I Didn’t Get My Master’s Degree, And I Could Care Less
Call me jaded, but its time we stopped believing in the system
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If you don’t follow my stories on Medium, earlier this year I enrolled at Southern New Hampshire University with the end game being getting first, my bachelor’s degree, and then my master's. I was fully ready to stick with the program for at least two to three more years. As I told my wife, it didn’t matter what I got my degree in, as long as I got my degree.
I thought my fondest wish was just to have a degree.
But the longer I stayed in the program, the more disillusioned I became. First, I couldn’t decide on a major. I started with marketing and switched to communications, fine arts, English, psychology, data analytics, and back to marketing. I even changed it to a general degree because I couldn’t make up my mind.
Then, I started seeing my student loan amount increase dramatically. SNHU is even one of the cheaper colleges, but still, the bills kept going up thousands each term. I started thinking about my long game. Was I planning on using this degree to get a job? No. What was my reasoning behind getting my degree?
Ego. I wanted that degree so when people asked me what I studied, I could say I had a master's. I was a writer and entrepreneur without a degree, I was a professional without any letters behind my name. Everyone I knew had a degree except for me.
I am 53 years old, and I must have brass balls two feet wide to think I should spend all that money for a degree that I only want so I can show people I am smart enough to get good grades in college.
I was applying myself. I had a 4.0 and was on the Presidents list. But the degree would have been an expensive, but worthless piece of paper, because I didn’t actually plan to do anything with it except hang it on my wall.
My wife doesn’t have her degree yet, and she is 18 years younger than me. She would be a better candidate to get a degree because I know she would use it to improve her lot in life. Should something happen to me, she would have that fall back on.
My kids are going to be going to college in the future I think, shouldn’t I be saving for that should they want to go to an expensive university in the USA?
Damn my ego, but there is no reason for me to get a degree. A degree is not going to help me become a better writer or entrepreneur, and those are the only two things I see myself doing in the next 20 years of my life.
So, I quit college.
I had a month off before something happened that made me glad I did quit. I had a heart attack. After having to pay $13K to get out of the hospital, I am happy I didn’t incur any more student debt. I am already in a seriously bad financial place right now and adding to my student loans would have been overkill, even though they are still being deferred by the government.
Was it a sign I saw or just good timing that I quit when I did?
The thing is, I shouldn’t need a degree to boost my ego. All it would have served is me being able to tell people who ask, and to add to my profile on LinkedIn. It would have served no purpose because if I need to learn about marketing, communications, or psychology, I can take an online course for $10. Any information I need could be learned online for free from Google University.
What were the classes I was taking anyway? History, sociology, calculus? Did I ever need to learn that shit to make my life whole?
No, it was a waste of time and money. But the sad fact is those colleges make you take a bunch of worthless classes that serve no purpose but to add to the bill I owe the college. If I want to get my MFA, why do I need three history classes? Why in a psychology course, do I need to learn trigonometry?
What I learned is that college is just a way for universities to fill their bank accounts, and people around the world have bought into the bullshit that you cannot be a good employee if you don’t have a degree. I say, hey, an employee is all you can be because universities are not teaching useful skills for people to become business owners, investors, or real estate moguls.
They are teaching you to be the worker bees. They want you to be a quiet employee and pay your taxes and student loans. They don’t want people who rock the boat, they don’t want activists. They want people to punch in and out and go home to their wives and play Xbox until they have to get up and go to work the next day, all while not complaining about their lot in life.
Maybe I am a little jaded, but I bought into the bullshit and now I owe over $10k in student loans. I bought the idea that I wasn’t a complete person if I didn’t have a degree. I fell for the hook and now I am in debt for thousands of dollars because I was taking history and calculus instead of learning how to do taxes, invest, or run a business.
I’ll never go back to college, and I could care less if I have that expensive piece of paper that only shows that I am an expert at studying and taking a test.
Just remember, the government won’t let you take out a $10k loan at 18 years old to start a business, but they will lend you $150k to give a university to teach you how to be a drone employee, and that is exactly why people are so poor. As long as we all have student loans to pay, we will be obedient and go to work without complaint.
It’s time we stopped the bullshit. Settle for better. Call me jaded, but it’s time we stopped believing in the system.
