College Is For Suckers Do you really need that four-year college degree?

COLLEGE ALTERNATIVES
5 Ways to Get the Education You Want --Without Signing Up for "Camp College"

~April Norhanian

Have you been taught that the more education you have, the more your salary will increase? Do you think having a four-year degree makes you twice as valuable than someone with a two-year associates degree? This is a common misconception. In fact, some of the best paying jobs require less than a traditional four-year degree.

Yeah. I’m badmouthing college a lot. College lends itself well to being ridiculed. It’s a funny institution –an icon of enlightenment and idiocracy. People take higher education so seriously that they don’t see themselves getting ripped off most of the time. Sure, there are some cases where college is the appropriate choice, but my main message is this: The traditional four year college is not the magic bullet to a successful future –and most of the time, it’s not even relevant!

College may not be right for you NOW. It may not be right for you EVER. So, before you go signing up for that expensive four-year luxury college vacation package, you may want to consider a few alternatives.

1)Why go to college when you can GET A JOB?

So many people sign up for college fresh out of high school without even knowing what they want. These same people often settle with a random, half-ass major, then graduate and still don’t know what they want. Other graduates may have passionately chosen a field of study only to realize that it made more interesting “academia” than a career. And finally, there comes a day when most college graduates –regardless of how well they did in college, face the fact that their entire four years in college was not preparing them for any kind of job at all.

Solution? GET A JOB!

Get acquainted with the working world. Unless you are independently wealthy, you will be working most of your life. The real world is something that college definitely does not prepare you for. So, by taking the bull by the horns and jumping right in, you will have an advantage . Don’t know what kind of job you want? Don’t worry! Whatever job you get will not be your last. And by the way, it’s OK to not know what you want. Don’t panic. The best way to find out what you like is to try things out. Any job experience you get will be useful in the future. As you gain experience, you can zero in on the kinds of jobs you really want. When you find something that clicks, and you decide that it is something you want to pursue, then find out if a college degree will help you. (It may or may not.)

Maybe you already have a career in mind but you are not sure if you really want to commit. Take a test drive! Check out vocationvacations.com. Working one-on-one with a “vocation mentor,” you can see what your dream job would really be like. You can try out over 75 unique careers, through almost 200 experts –no strings attached and cheaper than a four-year degree!

Discover the 25 hottest apprenticeships today!

2) Why go to college when you can GO TO SCHOOL?

SPECIALTY SCHOOLS get right down to it without the fluff. There are many professions that do not require a traditional four-year degree. Have you ever considered going to “gunsmithing school?” (If your parents do not already hate me, they're probably ready to kill me now.) OK, how about learning a profitable trade such as underwater welding? There are many schools that can get you trained for a specific industry –in half the time it would take you to graduate college! Gem cutting school, Farrier school (shoeing horses), beer brewing school, and real estate appraisal school are just a few places you could learn a useful trade and maybe even make some serious bank!

APPRENTICESHIPS are making a comeback. You get paid to learn. According to the bureau of labor statistics, the average salary for an electrician is over $20 dollars an hour. Carpenters, plumbers, roofers, bricklayers, child care specialists, and cooks are among a few careers that offer paid apprenticeships. Apprentices who achieve the title “Master” or “Journeyman” are highly trained experts in their field.

Visit the US Department of Labor to get a brochure of registered apprenticeship programs.

VO-TECH SCHOOLS have gotten a bad rap, but they are increasingly becoming a popular (and practical) college alternative. Dental hygienists, paramedics, accountants, pet groomers, court reporters, and massage therapists are just a few professionals that did not have to spend a fortune for school –and actually learned employable skills!

Vo-Tech schools are a bargain! Tuition at a Vo-Tech school usually runs about $1,500 a year (compared to $4,000 a year for a four-year state college and $25,000 a year for a four-year private college.) Career colleges also put students on the fast track to obtainable and, in some cases, high paying professions. There are no “basket weaving” or “bird watching” humanities requirements in Vo-Tech programs. They get straight to the point. And why not get straight to the meat if the main goal of college is to prepare students for a profession in the first place?

3) Why go to college when you can TRAVEL ABROAD?

