The Case for Bright Self-Starters Dropping Out

Today, it’s an article of faith that nearly everyone should finish high school and probably go to college. After all, so the argument goes, high school and college curriculum exposes you to important concepts and improves thinking and communication skills while allowing young adults to explore career and personal directions they wouldn’t pursue on their own. Plus, for most decent jobs, a college degree is virtually required. That, however, doesn’t provide the complete picture.

In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I attempt to offer a fuller look at the issue as well as an alternative to college for smart self-starters.

Short Answers: Getting Unstuck

Brevity’s benefits often trump comprehensives. So I'm writing this series on PsychologyToday.com, Short Answers. Previous installments can be found HERE. 

Today’s installment is the first that addresses reader-submitted questions. It addresses these topics: getting expert fast, getting re-engaged, and preventing procrastination. 

To Be Awakened

Ah to be awakened. perhaps by the sunrise, a lover’s touch, or often in my case, my doggie licking my face saying, “I want to go out.”


Of course, those are mere literal awakenings. More interesting are awakened ideas.

As my PsychologyToday.com article today, I offer some of my clients', colleagues', friends', and my recent awakenings, changed views.  

I've chosen to include a wide range to make it more likely that one or more will resonate with you or trigger an awakening of your own.

Shortcuts to Getting Competent: Time-effective ways of learning without a back-to-school stint

Many people have gone back to school trying to boost their career.

Alas, looking back, many people feel it wasn't a good use of their money and time. Sure that diploma or certificate, afforded some career boost but often not enough. And many have graduated with a worse case of the imposter syndrome than before they went back to school: "Now, I'm expected to know a lot but I still feel pretty clueless." 

That's not surprising because most university courses are taught by theoretically and research-oriented PhDs, not the best folks at providing practical career training.
Rarely does a solution exist that's faster, better, and cheaper. But in the case of career preparation, there often is: Replacing State U, let alone Private U, with what I call You U: a self-designed combination of articles, book-skimming, videos, webinars, bootcamps, online discussion groups, online and in-person short courses, and tutoring, perhaps guided by a mentor.

Of course, the first objection is, "But employers like seeing the piece of paper, or even require it." True, but a paragraph in your job application letter such as the following can often make clear that you're at least as worthy of consideration as someone with that degree:

You may be tempted to toss my application because I don't have the required degree. But so many people say their degree wasn't that practically useful, let alone worth the time and money, I decided to be a self-starter and craft a degree's worth of learning that would be far more likely to make me a better employee. Please see the attached listing of of articles, books., videos, webinars, bootcamps, online discussion groups, tutoring, online and in-person short courses that I have completed over the last year.

I have chosen to emphasize substance over form but now we get to the moment of truth: Will you interview me?

If you were an employer reading that, mightn't you interview that candidate, even if s/he didn't have that degree?

My PsychologyToday.com article today offers a tip or two on how to make the most of each of those learning methods that can be used to comprise a You U education.

An Alternative to Going Back to School

Are you thinking about going back to school but wonder if it will be worth the time and money? Especially when there is such an oversupply of degree holders? Might the time and money be better spent other ways?

 In my USNews.com piece today, I propose an alternative: forgoing State U, let alone Private U, in favor of You U. And I detail the specifics---including how to get an employer to hire you, a You U "graduate" over a traditional graduate.

The Most Defensive People in the World?

Following publication of my article, America's Most Overrated Product: a Bachelor's Degree, the Chronicle of Higher Education asked me to blog on its site about it for a month.

I have never seen such defensiveness as I encountered in the readers' (mostly professors) responses. The focus of my blog was to document how little students grow in college, suggest a variety of approaches to improvement, and invite readers to agree, amplify, or disagree.

Instead, the large majority of responses were tangential and/or personal attacks. My 13 detailed posts in the month plus approximately 10 detailed rejoinders to their comments yielded little willingness to engage in the issue.

I believe the largest reason was defensiveness: If those professors looked inward, they'd have to realize they're the wrong people to be teaching undergraduates and are educating in a way that serves themselves far more than it serves their students. After all, they're hired and promoted based heavily on their research capabilities, attributes which often are inversely correlated with the ability to teach undergraduates.

I come away from my Guest Blogger stint at the Chronicle of Higher Education more convinced than ever that a bachelor's degree is America's most overrated product.

I'm confident that graduate instruction is not much better. I need search no further than my own family:

-- I look at the irrelevance of most of the courses my wife and I took in getting our Ph.D.s at Berkeley. For example, all the students in our programs were forced to take five five-unit graduate level statistics courses, even though the vast majority of us would never use any of it--If we needed advanced statistics, we'd hire a statistician. But one of the most powerful professors in the department was a statistician and he wanted to make sure that the courses he wanted to teach (Nonparametric Statistics anyone?) always had sufficient students enrolled.

-- Barbara and I had to write many long papers but rarely received much feedback on any of them, even though there were fewer than 10 students in her program and in mine.

-- My daughter went to Yale Law School, considered America's best. Yet when hired, she like most Yale Law School graduates, had to enter a training program on how to practice law. The Yale grads understood arcane and leftist legal theories but were clueless about what to do to prepare a case or succeed in the courtroom.

Many of my career counseling clients are physicians, attorneys, engineers, etc. Most of them believe their long, expensive education ill-equipped them to be competent in their profession. Or at minimum, it provided much too little learning of value for the time and money expended.

When I supervised student teachers at San Jose State University, despite their having nearly completed their teaching certification, most of them were bad teachers.

So, my summative message: I believe not only that the bachelor's degree is America's most overrated product, but that most higher education diplomas are.

Of course, alas, many professions require degrees, for example, doctor, lawyer, and teacher, although some school districts now allow alternative certification. But many careers don't require a degree. If not, a self-starter will learn more at far less cost at what I call You U: Learn, on a just-in-time basis, via self-study, workshops, mentors, etc. If you're worried about being unemployable because of your lack of a degree, write cover letters documenting how you've opted for substance over form.

If you want more formal education, even if you already have a degree, check out the offerings at community colleges. Because faculty is hired and promoted heavily on teaching ability, because the tuition is low, and community colleges offer a surprising array of programs, I believe they're among America's most underrated products.