Top Reasons Why You ABSOLUTELY Need a College Degree

[LevelUP]

This is my own opinion on why basically everyone absolutely needs a college degree. I would say around 95% of people should go to college.

To be clear, I'm not referring to the national debate about going to college. This is only for DegreeForum members/lurkers and the people in our social circles that follow our specific degree plans recommended here, which would help someone earn a degree in around 6-12 months.

Now some people think college is a scam. This is based on broad assumptions that lead to logical fallacies and not having the best information possible such as what is available on DegreeForum.

Top Reasons Why You Absolutely Need a college degree

1. Need less experience needed when applying for a job
2. Easier to get an interview
3. Easier to get a job
4. Leverage to negotiate a higher salary (college grads earn on avg. 27k more per year)
5. Easier to get raises
6. Easier to get a promotion
7. Make it easier to change careers (Not pigeonhole one career)
8. During a recession, you always have a job (Grads have 5.5% unemployment vs 9% for H.S. diploma according to BLS)
9. You will like your job more (College grads are more satisfied with their jobs)
10. Financially,  you will be better off (According to Lumina)

Social Benefits of having a college degree

1. Increase confidence
2. Earn respect
3. Social status increase (78% of women likely to stay married for at least 20 years)

People with college degrees are less likely to

1. Do drugs
2. Commit crimes
3. Live an unhealthy lifestyle that takes years off your life

Personal Development Benefits

1. More productive
2. Better communicator
3. Improve critical thinking skills
4. Identify skills you're good at
5. Greater sense of discipline

Why The Knowledge Matters

1. Learn how to study
2. Learn how to write
3. Learn how to communicate
4. Explore career options and ideas
5. Learn things socially beneficial
6. Learn the fundamentals of your career

What holds people back?

What subjects are students most scared of

1. Math (Minimal math skills are required, you will make it)
2. Writing (Learn APA, follow the rubric. You don't have to be a great writer)
3. Science courses (Learn what you are good at and learn how to push through adversity)

Other things holding students back

1. Time commitment (Only 5-20hrs a week are required)
2. Confidence they will get through college (You gain confidence one step at a time)
3. Paradox of choice (Too many degrees to choose from)

So technically, you can get through life without a college degree. But do you really want to live life being a second-class citizen in a country that provides an incredible amount of opportunity?

It's a lot easier going through life walking downhill versus uphill.

[Alpha]

I don't think college is a scam.  I think it is what it is and some people try to turn it into something it is not - a one size fits all solution for your future life.  I think most people could do it cheaper if they tried.  I think that most people could do it faster if they tried.  I think that most people should research their options more thoroughly.  I think High School Guidance Counselors are useless when it comes to giving advice/direction to their students.  I think that under some circumstances it could be worth it to go to an expensive college, but mostly not.  I think that some professions do not absolutely require degrees but many do.  I think that in my (licensed) profession, I wouldn't even get into the lobby without a degree.  I'll never regret the time and money spent in college

[ReyMysterioso]

I don't think college is a scam.  I think it is what it is and some people try to turn it into something it is not - a one size fits all solution for your future life.  I think most people could do it cheaper if they tried.  I think that most people could do it faster if they tried.  I think that most people should research their options more thoroughly.  I think High School Guidance Counselors are useless when it comes to giving advice/direction to their students.  I think that under some circumstances it could be worth it to go to an expensive college, but mostly not.  I think that some professions do not absolutely require degrees but many do.  I think that in my (licensed) profession, I wouldn't even get into the lobby without a degree.  I'll never regret the time and money spent in college

Agree on high school guidance counselors being ... Well I'll be kind and just say they have to perform their function at scale and thus aren't very good at thinking outside of the box. Kids need individualized advice in a system incapable of providing it. 
For that matter, based on my experiences with advisors at five different universities, I don't think they're much better at the higher education level. 

Told my foster son, "If you want to be really successful but don't know how you're going to get there, here's the 'easy' plan: go to Yale, get in a frat and join the Skull & Bones society. Your network will be priceless." I only being half-faceitious. 

