There’s a Range Rover commercial from many years ago. Two American college students are backpacking/hitchhiking on an Italian mountain road. One explains to the other “so I finally figured out my major. Ceramics….I’m like a poet with earth.” His friend encourages him “yeah man, you should make those mugs!” And then a couple in a Range Rover pull over to pick the guys up. They get in the back seat and look in awe at the luxury and refinement of the expensive SUV. As the Range Rover pulls away, you hear the friend say “you can always minor in ceramics.” It’s kind of lighthearted and funny, but the argument is clear: this car is so desirable that you will give up your low-paying dreams to own one. No to ceramics, yes to finance.
But here’s a counter-example. When I was a little kid, around four years old, my parents and I briefly lived next door to a family: Bruce, Amy, and their son Jeff. Bruce was a plumber, and Jeff and I loved crawling all over Bruce’s pickup truck with its big toolbox in the back. Something my parents told me later, but that’s part of family lore that came up often, is that Bruce had a college degree in accounting. He knew that accountants made good money, and he wanted to make good money, so he studied accounting. But Bruce hated accounting. He never used his degree, but instead got a job where he could work in a different place each day instead of an office, where he could physically solve problems, and where he could immediately see if he did good work that day. And so the story about Bruce was a parable, at least for my parents, about making wise choices and thinking about more than just money. College was a very practical choice for Bruce, and it turned out to be useless.
There’s been a lot of hand-wringing and pontificating about the purpose of college lately. The demographic cliff, rising prices, artificial intelligence, school closures, political wrangling, and a shifting economy have got a lot of people talking about the purpose of college and wondering if college is even worth it. The general consensus seems to be that college should be more than carer training, but that in today’s environment it’s understandable to make it mostly, if not completely, about career training.
If you’re thinking about going to college, it would be useful to think about what college means to you. That may sound simple, but it can actually be really difficult to do without the knowledge and perspective required—which most high school students don’t have. It’s a lot easier to do in hindsight, but not necessarily very helpful. I used to ask clients about this. I’d ask “Is college mostly about career training our expanding your mind? Is it more about making lifelong bonds or making job connections?” They had trouble answering. Most said it was all oof the above, and that they really had no basis to weigh which aspects were most important. I quit asking those questions.
So here are 10 other questions to help you think about what college means to you. It’s not a checklist or a personality quiz. It’s not to answer and move on quickly. These questions are for reflection and discussion over the next few months.
If you were a bored billionaire and didn’t have to worry about making money for the rest of your life, what would you do?
What are 10 things you want to do over the next five years, not including college?
How upset will you be if you get a well-paying job that isn’t in your chosen field?
How upset will you be if you get a job in your chosen field that doesn’t pay well?
If for some reason college weren’t an option, what would you do instead?
If a friend said that you were wasting your time going to college, how would you respond?
If a friend told you they aren’t sure whether they want to go to college, how would you help them figure it out?
Can you see yourself taking a college class simply because of who else is taking it, like a friend or love interest, and not because of the course content?
If you had to go to college somewhere outside the U.S., where would you go? Why there?
If through some magic loophole you could get a real college degree without actually going to college or taking any classes, would you take it?
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Photo by Angela Elisabeth