There are those who say the point of going to college is not to prepare for a job, but to be “well-rounded.” But who says you need college for some polishing around the edges? And let’s face it; how well-rounded can one get spending four years sheltered in the world of academia? Sure, you could go the games, and join a little club with Greek letters in it. Or… you could stop pretending and actually GO TO GREECE. There are many ways to have a fully balanced set of experiences. And travel, in my opinion, is one of the best.

I used to believe that you had to be a college student in order to enroll in a study abroad program. FALSE! There are a few angles you can benefit from the study abroad thing without college or before college, should you make the decision to go later. Europeans do it all the time…

  • Au Pair

“Au Pair” is a French word which means "on par" or "equal to." The term is used to describe someone living on an equal basis with a host family in a foreign country. Kind of like Alice from The Brady Bunch –a nanny. There are many benefits to being an au pair. Because au pairs are treated like members of the family, you get free room & board (in exchange for help around the house.) You also get paid an allowance! Most people who do this are interested in participating in a cultural exchange, and are also enrolled in some kind of language classes outside of the house. But you can bet your sweet butt that if you are put in a family with kids, you will learn most of the foreign language from them. And they will learn a lot from you! Check out the International Association of Au Pairs. IAPA has 135 members from 37 countries around the world. There are other websites such as aupair.com and aupairconnect.com that serve as sort of match making agencies for au pairs and host families.

  • Teach English Abroad

You don’t need a degree. You just need to be your native English-speaking self. Getting certified as an TEFL instructor is a huge bonus in the English-as-Second-Language job market, but it’s often not necessary. If you are American or Canadian, you should be able to find jobs with reasoable ease in areas such as Latin America, Asia and Eastern/Central Europe. The highest paying English teaching jobs are in Korea, Taiwan and Japan, although some teachers in China also earn high salaries. Other good paying gigs are from employers in the oil-producing countries of the Persian Gulf. A great resource to learn about jobs and training options is Dave’s ESL café. As far as being well-rounded goes, teaching English abroad is an awesome way to expand your cultural girth. There are people who have made teaching English a traveling lifestyle. These English teachers have seen more countries and met more diverse people than most tenured humanities professors. (Er hmm. Not that you can’t gain a thing or two from taking a humanities class.)

  • Volunteer

Spread some good karma and get a cultural adventure while you are at it! There is a good chance that you will not get placed in a swank city like Paris or London, but you will benefit greatly (and on all kinds of levels) from helping out the orphans in Guatemala to helping to preserve mangrove forests in Thailand. Check out Unitedplanet.org to cruise the volunteer possibilities. Crossculturalsolutions.org has a search database that allows you to pick countries. But be careful with websites or agencies that charge you. You shouldn’t have to pay much more than a small program fee and airfare to get started. As with anything, do your homework and make sure a program is on the up-and-up. Also check out Habitatforhumanity.org. Not only could you volunteer in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia, but you could also learn a handy craft such as building things! (I can definitely appreciate the practical value in that now that I’m a home owner.) Hey, when you get back, how about helping me build a new deck?

Ever wonder how you can make life-long friends and "party like a rock star" without living on a college campus?

4) Why go to college when you can GET A FREE EDUCATION FROM UNCLE SAM?

I never considered myself a "uniform" type of chick. But after doing research for my book and interviewing those in the military, I can appreciate the quality of education they obtained –for FREE. Don't fool yourself thinking that you are “selling out” if you join the military or work for the state. Our government spends millions of dollars training eligible people for lifelong careers. Whether you join the military, or go to work for a state-run agency, you can benefit greatly from the educational programs offered by “The Man.”

  • The Police Academy

For state and local departments, training usually takes about 12 weeks from a state academy. Classes consist of law, self-defense, accident investigation, and local ordinances. After completion of the academy, recruits can expect another 5 weeks of on-the-job training with supervised experience learning firearms, first aid, emergency response, traffic control, and other police duties. You can expect to weather through some grunt-work for a few years before being promoted to a specialized unit such as criminal investigation, mounted police, forensics, drug enforcement, or marine patrol.

  • The National Fire Academy

The roles in a firefighting occupation expand well beyond the scope of merely putting out fires. Search and rescue, fire inspection, investigation, and prevention, for example, are all part of the fire safety industry. Once you pass a written and physical exam, you are trained for several weeks at the department's training center or academy. In addition to the training you receive, many fire departments offer tuition reimbursement for college degrees in fire engineering or fire science. Now, that’s a useful degree that can actually get you employed!

