Do You Need a College Degree In Order to be Successful?

I have a confession. I don’t have a college degree and I’ve never wanted one. I don’t subscribe to the theory that having a post secondary degree will make you more successful then someone who doesn’t have a degree, but what do I know (remember, I don’t have a degree).

It is my assumption that people obtain degrees to get better jobs. Better jobs lead to more money and in America the more money you have the more successful you are.

So the facts (so they say), according to the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, “Between 1980 and 2004, earnings increased with education for all young adults ages 25-34 who worked full-time throughout the year. Young adults with at least a bachelor’s degree consistently had higher median earnings than those with less education. Moreover, for the entire population and, in general, for each subgroup, the difference between the earnings of those with at least a bachelor’s degree and their peers with less education grew during this period. For example, in 1980, males with a bachelor’s or higher degree earned 19 percent more than male high school completers, while in 2004 they earned 67 percent more.”

So there you have it, those with college degrees go on to make mucho dinero, but no where in this survey did they mention the thousands of college graduates who don’t find success in their chosen profession, regardless of having a degree. They didn’t mention the college graduates who find themselves in massive, paralyzing debt due to all the student loans they’ve taken out over the course of 4 to 8 years. Nor do they mention the people who didn’t go to college that were successful in their chosen field despite not having a degree.

Earlier today I spoke to a professional, an aspiring film maker. He is successful in every since of the word. He has a good job, a beautiful home, he is living the American dream, so I asked him, “Do you think that having a degree has made a positive impact in your life or do you feel that you could have gone just as far without it?” To my surprise his response was, “To tell you the truth I never finished high school. I’ve been very lucky in life with my job and success. For me it was all about my personality and making sure I surrounded myself with talented people.”

What he said made perfect sense to me and it got me thinking. Do you really need a degree to be successful?

In my opinion there are many roads that lead to success and not all of those roads require you to have a degree, but before you start sending me hate mail accusing me of knocking college, just know that I’m not against higher education. I believe in education. In some instances you need a degree. I don’t think that you should get to be a doctor just because you like to cut, and I don’t think you should get to be a lawyer just because you speak well, know something about the law and want to get your cousin out of jail, but I also don’t believe that whether or not you have a four year degree should be the only factor in determining whether you get a good job. Intelligence as well as experience should also be determining factors. I also believe that certifications are a valid way of determining if one is qualified for particular positions.

For a lot of people having a degree is important and although I feel that I’ve done well without a degree, I also feel that some doors are still shut to me because I don’t have a degree and it’s not because I don’t know how to do the job, it’s because in America we’re taught that a post secondary education is where it’s at.

We’re condition to believe that to truly be successful you have to have that piece of paper to validate your intelligence and your worth and that’s what degrees do, they validate your intelligence.

I know a lot of people who are successful, people that have never attended college. I’m sure if you think about it, you know someone too and if you don’t, just think about the most famous college dropout of all, Bill Gates. According to his bio, he left Harvard in his junior year to devote time to Microsoft and while he’s not going around doing seminars which promote dropping out of college, I’m sure he’s not crying in his pillow at night screaming, “Oh GOD, if only I had that college degree I would be worth a gazillion dollars instead of the lousy billions I’m worth now.”

So in conclusion, if you feel you need a degree then go get it, by all means, get that degree and I wish you all the success in the world, but don’t knock people that don’t have a degree and don’t assume that they’re less qualified or less intelligent because they don’t have one.

You’d be surprised.