Really. Just don’t.

I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating over and over again. Because lots of people waste a minimum of four years of their lives, and many thousands of dollars on a degree that ultimately doesn’t affect their lives very much.

Like many things in our time, the obsession with college is fueled by boomers who either went to college and think it was the best time of their lives or they didn’t go, and have spent decades of their lives envying their peers who did.

Either attitude is dumb.

Nobody wants to point out that the emperor really is naked and that college as we do it now is a colossal waste, so the job is left to me and a few other prophets crying in the wilderness.

And while it’s easy to blame boomers, another guilty party in this shell game are the public schools. It should come as no surprise that high school employees are almost to the man schoolies. Schoolies, in case you’re wondering are those people who just l..o..v..e school. In contrast to normal people who use their education as a tool to do something else, schoolies like school for the sake of school and it’s unrealistic to imagine that high schools will be populated by people who offer the slightest contrary opinion as to the value of the education industrial complex.

So these employees (teachers and principals and counselors) will deftly guide any student with the slightest intellectual ability toward the painfully routine route of college.

And in turn, these same people will deal distastefully with those who don’t really care for school. Usually, they will even push students who have zero academic interest, ability, or need, to go to college.

When universities as we know them began over a thousand years ago, they existed as they did for two primary purposes: they were a place where the teachers were, and they were a place where the books were.

A thousand years ago, books were insanely expensive. It’s hard to gauge, but a good guess is that a book (hand copied) would cost around three months of an average worker’s wages. If you were a student, you went to Paris or Bologna or wherever there was a university and there you could actually read a copy of a book by Aristotle or St Thomas. That book itself was day valuable that it might actually be chained to prevent theft but at least it was there.

The invention of moveable type meant that the cost of books dropped precipitously, so that by the time of the American revolution, even an average family might own a Bible and a couple of other books.

The price of books has continued to drop, to the point that in our time many of the books people went to Paris to read are now available free (on Kindle and other devices) and still astonishingly cheap even in print.

Teachers in turn are available worldwide. Platforms like YouTube have a breathtaking amount of teaching and information, and there are serious and informed podcasts also available at no charge.

If you’re considering college, ask yourself: what do I want to do with my life? What am I wanting to do now? What do I like? What do I enjoy? What am I good at? And after thinking through these monumental questions, ask yourself if college is the way to make your life happen the way you want it.

If you want to learn something, can it be done on the job? Is there an apprenticeship available? I’ve spoken in another article about directed reading. Can what you want to do be accomplished by a rigorous reading program? And if I don’t know what I want with my life, why would I default to a college path?

College is insanely expensive. It’s actually one of the most expensive things you can do with your life. Expenses at even mediocre schools can run $40,000 a year, and the price is rising every year. That’s $160,000 right off the bat. What is not usually considered is the cost of the time in college. Even in an entry level position, a job (where, in addition to earning income, you can be learning and gaining valuable experience) is probably worth at least $30,000 a year. Over the course of four years, that’s an additional cost of at least $120,000 of money that you won’t be earning. In other words, college is going to cost you at least $380,000. Probably much more. If you don’t know what you want to learn, are you willing to spend $400,000 to find out?

I’m not saying no one should go to college, although I think that as a society, we’re in for a massive re-evaluation of the whole concept of college. But most people are not academically inclined. I’m not saying they’re stupid, but sheer academic prowess – like any other skill – is not widely distributed. And if that is honestly not your skill, you can do the life you want better, easier, and vastly less expensively by not going to college.