“When you finish with high school, get into a good college immediately, then find a good company to work for. Bust your ass for forty years and then retire.”

Forty years ago this was awesome advice. If you went to college immediately after high school it meant that you probably wouldn’t have to fight in Vietnam. I’d choose school over war any day, and I’m not even a pacifist. Our generation (the teens and twenty-somethings), however, has a much better set of circumstances. We no longer have a draft and there are all sorts of new options for us to choose from. We no longer have to go to college to avoid premature death. In fact, I highly recommend that young people do not go to college right after high school–at least not full time.

In high school, I’m sure you’ve met a few people who have decided their next moves on the planet for the next 10+ years: “I’m going to Brown to study Marine Biology. Then I’m going grad school and I’ll travel the world and help people.” Hey, that sounds great. But the path isn’t always that clear for everyone, though, is it? When I talk to young adults about college, the conversation usually goes one of two ways: “I know exactly what I want to do. Let me tell you all about it.” OR “I don’t really know what I want to study. Psychology might be interesting, or maybe literature. Chemistry or architecture might be cool, but I don’t really like math. I haven’t decided yet.” The scary part is, some people who “haven’t decided yet” still go to college right after high school. They wander through classes with a half-hearted plan and end up changing majors a couple of times before finally graduating 5 or 6 years later. Then they find a job somewhere, or they move back in with their parents. One or the other.

So why do it in the first place? The reasons can be many, but likely a combination of the following:

1. Your parents told you to do it.
2. Your teachers told you to do it.
3. Everyone else is doing it.
4. You have nothing better to do.
5. You like racking up student debt. (Changing majors can be very expensive.)

Let’s take a look at each of these and explore a few ways to deal with the pressure.

1. It’s time to start thinking for yourself. Until now, most of your decision-making has defaulted to authority figures like your parents and teachers. I’m sure they had all lots of useful things to tell you, but now is the time to start exercising your decision-making skills.
2. See 1.
3. See 1.
4. This one is a little more difficult. If you really believe that you have nothing better to do, at least explore some options that don’t cost quite as much. Be creative. Don’t be submissive.
5. Okay, this one is obviously a joke. But you get the idea.

Back to my original point. There are several reasons why young people shouldn’t go to college right after high school, even if they are pretty sure of what they want to study. Why? Because teenagers are mostly insane. The tsunamis of hormones don’t really mellow out for a few more years, at which point young adults are finally ready to rejoin the human race.

So what can you do instead?

1. Get a job.
2. Get your own place (apartment or whatever).
3. Pay your own bills.
4. Learn how to cook.

If we look at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (which I find to be an excellent way of checking the balance in my life), you can see that this satisfies the first two layers of the pyramid. If you are unable to independently satisfy your most basic needs (food, clothing, and shelter), higher achievements will not come easy. Get a good foundation. Don’t be “top-heavy”.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate college. I actually love college. It’s challenging, it’s fun, and you get to learn cool stuff. College is great, but in my experience, you don’t need it to be good at something. I’ll give you an example. At the time of this writing I work for a large engineering company. A few months ago, I was talking with co-worker and I mentioned a class I was taking. So he asked:

“Are you working on your Master’s?”
I shook my head. “No.”
“Bachelor’s?”
“Not yet.”
“Associate’s??”

I had been working with this guy for a year and a half. He had no clue that I was “uneducated”.

I’ll give you another example. I started working on a new project a few months ago and I’m now the lead developer for a team of five people, all with B.S. degrees and work experience. They’re all very smart and very sharp people. I’m not special. I’m not a prodigy. I am, however, reasonably intelligent and I like learning. I work very hard, I ask questions, I tap experts for advice, and I take notes. It’s simple.

You don’t need a piece of paper to be awesome. Some people with degrees are brilliant and quite talented (like my mother and my sister-in-law). Other graduates are utterly incompetent. The point is, a degree does not make you who you are.  You can do anything with enough time and hard work. Maybe all of that effort culminates in a degree. Or maybe it doesn’t.

College is a fine path, but it’s not the only path.

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