10 things that are less expensive and just as effective as college

My experience navigating “The Way”

Photo by Vasily Koloda on Unsplash

I remember being very angry with my mother as I applied for my college loan. I was angry as she “tut-tutted” over the “very high” interest rates (I thought I was lucky with a 6.5%), but mainly I was angry at her questioning of a process that I had come to believe was “the way”.

“The Way” is what I will define as society’s violent attempt to corral our culture into a pre-determined group of traits or skills or lifestyles that society has deemed “The Way”.

“The Way” that I’ll be attacking today is our blind obedience towards “the path to success”. I’m talking about the path to success that’s promised (at least it appeared so to me) in your traditional American education. This, to me, is the belief that you must attend college to be successful. (I will define success as above-average financial compensation and relative life security.)

I attended a private “elite college preparatory academy”, grades pre-K through 12th, where AP & honors classes ruled and you were *expected* to apply to at least one Ivy. Our school paid for a full press tour for the first student to receive a perfect SAT score, and would comp (read: mandate into taking) high performing students entrance fees to exams to keep our average scores as high as possible. I had not one, not two, but three mandated counseling sessions when I informed my teachers I would not be finishing my Duke application, as I had been accepted into my first choice — art school.

One girl, four years older than me, had successfully managed to go to art school. They had allowed her to paint a mural outside of one of the classrooms, and she was everything that I wanted to be. She was bold, terrifying, and had a massive tiger tattooed down her spine.

As a fine artist, she was undeniably more talented than I was, which the counselor did not fail to mention, but my art teacher never let me lose faith. Shout out to Marbie Kollath. Without a doubt that place underestimates how important that woman is in shaping their best and brightest. I learned incredible technical skill while attending SCAD, but MK taught me that I could create my own future to be what I wanted it to be, and I wouldn’t be here without that.

Anyways. Back to the loan. Applying to colleges & applying for loans for colleges was something that we were taught how to do. I’m going to repeat that. Applying to colleges and accepting financial debt was taught to us, as part of our educational system. It is believed that taking on that financial debt will improve your future ability to -repay that financial debt-. They say this in other terms, like getting a high paying job, but it seems to me there is a massive understanding gap here. I can explain this system in a way where you’ll look back at me and say, “Darby, isn’t that a Ponzi scheme?”.

Buying into something now, for the idea of future (ideally larger) repayment. Similar concept in stocks, real estate investments, and theoretically here, in education.

But where is the correlation of paying more for education = receiving more money in life? Is that the standard we think works across the board?

I paid off my college loans less than a year after I dropped out of college. This was possible because I a.) did not allow interest to accrue on my initial loans b.) did not take out the full amount of money it would have taken to graduate college, c.) created a financially secure job for myself, as well as d.) already came from financial privilege. If I had graduated, with my degree, I would have come out around 65k in debt. Average salary for a service designer is between 72–90k. Say I’m aggressive. Say I have no medical or personal emergencies that hit my cash flow. We’re still looking at 6 years plus. So, with my college years, I’ve taken a decade of my financial life because I am doing “The Way”.

I got in a very heated argument with a family member a few Thanksgiving’s ago, because he called me “a unicorn” after I vehemently vocalized that attending college is not the best choice of success for the masses. “Not everyone can have your story,” he asserted. This is true. Not everyone can be the youngest & first female CEO of a publicly traded US cannabis accessories company. But a.) I don’t think everyone wants to be, and b.) it isn’t the point. There are ways to learn usable life skills that can garner you high income roles. (Or sustainable roles that you are happy doing, without being required to assume debt to do them.) There isn’t just one, and it most certainly isn’t just college.

Things that I genuinely believe are just as effective or more effective learning sources than college and will not place you into severe financial hardship simply to put you on “The Way”.

Self-motivation & persistence in face of defeat

Books on your desired learning topic

Find a mentor

Trade schools / physical skill learning

YouTube / online classes or tutorials

Travel

Real life (learn by doing)

Get a job

Be an intern (yes I’ve done it. Don’t whine at me.)

Volunteer

My main point being here — never believe that there is only one way to be successful. Life has no standard, and you aren’t doing it wrong. You can have an entire career making industry specific trade show table cloths. You can be an artist. You can maybe even start your own business. I say maybe, because not everyone is really cut out for it, even if it’s a skill that can be taught.

And if you don’t know what you want to do with your life, signing up for a high interest loan to take some random classes to achieve a piece of paper is not going to get you anywhere close to where you want to be going. Take the time to explore other options, because you have them. Even if you can’t see the path, it doesn’t mean it isn’t there.