Before you apply to college and sign up to be thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, you might have one question on your mind. Do you need a college degree? In the past, going to college was important. Indeed, some would even argue that a degree was crucial. But times have changed and as the cost of going to college has risen the necessity of a degree seems to have decreased. Let’s explore some of the facts and determine whether a college path is a right choice for you.
Success Stories
You don’t have to look far to find the success stories of people who never made it to college. Terry Pratchett and Bill Gates – one world renowned author and one tech genius – never earned a college degree and found fantastic success through their individual endevours. At the same time, there are self-made millionaires in their 20’s who never signed up for a college course. Influencers on social media often don’t bother with college because they can make their fortune online. Is it likely that the Tik Tok stars of today are going to end up heading to college? Depending on their levels of success, the answer might be no. So there are definitely people of all ages who have made this choice.
What Careers Are Open To You Without A College Degree?
Probably more than you would think. For instance, you might be interested in flying planes. Did you know that you can attend aviation school without going to college? It’s true and that means that you can earn up to $100,000 per year depending on which company you work for.
We’ve already established that you can make it as an author without a college degree. In fact, it’s not unknown for teens to get their first book deal straight out of school.
Some people would argue that most professions are accessible even if you have never been to college. How is this possible? Quite simply, you start at the bottom and work your way up. You can climb the employment ladder and reach the top. A lot of people find that there are individuals who never went to college who are earning more than them by the time they reach 25. This is simply because rather than going to university, they spent time with a company, gaining promotions. Now, it’s true that with a college degree you can usually skip this step, but there’s a problem here. A lot of college students enter the job market completely green. This can make them completely unhirable because they simply don’t have the experience of real career situations. They aren’t prepared whereas someone who has climbed the ladder, is. Furthermore, if you are loyal to a company, there are often chances to take courses and enhance your knowledge as you work. The apprenticeship schemes of yesteryear aren’t dead, they’ve just been reinvented.
What About Investments?
Don’t forget, that there is no degree needed to get started with investments. If you take a job and you earn an average level of pay for five or ten years, you can then invest the money you save into a new venture. If that venture pays off, you can diversify your investment portfolio. Property investments are great because you don’t actually need that much knowledge or expertise to win. You just need to have an eye for a property that could earn you a lot of money further down the line. Other investment opportunities like forex will allow you to invest as much or as little as you like and build up your investments slowly.
Freelancing
Alternatively, you might freelance. Now, the freelancing doesn’t provide the full support or safety that you should get working for a company. However, it does provide the big benefit of the fact that you get to keep all your profits. So, it’s a lot easier to earn more money than you might think. It’s true that freelancers are often more attractive to clients when they have degrees or experience and preferably both. However, there is a way around this. You undercut your prices to start with and prove yourself on the market. In doing so, you can build up a solid list of loyal clients who will be willing to provide the testimonials that you need.
In doing so, you can all but guarantee that more customers want to use your service. Before long, freelancing could become your own small business and your profits will soon grow when this happens.
So, as you can see, you definitely don’t need a college degree to get rich in the modern world.
