You were deceived by our culture, by the good people at the institution of higher education you attended, and unintentionally by those who love you most. When you made the decision 4-5 years ago to attend the college of your choice, the prevailing wisdom of the day said that this was the best way you could spend your time and money to get ahead in life.
For over fifty years we’ve told the young people of our nation that the surest step on the ladder to the American Dream is by attending college.
This is true for many, but not for all. In previous years college was a bad choice for a small minority, but the scales have been tipping dramatically every year in the wrong direction.
[bctt tweet="Today, traditional college is a bad investment for most entering freshman." username="@AdamBraun"]
Let’s look at the stats: Less than half of students at four-year colleges will graduate on time, and only 59% will graduate within six years. At two-year community colleges the graduation rate within three years is an abysmal 32%, and in urban colleges this drops to just 18%.
So let’s assume you’re one of the few who made it all the way through to graduation. You played by the rules, listened to conventional wisdom, worked your ass off to get solid grades, and now will finally receive that piece of paper stating that you’re a college graduate. Now what?
The good news is that you’re entering the best job market in over a decade for graduates. But even in this condition, four out of five of you are graduating without a job, and assuming you’re part of the more than 70% that have student loans, your average loan debt is more than $35,000. What few will tell you though, is that given the interest rates on those loans you’ll likely end up paying closer to $50,000 of post-tax money over the next several decades (this means you’ll lose out on a lot more than the $35K that’s on your mind, and all of this is without considering the opportunity cost of not working full-time while you were in college).
It sucks, I know. I’m sorry this happened to you. You have every right to be mad. But what’s done is done. What matters is how you move forward. As far as I can see, there are two paths ahead:
The first is to sulk and go play video games in your parent’s basement. Many of you will do this. It’ll pass the time, and you’ll distract yourself from feeling like shit. I would not encourage this path.The second option is to recognize that you got screwed, not through malicious intent, but because a set of systems changed rapidly (everything from government regulation to higher education to employer markets) and throughout that period you were guided by a finite belief in the world that ended up no longer being valid.
[bctt tweet="College was supposed to automatically help you get a great job, but it’s simply no longer true." username="AdamBraun"]
The college you attended is now just one signal to potential employers, an important one, but equally as important will be your interships, previous work experience, references, interviewing abilities, soft skills, social media feeds, etc etc etc.
So what can someone like you do now that you recognize the reality of your situation?You can treat it as one of the single most important lessons you'll ever learn in your life. Going forward, this should be your most guiding mantra in all major career decisions:[bctt tweet="Consider not where the world is today, but where it'll be in 5 yrs and sprint towards that place." username="AdamBraun"]
Use your college experience as a learning lesson. Going forward challenge every major societal assumption that others project onto you. Remember in the 1940’s when it was cool and harmless to smoke cigarettes? Remember in the 1990’s when McDonald’s was the most popular place to take kids for a great meal?
These pillars of societal beliefs have since been toppled, and I fundamentally believe that your class will be the ones to topple the belief that college is a good choice for all. Along the way, you'll put pressure on a broken system and help out millions of future students.
If you’re one of the few where the return on investment has clear payoffs then I hope you’ll use that position to helps others cross that chasm, and in doing so change the dynamics of the current system. We need to make sure that higher education in the US is affordable to all, accountable for the student career outcomes, and relevant to the real world.It will take radical new thinking, and a belief that the world tomorrow can look very different from the world we’ve inherited today.I’ll be pushing this idea forward with the creation of MissionU, a true college alternative for the 21st century, and if you want to join the movement I’d encourage you to sign up here.
My wish for you Class of 2016, is that you consider where the world is headed in the next 10-20 years, and start working today… whether in buildings or basements, with coworkers or college friends, to choose the work that you believe will be on the right side of history.College might help many of you achieve your aspirational dreams, but it's no longer a guaranteed ticket to a killer job and happiness ahead. You need to commit to being a lifelong learner, outwork your peers, and make the most of every opportunity that comes your way (here's my best tip for your first day on the job).Keep in mind that the ten jobs that will be in greatest demand ten years from now don’t even exist today. Ten years ago there was no Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat or WhatsApp. Crazy huh?
[bctt tweet="The world is constantly evolving and you get to be a creator in what comes next." username="AdamBraun"]
The key though, is to stay guided by that singular answer you want to be able to give many years from now, when someone looks back on your life and asks, “How did you leave your mark?”I hope you're able to respond by saying that you made a brave bet on where the world would head, and ran in that direction with all your might.
Please share your honest advice to graduates in the comments below!
