Discussion Of Whether Having A Bachelor’s Degree Is Necessary To Succeed Nowadays

This paper talks about how though college is highly important for success, it is also possible to not get a degree and also become successful. The first point that will be mentioned in this paper is the importance of a college degree and how it allows you to be successful in an easier manner. The second point in this article in which I will emphasize, is that not going through college could be a better option rather than having a degree, I will conduct the analysis of the main arguments to why a college degree is not necessary and what are these options available for those who don’t have a degree. As conclusion, I will mention my own personal opinion of why I believe that even without a college degree, being successful is highly probable. It remains true that there are famous people that have become successful in their lives without succeeding in college and dropping out in order to pursue something else. I find this feat truly amazing and fascinating at the same point due to our parents’ constant emphasis on the importance of a college degree and that it is like the key that unlocks the door of success according to them. The founder of Apple, Steve Jobs for example has become an icon in the history of humanity due to his innovation and he managed to gain this sort of genius and intellect without getting a degree which is a feat. But it should also be mentioned that having a degree certainly makes things a lot easier in order to succeed in life and in the professional world, since we all know that the number of famous successful people without a degree is low, it remains questionable to either or not success is determined by having a degree or not.

Certainly, everybody has met someone in their life who is miserable without a college degree and always emphasizes on its importance in life and they even insist that without it success is impossible. I myself have met someone who isn’t in a good place in life because of not having a degree which makes me think twice about not going to college. However, some research has proven that bachelor degree holders earn more than high school graduates with an average of 66 percent, and to make things worse, high school graduates experience a higher unemployment rate than college graduates and college graduates add a million dollars to their lifetime savings compared to someone who only graduated from high school. These statistics clearly prove the fact that having a college degree allows you to earn more money and also experiencing less unemployment rate, and that having a degree is preferable if you which to be successful later on in life. The likelihood of succeeding is without a degree remains low, we mention Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple who is a famous entrepreneur without getting a degree. What are the chances that you are going to be the next Steve Jobs, a person who started a company from scratch thanks to his genius and intellect, and also sacrificing probably many things and encountering many risks in his life, and also luckily meeting people who are very well connected has a very low chance of happening to a regular individual. The probability of all these circumstances falling in to place remains very low, even with Jobs’ success, he faced many problems in building the Apple Empire and very difficult setbacks in his path to stardom such as getting kicked out of his own company because of his many failed projects but even after that, he started his own company NeXT, and his company’s hardware failed. Not to mention the fact that many jobs in the world require college degree, and according to Northeastern University: “Through 2020, there will be 55 million job openings in the U.S. Thirty-five percent of those will require a bachelor’s degree.”

This proves that having a degree is better for your own sake, you could have more options at choosing a job but also even having a job itself. Employers evidently prefer a candidate in a job interview that has a college degree over someone who doesn’t, due to the skills gained in his college curriculum which makes his a better option. According to Northeastern University: “Even when a job does not require a bachelor’s degree, 91 percent of jobs go to people who have one. Considering that people with bachelor’s degrees are more likely to be employed and have a higher paying job, as a group they are more financially secure.” I believe that the reason behind this is the kind of experience that a person will encounter in his university. As a college student, I can affirm that college has taught me life lessons and made me see things in life changing ways, I met many people who have influenced me in good and in bad ways as well and that without these experiences and encounters. Many of these people became influential in some sort of way and are starting businesses of their own and are impacting people around them, this shows that college is more than just 3 or 4 years of your life where you go to class and absorb academic information. College is something that changes a person and to think that a person like Steve Jobs who didn’t finish his college path, makes you think that he is missing on quite a lot such as meeting other people who could have influenced his life. Northeastern University confirms that though financial situation isn’t the most important aspect of having a college degree: “Of course, financial security is not everything — there’s more to a degree than earning potential. The people you meet in college will become part of an institutional support network that you can later call upon for work advancements, mentoring programs, and additional skill-building prospects. If you want to shift careers or learn about new job opportunities in the future, leveraging your professional network is one of the best places to start.”

