Should You Go Back to College?
June 16, 2008
There are many reasons for earning a college degree. Most of them have to do with future employment. Some of them have to do with self-image. Some of them have to do with postponing major decisions. Most of these reasons apply to young people under age 20.
But what about you? Is there some roadblock in your career that could be overcome if you had a college degree? That seems to me to be the best reason for considering a return to college. When I say return to college, I don't necessarily mean a geographical return to college. I mean a lifestyle change.
I think it's best for most people to earn a college degree on the Internet or by mail. I don't mean on-line at some very expensive university like Phoenix University. I mean spending a third of the price paid by the typical undergraduate who goes off to college to get his degree. I cover this here:
There is also a case for an older person to go back to school if he always wanted to go to college but had his college career interrupted because of family responsibilities. Maybe he started, and he did not quit because of academic reasons. He feels as though he missed an opportunity to prove something to himself about himself. That person should consider going back.
Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy's, never graduated from high school. After he had retired from Wendy's, he hired a tutor who helped him pass the GED. He was determined to get his degree. After he earned his GED, he contacted his high school and asked if he could participate in the graduation ceremony. The high school let him do this. (Any time a multimillionaire asks you for a favor, it's probably a good idea to grant him the favor.) Dave even went to the senior party. Why did he do this? Because he wanted to prove something to himself about himself. This is a reasonable motivation.
If it were my choice, I would prefer to spend the time and effort it would take to earn a college diploma and invest it in learning something new that I really wanted to learn about, but had postponed because it would take too much time. Mastering a new field takes the same kind of commitment and skill that earning a college degree takes. I think the payoff is a lot higher for the time and effort invested. You prove that you can master new material, but the material which you master is more relevant than almost anything you would be taught through a college program. Formal education is more about self-discipline than it is about the mastery of material. I think the goal should be mastery of material. There are better ways to do this than going through a college degree program.
I recommend that you spend 10 hours a week for six months reading in the field that interests you, so that you learn the basics. Then pay top dollar to hire a tutor to apprentice you in the advanced aspects of the topic. Whatever you learn from a skilled tutor will be much more relevant than what you will learn in a college classroom environment. But what you pay too a tutor will probably be less than what you would pay in tuition to a college.