is to establish relationships, to foster those, learn how to make relationships, and to invest in social capital. It will pay you massive, massive dividends. Now, in the grand scheme of things, I think college still has a place.
Anthony Vicino:
However, I think it’s becoming vastly overpriced in the majority of locations. And unless you’re going to a very top tier, like, I’m talking, like, top five schools, like Stanford, Harvard, Yale, like one of those schools, there is no benefit to your degree being from any other school. Right. Nobody cares if you went to University of Oregon versus University of Illinois versus Augsburg, which is where I went, nobody cares. Truly, nobody cares. And it’s not going to open more doors for you, necessarily. And so what you really need to do is be pragmatic. If you’re not going to one of those top five schools where the name really does carry weight, then you need to look at it and say, well, I need these things.
Anthony Vicino:
I need the degree. I need the relationship. I need more time. I need to get those with the lowest expense possible. And typically, in my experience, you can get a lot of those from a community college or just a cheaper state school where you have reciprocity, maybe. And I think that should be the mental calculus most people are doing. Instead of coming out of college saddled with hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt because you went to a school that was too expensive. It’s not necessarily going to improve your earnings potential.
Anthony Vicino:
Five X more than if you had gone to the state school, right? But you have five X as much debt. I think you should really do that mental jiu jitsu and calculate it out, because you probably don’t need to spend nearly as much on your college degree as you think. So that’s how I would think about college. Whether or not you should go to it, that’s up to you. That’s your life decision. Just know that you’re young. It’s okay to fuck this one up. You have plenty of time in the game to make it right.
Anthony Vicino:
I came out of college hella in debt, didn’t get much benefit out of it, and somehow we made it through. We’ve rided the ship. So don’t feel like this is the decision that’s going to define the rest of your life. It’s not. It might find the next decade, but hey, you got like six or seven of those left to go. So what’s one or two here or there? Anyway, I hope this brings you a little bit of value as always, guys and gals, thanks for being here. I hope you got a lot out of this. I hope this helps a little bit as you’re maybe weighing the pros and cons of school.
Anthony Vicino:
If you have more questions, let me know. Come shoot me up on Twitter or Instagram. Leave me a DM. I try to respond to everybody, but as as usual, I’ll see you back around these parts tomorrow. Until then, Sapper. Focus, my friend.
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