  • The top 5 Prestigious “Academies”

How would you like to get a free four-year education, all expenses paid while earning a salary including health insurance, benefits, and travel perks?

There are five academies sponsored by the United States government that do just that. That's right. You get a free place to stay, free food, free amenities, free travel, a salary with benefits, while earning a four year degree, compliments of American tax payers. Keep in mind that these academies don’t accept just anybody. These are very prestigious schools and it’s not easy to get in –even if you are cream of crop. But if you are a super star in high school, it’s definitely worth a shot!

There is just one little catch..

You must serve a minimum of five years in the armed forces after you complete your education. But look at it this way; you are guaranteed a job when you graduate. That's much more than civilian colleges offer! And you may have the opportunity for international travel (on Uncle Sam's dime, of course), and some services even foot the bill for graduate school during your service.

  • Join the Military

Join the military? I know, I know…I never thought I would be suggesting to people that they do this. It’s definitely not for everybody. I wasn’t for me. But looking at it from my neighbor’s viewpoint, it’s not a bad deal at all!

Michael has been in the Coast Guard since 1997. He enrolled when he was 24 years old.

“I saw the Coast Guard on the Discovery Channel. I said, 'That's what I want to do.' A week later I was at MEPs which is the Military Entrance Program and they put me on a bus and flew me off to boot camp five days later. I was working for my dad before that.”

Michael is now planning to take two years off to go to school. He has $63,000.00 available to him from the GI bill. What does he want to study? He wants to go to a gunsmithing school in South Carolina.

“I love guns. I love shooting targets, and I love hunting.” It takes just two years to get the degree Micheal wants, all paid for by his time spent in the Coast Guard. “The time I spend in school will not count towards my military retirement, so I'll do gunsmithing on the side while I finish with another 10 years in the Coast Guard.”

(Micheal will be in his early forties when he retires from the Coast Guard.)

5) Why go to college when you can TEACH YOURSELF?

Have you browsed your local bookstore lately? Check out the Business, Computer, and Home Improvement section. We are living in a do-it-yourself culture. All you have to do is grab a book, or “Wikipedia” something to learn about it. Information has never been more accessible! My brother says that he has learned more from the local library than he did in college. Of course, he did go to film school. (–Not that there is anything wrong with that.)

When I think about it, I spent most of my time in school teaching myself. That is what homework is for. They just tell you what will be on the test and YOU read the content and YOU make the little index cards to commit the material to memory. I’m certainly not de-valuing the importance of teachers. Teachers (true teachers and not just “professors”) can make all the difference in the world when it comes to education –especially for younger learners.

But for adults, the landscape of learning is changing. In college I took an “Independent Study” course because the course I wanted was unavailable or they lacked qualified faculty. I paid my college to give me credit to teach myself! And I got an “A” so I must have done a decent job.

Well, I’m here to tell you anything worth learning is worth teaching yourself. My husband taught himself how to play bass, I taught myself how to create websites, and my brother taught himself how to draw –with the help of a few good books at the library.

Here are some good online resources for ambitious autodidacts:

  • Check out free-ed.net. They offer all kinds of online courses completely free. You can take a college level course in Economics Math, Science, and even Health Care!
  • Lifehacker.com offers a good article on obtaining a free college education online (if you are still bent on getting a “college education”)
  • An Amazon member who calls himself “running prof” has created a list of books by category. One is called Instant Classical Liberal Arts Education and consists of a dozen books with such titles as From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present by Jacques Barzun. There you go. That will pretty much sum it up for you --in one book!

Don't Be A Sucker!

I am not suggesting that college is the wrong choice for you. If you are going to college because you know for sure that a college degree is necessary to get you where you want to be (without burying yourself in student loan debt) then college may be the right choice for you. However, if you are going to college because you don’t know what else to do with yourself –college is probably not the best choice for you.

Most people consider college to be neccessity, But college is only one of several options. And many times it's not always the best one. There are plenty of choices out there. College is not your ONLY choice.

Find out more about how you can take control of your education, personal development, and career preparation without all the bull!

April Norhanian is the author of College Is For Suckers