Is a University Degree Necessary to Success? Essay Example

Steve Jobs once said, “I was at Reed [College] for only a few months. My parents intended for me to stay there for all four years but I decided that college wasn't right for me. I had no idea what I wanted to do I didn't see how college was going to help me.” This man– a college dropout, net worth reached over two hundred-fifty million dollars by the time his twenty-fifth birthday came around. So what is the purpose of a higher education? There isn’t one. In fact, many successful individuals dropped out of college: Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Larry Ellison commenced a new approach to success in the world of entrepreneurship.

Throughout the years, there has been controversy over college and if it is a necessity to become wealthy in society. The article “Reaping The Benefits Defining the Public and Private Value of Going to College,” indicates that attending college increases the opportunity to improve quality and adaptation of civic life, receive higher salaries and benefits, make better consumer decisions, and increase personal status. On the contrary, there are many prosperous people who neither attended college nor graduated after four years who earned all those opportunities. According to CNBC, Bill Gates is known for being Harvard’s “most successful dropout” and the founder of Microsoft with a net worth of one hundred twenty-nine billion dollars. Despite the bias, college has proven to not be the basis of a high-income job; individuals like Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Ellsion have been a keen example of this theory.

Along with this claim, Mark Zuckerberg who co-founded Facebook, was also a Harvard dropout and now has a net worth of one hundred twenty-two billion dollars. Along with this, Larry Ellison, earning roughly two million dollars a year, did not pursue a degree from the University of Missouri. Moreover, in the article “Horace Mann on Education and National Welfare,” the author claims that “Education is a great equalizer of the conditions of men,—the balance wheel of the social machinery,” which is undeniably inaccurate. Times are changing and college is not the guaranteed path to receiving fair-income and high status.

Statistics reveal that student debt has reached over a hundred percent over the past ten years and borrowers owe over 1.7 trillion dollars in debt (CNBC). It should be noted that a well-paying job is not handed to one as a result of a bachelor’s degree, and even if they did get one, most of their salary would get put towards their debt. In addition to this, Natalia Abrahams, the director of the Student Debt Crisis, wisely claimed, “These jobs hinder people from beginning families or getting married, casting a shadow over other plans, too – such as buying a house or donating to charity. In a nationwide study called “Buried in Debt,” overwhelming debt inhibited 85% of respondents from saving for retirement, 56% from buying a home, 42% from affording a new car, 25% from having children, and 19% from getting married.” These alarming statistics indicate the dangers of racking up thousands of dollars in debt, as well as the potentially debilitating consequences of pursuing an unaffordable degree (Chstarmac). In Ashley Thorne’s “10 Reasons Not to Go to College,” she evaluates the jobs that do not require a college degree; the salaries range from thirty-thousand to two-hundred thousands dollars a year. Evidently, an individual who did not attend college, would be earning two hundred thousand dollars a year with no debt. As a result of this, one would be free of financial stress due to lack of spending money and an increased salary would follow with more experience. 

In summary, the importance of a college degree has proven to be controversial with statistics and claims made in this essay. For instance, high-paying jobs are not guaranteed, many prosperous people did not pursue college, and college debt has proven to ruin one financially. Furthermore, skills needed in the real-world, like leadership and decision-making, are not acquired in a classroom; they are obtained by being involved in an actual work environment. Individuals including Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Larry Ellsion are beginning to open the eyes of ambitious entrepreneurs who do not want to follow the customary beliefs of college. Within the next decade, non-college success stories will become the new norm.