Teen Says She Dropped Out Of College & Moved To Florida To Avoid $200K In Debt — 'I Make My Own Opportunities'
She no longer felt that college was for her, and explained that succeeding without a degree is possible.
TikTok A teenage girl shared how she was able to abruptly leave college to save money and avoid the crippling debt of college tuition.
In a TikTok video, Hannah Buck revealed that at the age of 19, she realized that being in college wasn't for her anymore. Buck claimed that she didn't want to owe thousands of dollars for a degree when she knew that she would be able to get that same experience in the real world.
Buck says she ended up dropping out of college and moving to Florida without any money or job lined up.
At the age of 19, Buck said she knew that she wanted to make a change in her life after having previously been in college to get her degree in real estate. With no money and no job lined up, she decided to move down to Tampa, Florida.
"I went ghost for seven months, I didn't see the light of day," Buck shared. "I gave myself a timeline. I dropped out of school in December [2021], and I wanted to make it to Tampa by September [2022]."
She continued, saying that she gave herself around eight months to save up enough money to move, but ended up being able to move in June 2022. "I flipped my life around, and I started with $0."
When Buck dropped out of college, she used all of her savings to buy a car, and after purchasing it, she was forced to start over with her savings. She spent months working five different jobs as well as different side hustles to earn money.
"I woke up around five every day, went to the gym, and then I'd come home, shower, and go to my first job," she said, explaining that she did this for six months straight.
Buck would work in warehouses for Amazon, did social media managing, hosted at a restaurant, worked as a Disney princess on the weekends, and at night, would work at her parents' ice cream shop.
"My goal was to save $8,000 to cover my first month's rent, all my furniture, and two to three months of living expenses." Once Buck reached her goal, she was able to find a roommate by making a TikTok video advertising that she needed someone to live with.
After connecting with another girl, the two of them were able to find an apartment, sign the lease, and Buck was officially living in Tampa. "I came here with no job, no plan, but I always knew in the back of my mind, that I was going to figure it out."
Once in Tampa, Buck said she began serving at a restaurant, while also working on social media management on the side. She encouraged other young adults that there were so many other ways to make money without having to go to college.
"I knew I wanted to do real estate, that's why I picked Tampa because it's poppin' down here," she explained. "I came down here with the confidence that I was going to figure it out, and I would be fine."
Buck explained that she had applied to twenty-one colleges, but knew that being in school wasn't for her.
She ultimately ended up dropping out during her first semester. She claimed that unless people know what they want to study in school or need a degree that requires education, then college is unnecessary. "If you want a degree, go get that degree," she said.
Buck continued, saying that she knows so many people who are putting themselves in serious debt from college, and they don't know what they want to do with their lives. According to Best College, as of 2022, 43.5 million Americans have federal student loans.
The outstanding federal loan balance is $1.635 trillion and accounts for 93.1% of all student loan debt, according to the Education Data Initiative.
"I know so many people going to get a business degree [and] paying thousands of dollars to go to class to learn from someone who has never owned a business or worked in a top position," Buck added.
Buck said that when she dropped out of college, she wanted to go into real estate, but didn't know anything about the field. Without no longer having access to her college career center, Buck began pitching herself as a social media manager to several realtors for a low price in exchange for information about real estate.
"I went straight to the force, and all it cost me was a little bit of time and energy," Buck pointed out. "There are other ways to become knowledgeable at what you want to do, as long as it doesn't require a degree."
Nia Tipton is a writer living in Brooklyn. She covers pop culture, social justice issues, and trending topics.