This shows that college is a place where you can build your network and certainly, some of your college friends will be a successful person in his life and having him as a contact could allow you to further develop any objective your eyes are set on. College also isn’t just attending class and taking notes during lectures, many other classes in college allows you to develop your personal skills and also gaining new skillsets across your college curriculum. You can learn many soft skills in college and these traits that can be gained through being on time to class and many other academic necessities, learning proper time management is necessary skill to gain in order to pass your college years. According to Northeastern University: “All of these “soft skills” that you master in college are useful in your daily adult life, whether that’s running your own business or managing a family. While you may not have plans for a career that requires a college degree now, your plans may change. Getting your bachelor’s can prepare you for taking on new life challenges when the need arises.” This quote from Northeastern University affirms that college allows you to become better prepared for the challenges of life that still awaits and to mature more. We can conclude that going to college not only makes you in better place financially, but allows you as well to gain new skills that will shape your life and you also get to meet new people who will influence you in ways not imaginable but not having a degree does not seem as bad as it may seem and that there exists positive aspects in case of this outcome. We all know the story of Steve Jobs who did not finish his college education and became a famous entrepreneur, what are the reasons that could convince a person to stop going to college or simply not go at all? I believe that monetary reason is a convincing argument to why someone would think twice about pursuing a college education, we all know that good universities cost a high amount of money but there are other financial aspects that could impact your choice. According to Inc.com:” You don't need a degree if it's going to put you far into debt with no light at the end of the tunnel. Student loan statistics are grim with over 44.2 million Americans saddled with student loan debt. According to research from Student Loan Hero, the delinquency rate is 11.2% and the average monthly student loan payment for borrowers 20 to 30 years old is $351.” I believe that $351 dollars is a good amount for someone and that sum could be potential investment in many businesses or invested in other types of certificates such as web developing which is highly demanded job nowadays in this technological era.

This is one of the first reasons to why it is possible that the money invested in taking a loan to attend college could be put in a better place to do same thing that you could be learning in college. With the money saved from not taking a college loan, you could invest in many things that do not require a degree such as real estate. Inc.com confirms that investing in real estate does not require a degree, and not just real estate but also rental property and even offices and even hotels and even for not a lot of money. As we can see, this is another investment plan for someone who did not go to college and saved their money, he could be looking at rich investment plans that could earn a lot of future financial revenues. It seems more and more convincing that investing money in other things rather than a college education could prove to be very rewarding and in case you did not choose to spend the money saved, there still exist a lot of high-paying jobs that do not require a college diploma. According to Inc.com, among the jobs that are highly rewarding without a diploma is a real estate broker or being a technical writer, these jobs do not require a college education to learn how to perform them perfectly, all you need is experience and dedication and these jobs could be in the 6 figures ($100000). This means that even if you do not go to college, you could be able to earn a high salary by simply perfecting skills such as writing that do not require education but practice and perfecting your craft. These are monetary reasons that we have just covered, there are still other reasons such as not being able to find a job after finishing college. Inc.com says that you after you get a degree from a college, it is not necessarily true that you will get a job and that there is a chance that the diploma in which you invested a lot of money to get it can be a no return investment. This is because there are chances that by the time you get a diploma, there will no opening of the market in which you have specialized yourself in, especially when it comes to technological trends and by the time you get a diploma, the job in which you have taken as a specialty could be old or not demanded anymore. This is could be very bad for someone if after 3 or 4 years of studies and hard work for something in which he wanted to make it his job, find it useless because of how fast technology goes and his craft became “old-school” if I may say. Another reason why someone would choose to forfeit his college education could be of a more personal reason and learn something that college simply can’t teach him. Inc.com mentions that Grit is a skill that cannot be learned by simply passing an exam or being the top of your class every semester, it can only learned through hardships and experiencing things that a classroom cannot offer. This skill is highly valuable and I believe that Grit could really make an impact on someone and change him in ways unimaginable.

According to Inc.com:” Author and psychologist Dr. Angela Lee Duckworth says grit can determine success. In her popular TED talk, she explained: 'Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals.'” From this quote we understand that Grit is a sort of feeling that is very high rewarding and allows you to be perseverant to complete your objectives and achieve success in life. As a conclusion, I believe even without taking a degree, you can still achieve your goals and get the type of success you want. I believe that though college offers many experiences and many influential people you can learn from and hopefully even partner with in the future, not getting a degree can still get you to places and even get you high salaries and be able to be secure financially. I believe in the theory of Dr. Angela Lee Duckworth in which she mentions that Grit is a very powerful skill and asset to have in life, and I also believe that you can become successful without going to college. There are very rewarding aspects other than monetary reasons, and this is learning how to prove that education is not necessary aspect for success. I believe in hard work and dedication that can change a person, skills learned through hardships and not relying on investments. College does offer sorts of hardships such as trying to attend class on time and trying to get good grades in order to pass, or trying to be one of the best of students, is a hard feat and requires a lot of sacrifice and many dedication in order to remain in that path of always studying for exams and not missing any class. These hardships can certainly shape a person in a good way make him successful and financially stable but not getting a degree can also get you to the same outcomes and the hardships endured in trying to be successful without going to college is an experience like no other than involves its own sorts of risk assessment and trying to make it in a world where more jobs are opening for those who have a diploma and those who don’t are suffering from higher unemployment rates. It is a challenge to become a successful person without a diploma, and going to college makes success easier ten folds but the satisfaction when you get a high rewarding job without requiring 4 years of college is certainly very pleasurable and its outcome is a life-changing adventure.