Some College Truths

One of the most popular pages on this blog is the one in which I share my opinion on the top misconceptions and untruths about college. You can find that post here.

My new book focuses on exploring these misperceptions, and then using the truth to help you get a valuable degree for less. But if you haven’t read my book yet (and what are you waiting for?!), it would probably be helpful for me to give you a brief explanation about why these ideas are simply not true. I’ll take them one at a time:

1. A college degree is worth about $1 million (or more) over a lifetime.

Colleges and the government and researchers tend to say that college is worth $1 million. But they’re not telling the truth. They tend to use “average” salaries instead of more accurate “median” salaries, and they forget to subtract all of students’ costs, including the cost of the degree itself (and the cost of not working for four years so you can get a degree). In my book, I estimate the value of a college degree at $470,000, and some researchers say its even less. This is still a lot of money, but it’s less than half what schools want you to believe. Therefore, my book encourages you to cut your college costs as much as possible.

2. College graduates are financially "set for life."

Although a college degree is very financially valuable over a lifetime, grads are not set for life. They tend to have low starting salaries, especially after taxes are taken out. And a large number of them have trouble finding good jobs. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t go to college, it just means that you should minimize your college costs and take the classes that will allow you to pursue the kinds of salaries you want. My book explains how.

3. Colleges have very little money and need every penny they can get.

136 of the most popular colleges have $500 million or more in their bank accounts. Yes, that’s $500 Million. A large number of those schools actually have over $1 billion! My book spells out how much money these schools have and all of the dastardly things they’re willing to do to sell you out so they can get even more money.

4. Colleges are committed to giving their students a good education.

Amazingly, many of the most popular colleges don’t use full-time professors to teach students. Instead, teaching is conducted by low-paid part-time instructors. And many classes include 100 or more students. My book tells you how to pursue the schools that provide the best instruction.

5. Colleges provide students with excellent career preparation.

Many colleges, even the most famous ones, are not very interested in teaching practical skills that will help you get good jobs. They believe that’s your future employers’ responsibility…even though your employer wants to hire people who already have skills! My book explains what you should look for so that you can attend a college that will provide training that your employer will value when you are looking for a job.

6. Colleges give their students the support they need in order to graduate.

A large number of students don’t graduate from college within 4 years. They take 5 years, 6 years, or more. And the schools don’t really care – they’re still getting your money! The problem for you is that extra years of college require extra college costs, and they also prevent you from earning a full-time salary during those years. My book shows you how to attend a college that will help you graduate within 4 years (or less).

7. Prestigious and expensive colleges provide a better education and better career advantages than other colleges.

This is a biggie. Lots of people think that if they spend more on college, they’ll get higher salaries when they graduate. It’s a lie. Students who attend prestigious schools do well, but they do well because they are smart, not because they learned special things at their schools. There are research studies that back this idea up. I discuss the studies in my book, in order to help you get a valuable degree for less.

8. All kinds of financial aid are safe for students.

The only kinds of college financial aid that tend to come with no strings attached are grants and scholarships (although colleges can even take those away from you after your first year). All the other kinds of aid are risky. For example, student loans are often unsafe, especially since you may earn less than you expect after college or have trouble finding a job. There are also drawbacks to other kinds of financial aid like work-study and tax benefits. My book explains how to minimize your “risky” financial aid and maximize your “good” financial aid.

9. Graduate school always leads to an excellent payoff for students.

In many ways, graduate school can be more financially risky than college, due to long years of training, high costs, and low salaries after school. If you don’t believe me, just ask some people that attended lower-tier law schools, or PsyD program grads, or a PhD student that dropped out after finishing everything except his or her dissertation (amazingly, about half of them fall into this category and plenty of the ones who graduate can’t find full-time academic jobs). Even primary care physicians are struggling because they sacrifice many years of income in order to go to school, borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for their education, and then receive low salaries when they graduate. Chapter 11 of my book tells how you can keep your grad school costs low and the financial payoff high.

10. People have to go to college to get a "college education."

I usually encourage people to attend college if they can afford it and pass their classes, simply because employers and graduate schools tend to require the degree. But if you don’t need a college degree or can’t afford one, there are ways to still obtain a great education. For example, you can get books from the library, join book groups, learn things on the Internet, take free classes on the Internet, or take low-cost “continuing education” classes in your community. My book runs through a list of your non-college educational options.

If you want to learn more, click here.