If money is no object, sure an elite school can fit the bill depending on your life/career goals. The less expensive paths to a degree we help figure out here on this forum ...they're pretty obscure. Almost nobody really knows about "degree hacking" or CLEP or ACE. People aren't really all that familiar with CBE programs. 

To the original poster's point - considering how affordably a properly motivated student can get a degree from TESU, WGU, UMPI, A&M Commerce and the like, the career opportunities it provides make it such a good investment for so many people that it'd be a crying shame not to take advantage of it.

I just wish I could convince my dang brother of this. He's too stubborn and unmotivated to stick with Sophia classes.

[spohara]

At the HS level, I think things are getting better for the next generation.  In my state, some kids are graduation HS with an associates degree thanks to programs that allow them to take college level courses.  I think a lot of first years are taught barely higher than HS level anyway, and a lot of kids aren't particularly challenged in HS and can definitely handle the workload.  I imagine it'd be very easy to degree hack the rest, as you'd have a bunch of RA.  You could probably graduate in under a year after HS.  If you enrolled in summer, maybe you could do even more.

[nomaduser]

I'm getting an IT degree in the next three months!
This is my last semester.

I'll see if anyone offers me a high-paying job position based on that.

[sanantone]

Correlation /= causation. Are people not doing drugs and going to jail because they went to college, or are those who go to college more privileged and are, therefore, less likely to do drugs or go to jail regardless?

Your degree doesn't guarantee a job. During the Great Recession, quite a few majors had very high unemployment rates. Some of them were majors people wouldn't expect to have high unemployment rates. But, in general, some fields are more resilient than others during economic downturns. College-educated people have to be prepared to take a job that doesn't require a degree when the job market is bad. Overall, yes college-educated people do have lower unemployment rates even during periods when a lot of them are not directly using their degrees.

Having a degree did help me land jobs in occupations that I had little to no experience in. Education was allowed as a substitution for experience.

[rachel83az]

You're not guaranteed a high-paying job if you get one, but I think you're more likely to get an offer than if you don't have a degree.

I would guess that, without a degree (or any tertiary education, such as trade school), you've probably got a 5-20% chance of landing a decent job these days.

On the other hand, you probably bump that up to a 75-80% chance if you do have a degree.

Some people will struggle regardless of degree status for a variety of other factors that may be entirely outside of their control (such as current location and/or ability to relocate). But that doesn't mean that degrees are bad. Only that expensive degrees are bad.

[sanantone]

You're not guaranteed a high-paying job if you get one, but I think you're more likely to get an offer than if you don't have a degree.

I would guess that, without a degree (or any tertiary education, such as trade school), you've probably got a 5-20% chance of landing a decent job these days.

On the other hand, you probably bump that up to a 75-80% chance if you do have a degree.

Some people will struggle regardless of degree status for a variety of other factors that may be entirely outside of their control (such as current location and/or ability to relocate). But that doesn't mean that degrees are bad. Only that expensive degrees are bad.

The claim is that you will always have a job during a recession, which is not true. Your chance of landing a decent job depends on your major. For some majors, most of the graduates are underemployed, meaning that they have a job that does not require a college degree. 

These numbers apply to the entire U.S., not just New York. I'm just getting ahead of arguments I've heard before when presenting data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. 

https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/coll...ajors.html

[ReyMysterioso]

"The claim is that you will always have a job during a recession, which is not true."
Lol who's making that claim? Somebody a bit lacking in common sense perhaps.

[rachel83az]

"The claim is that you will always have a job during a recession, which is not true."
Lol who's making that claim? Somebody a bit lacking in common sense perhaps.

LevelUP did say that. I am inclined to agree that he's mostly right. During a recession, people with degrees are going to be preferred over people without a degree. Will it be a good job? Maybe not. But when tons of people are unemployed, even McDonald's starts preferring people with higher education over people who aren't educated.