'Your Kid Does Not Need To Buy A College Degree’ Says A Woman Who Helps Teens Get High Paying Jobs Without Them
She has a different approach to finding one's path in life.
Motortion Films | Shutterstock College is a big investment. To graduate, it typically takes at least four years of a young person's time which usually results in a lifetime of debt. The Education Data Initiative reports, “The average cost of attendance for a student living on campus at a public 4-year in-state institution is $26,027 per year or $104,108 over 4 years.”
Sending a child to college may not seem like the best idea when you consider the enormous financial cost, and one career coach strongly agrees.
A career coach shared what she believes to be the truth about college: kids don't need to 'buy' a degree to be successful.
Hannah Maruyama is one half of the team behind Degree Free, a company that helps teenagers get good jobs without a college degree. She shares tips on TikTok for how to help teens find their passion so that they can follow it now, instead of after four years of college.
Maruyama explained that so many teens are “facing the college cliff” and doing the thing that society tells them is the next right step. However, she argued that there is a different option. Her “custom career roadmaps” helped a group of four students she was working with save a total of $2 million in college costs, money that she said is now “out of the academic industrial complex.”
Starting to work early has its advantages. “They will be cash flow positive, they will be younger, and they will be able to get experience in these fields,” Maruyama said of the teens who skip college to go straight for a career.
Maruyama explained that college is essentially pointless and a waste of time and money.
“Learning skills that you actually need for jobs does not take four to six years,” she said, “the bulk of that time being useless classes that are charged to students so they can prop up departments that nobody actually needs, which is why they have to charge your kids.”
Photo: zimmytws's Images / Canva Pro
Furthermore, Maruyama asserted that if you take charge of your education in the way she suggests, you will be better educated. She stated, “If you actually curate your education, then you will become far more educated than the average college graduate.”
This is due to the fact that so many college classes are not relevant to skills needed in life or the workplace.
“College teaches almost nothing useful, and very, very little of the time are they actually teaching you things that make somebody a well-rounded academic,” she said.
Maruyama’s comments have created a debate on TikTok.
Some TikTok users think Maruyama’s ideas are great, while others aren’t so sure. One wrote, “I love your use of [the] phrase ‘buy a college degree.’ It is so much more accurate than ‘earning.’ Thank you for your work.”
And while some commenters asked Maruyama for advice on what to do in their own personal situations, not everyone was on board with her thinking. “College degrees aren’t evil,” wrote one person. Another said, “Hmm, you have a lot of opinions about college. Have you graduated from college?”
There’s certainly reason to wonder what the best course of action is. According to the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, “College graduates on average make $1.2 million more over their lifetime.” With statistics that back up the importance of a college education, one is left to wonder about the validity of Maruyama’s statements.
However, times are changing, and college is harder to afford than ever before. Perhaps some will find that alternative options may be just what they’re looking for.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news and human interest topics.