OPINION College or not? As with so many things, it depends

Aquick note to all of our local students about to graduate from high school...

obsolete.

ROSLYN RYAN

When I was growing up, despite the mountains of advice, aphorisms, tips, tricks, instructions and allegories cheerfully dispensed by so many of the older and wiser people in my life, nobody ever bothered to mention one small but undeniably critical fact: By the time a person reaches the age and station in life where they feel qualified to offer advice to the next generation, a sizable chunk of what they’ve spent decades learning is already in danger of becoming

Take going to college, for example. When I was in high school (no, I’m not telling you when but let’s just assume it was long ago), the prevailing wisdom was that earning a college degree was almost always a valuable investment in a young person’s future. The idea was to go to the best school you could, work hard, impress the right people, and graduate into to a world waiting to offer you a good job and the keys to stable, happy life.

Did I mention this was a while ago?

In fact, by the time I graduated from college in 2001, the landscape had already shifted signifi- cantly. It seemed by then, if you listened to those who claimed to know about such things, those of us who hadn’t majored in business or accounting or some other practical field were now doomed to failure, having just wasted wheelbarrow-loads of money on degrees that would look very nice on the wall but never be of any practical use.

Cut to two decades later, and the message is even more stark. Now, it isn’t hard to find those who claim that going to college at all is a waste of time, money and talent. Look at Steve Jobs, they say. Look at Mark Zuckerberg. Look at all the uber-successful people (including the co- founder of Uber, by the way) who never graduated from college.

And perhaps they have a point: A college degree by itself is not the answer anymore. If you want to find incredible success in any field, you are going to have to work very, very hard. You are going to have to get a couple of lucky breaks. You are going to have to learn to accept failure. You are going to have to become an obsessive learner, a task that is made exponentially easier when you find something you are passionate about.

Can you do all of these things without a college degree? Sure. Plenty of people have.

So should you skip the degree altogether? Well… it’s complicated.

Today’s young people have access to information and resources on a scale that many of us could never have fathomed several decades ago, and the path to a career in so many fields is no longer a straight line. The most critical thing—and I think Steve Jobs, Mark Cuban and pretty much any wildly successful person would agree with this—is to find your passion and pursue it relentlessly, even if it means going against the grain or taking a nontraditional path. I would never advise a young person to forgo college, but would advise them to understand that it isn’t a guaranteed path—or the only path—to success.

Also, just in case you’re wondering, I have never regretted getting a college degree a single day in my life (even if my bank balance at present has a few less zeros than Zuckerberg’s). My time spent in college introduced me to the people who would change my life, and who would ignite in me a passion for learning that has proven even more valuable than the degree itself. Would I do it all over again? Yes. Should you take advice from me, or anyone else who hasn’t walked in your shoes?

Well kid, like everything else from this point on, that is totally up to you.