We all know that higher education is a wonderful opportunity to be thankful for. But as an entrepreneur who found success without using my degree, I find myself regretting ever going to college at all. I have a Bachelor of Science in Business. I call it BS for short. Turns out I’m not alone. According to a recent study by PayScale, 66% of college graduates regret their education for one reason or another. In hindsight I’ve discovered some ways that could cause one to feel this kind of regret.



Go just because high school is over.



My regret begins with the dreaded SAT’s. I attempted to take them twice but I was derailed from the test location both times as if the universe was already trying to tell me something. I had to cancel my first scheduled (and paid for) SAT test because I had the worst sunburn on my ass EVER. I couldn’t sit down. Sounds too funny to be true, but it is. I had gone surfing the day before in a bikini. The second attempt’s testing location was 2 hours away. My grandmother drove me all that way, only for me to realize that I forgot my ID. I cried all the way back home from the stress of it all, and for how bad I felt for my sweet grandmother driving me for nothing. I haven’t spent a day in class yet and college was already causing so much misery.



Pursue a useless degree.



I make it to college to pursue a dance major because I don’t know what else to major in. I’m only 18 and I like ballet, so that will be fun, right? My college was far from home so I have to pay for a dorm. Let’s add that to the pile of debt I’m procuring. Don’t need a college degree to get a job in dance, by the way. I lasted a year and a half before I realized this, so I quit. But that 1.5 years of unfinished work hung over my head like a burden… maybe it was the fact that I was paying student loan debt with nothing to show for it. Five years after quitting college, I go back. This time I’m a little older and I think that business is a smarter choice because I want to be an entrepreneur. This will help, right? No, dear entrepreneur, no.



Develop a poor money mindset.



Being in college for that long made me accustomed to lack. Not having an income and not spending money on myself for several years caused me to be uncomfortable with spending money, as much as I try not to be that way. It takes a lot of money-mindset training to get over that. There are riches in your bank account, and then there is richness of life. Imagine if all that time I spent tucked away working on assignments and studying, I was actually at a job making money, but also interacting with people and being happy. I wouldn’t just be better off now because of having one less bill to pay (the student loan), I’d be richer because I would have a total of five and a half years of full-time income behind me!

Poor networking.



I know that most people consider college a fun part of life, at least the social part of it. This is not the right reason to go to college! Poor networking happens to be the third most voted reason for regretting college according to the study done by Payscale between April and May of 2019. As for me, there’s no one-thing that I can pull from it and say hey, if I didn’t go, my life wouldn’t be where it is today. And I’m an entrepreneur. I create my own businesses. I may never need to show my college degree to get hired by someone. Maybe something will come up in the future that will be a benefit of having gone to, and finished college.



What should you really do?



The moral of the story is, don’t go to college after high school just because you don’t know what else to do after high school. Life is about enjoying it. So what sparks joy for you? If it’s a field that actually does follow after the path of college, than go to college! If you’re not sure yet, and the only thing that sounds fun to you is getting as far away from the town you grew up in, than DO THAT. You’ll be better off working in a new city while you explore and discover your passions.