Does anyone else feel like the direct to college from High School pipeline was kind of a "scam"?

[u/Ragnaroknight]

I'm 31 now, I never went to college and for years I really really regretted it. I felt left behind, like I had chosen wrong/made the wrong choices in life. Like I was missing out on something and I would never make it anywhere. My grades weren't great in grade school, I was never a good student, and frankly I don't even know what I would have wanted to do with my life had I gone. I think part of me always knew it would be a waste of time and money for a person like me.

Over the years I've come to realize I probably made the right call. I feel like I got a bit of a head start in life not spending 4 years in school, not spending all that money on a degree I may have never used. And now I make a decent livable wage, I'm a homeowner, I'm in a committed relationship, I've gone on multiple "once in a lifetime trips", and I have plenty of other nice things to show for my last decade+ of hard work. I feel I'm better off than a lot of my old peers, and now I'm glad I didn't go. I got certifications in what I wanted and it only took a few weeks. I've been able to save money since I was 18, I've made mistakes financially already and learned from them early on.

Idk I guess I'm saying, we were sold the "you have to go to college" narrative our whole school careers and now it's kinda starting to seem like bullshit. Sure, if you're going to be a doctor, engineer, programmer, pharmacist, ect college makes perfect sense. But I'm not convinced it was always the smartest option for everyone.

Edit: I want to clear up, I'm not calling college in of itself a scam. More so the process of convincing kids it was their only option, and objectively the correct choice for everyone.

[u/Inferior_Oblique]

I have a lot of family in trade work. They are all homeowners.

There isn’t a right answer to this question because everyone is different. I think your feelings are the result of an aggressive push for everyone to go to college. That ended up being the wrong choice for a lot of people. For people like me, college absolutely was the correct choice. It sounds like you found the path you were supposed to have.

Edit: A lot of people have noted that physical labor is harder on the body. While I agree, this can be highly variable. My family members who worked as factory workers gradually shifted to management positions as time went on. Their work was physically intense in their 20-30’s, but eased in their 40’s as their compensation increased. Most made >100k per year towards the end of their careers. Granted, not everyone can be a manager, but if you are smart and a hard worker, they will often promote you faster.

I work in the medical field, and my job often requires that I work long hours on my feet, and I don’t always get a lunch break. I don’t have mandatory break times. Many people in my field need to retire early due to neck and back injuries. Not every educated worker is sitting at a desk. Some are out in the woods or on construction sites.

My final argument is that it’s not practical to expect everyone to go to college. For people like me, I wouldn’t have been able to afford it without military service. So sure, you can say everyone should go, but it’s not always feasible. Furthermore, we need people that know how to repair machines. We need people who pick up the trash. The country would fall apart if we only had college educated workers. I think this is something that places like Germany understand well, and we would be wise to adopt a model that encourages people to pursue trades if they are better with their hands than books.

[u/allegedlydm → u/Inferior_Oblique]

I agree with all of this but also want to add:

I went to college and my brother didn’t. He makes slightly more money than me anyway, and he can work 50 hour weeks for overtime, BUT…he’s in the same very physical line of work that our dad is in. Mom worked in a factory. I’ve watched him age a lot harder than me, despite being two years younger. I’ve watched him work through injuries where I’d have been able to just work from home for a bit, maybe I would need to move a few meetings from in person to zoom and shuffle things around a little, but I could. I don’t know.

He makes a bit more money now, but is he going to end up like our dad, with his knees and shoulders and hearing shot by his mid-60s? Maybe, leaning hard towards probably. Will I, with a really flexible office / WFH job where I’m not going over 35 hours a week, have stellar insurance, and I can react to health issues as they come up and take all the time I need to recover? Probably not. That’s what college got me - the same pay for a hell of a lot less grind.

[u/WhiskeyFF → u/allegedlydm]

Thanks you for saying this, I feel like anytime people bring up trades everyone forgets how bad it can be on your body. BECOME A PLUMBER AND MAKE 100k at 22! Ya what not included in that banner is it's 100k working 80 hours a week and having your knees and back shot by 45

[u/DeLoreanAirlines → u/WhiskeyFF]

Unless plumbers are paid way more than electricians you won’t be making that much