If you factor in the opportunity costs of college (not only the tuition, books, room and board, interest, etc., but also the money not earned while in school) and many college degrees have a negative return on investment. But that’s just the financial stuff… there are lots of other reasons for college beyond a paycheck. That said, I saw first hand while college level teaching that some people have no business in college… and my girlfriend (who has spent her working career as a professor, department chair and dean) would tell you the same thing. Making career decisions at age 16-18 is kind of absurd if you think about it. I used to be fond of saying kids aren’t real people until they hit about age 24 and have had some life experiences…
Unfortunately there are so many different revenue generating majors out there that offer the students in them very little opportunity afterwards other than a student loan payment and 4 years of partying.
I had zero clue what I wanted to do, I tried to get into Virginia Tech's engineering program right out of high school and got denied. I still thought that is what I wanted to do so I hit up the community college and they had an awesome 2 year transfer program where if you maintained a certain GPA you were guaranteed in to the general engineering program at VT. This allowed me to keep my boat shop job and have 2 years of school paid for off the rip when I made it to VT.
I was lucky and got hooked up with the advisor who was over the Grand Touring team and got to build a race car for our senior design project and run it in a legit wheel to wheel racing league, Champ Car, for 12 hours at VIR, that was the highlight of my entire time in school. (pics below)
I did a 9 month work term in a dead period in my classes at a tire manufacturing facility which paid really well for a broke college kid trying to make it, and that is now where I work full time as a Mechanical engineer 6 years later.
Being a mechanic here pays really well too, some of those guys make more than I do a year, but they have to work a fair amount of OT to do so, still not a bad gig for someone who does not want to go to college. Sometimes I wish I got to work with my hands more daily like those guys, but most of the time I am just fine designing industrial equipment/systems and physically working with my hands on my own stuff when I get home.
All of that to say, you can make it through and be in a good spot, but you gotta pick a major that will give you some valuable life skills in an area that is demanding people to work in it.
Pics of our junky a** subaru wagon that we turned into a budget track beater. I custom built the exhaust because no one makes a performance system for granny's 2.2L grocery wagon. Shaved the heads, bench ported them, had the cams reground, and probably some other stuff that I am forgetting. it was still slow, but less slow than it was, and the equal length header made the boxer sound glorious, even though most people prefer the Subaru rumble that the un equal provides.
