Expert Reveals The 4 Types Of Kids Who Don’t Need To ‘Buy’ College Degrees To Be Successful
There's more than one way to get an education.
Anna Nekrashevich / Pexels Going to college is seen as an essential rite of passage for 18-year-olds. It’s the next expected step for graduating seniors, no questions asked. Yet the cost of college has become prohibitively expensive, to the point where many young adults are wondering if they need to go at all.
According to Hannah Maruyama, an author and podcast host, the answer is ‘No.’ She uses her platform to advocate for young adults to seek alternatives to college that will set them up for lucrative careers without student debt.
Maruyama said there are 4 types of kids who don’t need a college degree to be successful:
1. High achievers
The first category falls under what Maruyama called “high achievers,” which she described as students who are self-motivated and self-teaching. They build their own projects and are often bored by school, yet they do well academically.
Maruyama maintained that high achievers don’t need college to be successful, yet colleges want them to attend in order to boost their reputation.
“Unless your child is going into a field that legally requires them to buy a college degree to get into that job, that would be a surgeon, or a doctor, [or a] civil engineer; your child doesn’t need college. College needs your child,” she said.
“They need your child because they’re statistically likely to succeed anyway, and they need to white-label [the] success your child is already likely to have,” she concluded.
2. Mold breakers
The next type of student who should consider skipping college is the mold-breaker. Essentially, a student who struggled in school and felt like a failure because they didn’t fit into the educational system as it’s currently structured.
According to Maruyama, mold breakers “Do not need college to get a good job. They do not need college to learn valuable skills.”
She noted that their futures don’t solely hinge on college or trade school because there are other options available.
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“You would be shocked by the number of kids I work with who come in with an IEP and end up going into tech jobs because no one ever told them that was an option,” she said. “They didn’t fit in the traditional school box because the traditional school box is not designed for most of us.”
She dove a little deeper into the psychology of mold breakers, saying, “The reason that they are pigeonholed into specific things is because they didn’t fit… They were told they were failures their entire lives when, in fact, there was nothing wrong with them, and the thing that was wrong was the system.”
“I sound angry. It’s because I am,” she continued. “I see this all the time, and it infuriates me.”
Her frustration is valid: School isn’t one-size-fits-all, even though we’re told it is. In that same vein, college isn’t the right choice for everyone, yet everyone deserves access to programs and opportunities that will advance their futures.
3. The degree deciders
Next on Maruyama’s list of students who don’t need a college degree were what she called “The Degree Deciders,” who she classified as “Young adults who aren’t sure what they’re going to do or are fairly sure what they’re going to do, but that job does not legally require them to get a college degree.”
She gave examples of professions they could go into, including finance and marketing.
“They just need to learn skills. They need to build portfolios of work,” she said.
Maruyama noted that the average cost of a bachelor’s degree in the U.S. is $104,000 to $156,000, according to 2023 NCES data.
She spoke directly to parents, declaring, “You do not need to pay that for your child to get into a job that will make them a decent living.”
She outlined a possible path they could take, one that would set them up with professional training and zero student loan debt.
“They need to learn basic skills and get entry-level work and work their way up,” she said. “College is not a shortcut. It’s not going to help them; it’s going to actively keep them from being able to have the freedom to explore entry-level work and get where they want to go.”
4. The extremely fortunate
Maruyama described “the extremely fortunate” as a smaller sector of students who don’t need college to be financially stable because they have access to generational wealth.
They’re “Kids with outside resources or families who have enough money that literally a trust has been set aside for their education.”
“Money works differently for them,” Maruyama explained. “So do their ultimate goals because their needs are not the same as the rest of us.”
“They do not have to optimize for income, and they do not have to reduce financial risk in the same way as the rest of us do,” she explained.
Mikhail Nilov / Pexels
“They have a budget that is set aside purely for education, and so they can optimize [and] hire people who are extremely specialized because they have the budget to do so,” she said. “They have the budget to spend on educational products that [are] not going to ruin their lives the same way that it will ruin the rest of our lives.”
“They have a different risk calculation than the rest of us have to abide by,” she concluded, touching on the innate safety net that wealth provides.
Maruyama's perspective on higher education goes directly against our society’s overarching narrative on how to make a life for ourselves after high school.
“There are very few 16 to 20-year-olds that need to buy college degrees in order to get good work or even get to their goals,” Maruyama reiterated.
Getting an education is a crucial part of being an involved, curious, and thoughtful citizen, yet there are ways to learn that don’t require 18-year-olds to take on crushing amounts of student loan debt they might never break free from.
The unfortunate truth is that having a college degree doesn’t even guarantee a job: Just ask the myriad of college graduates who can’t break into the workforce, no matter how hard they try. In fact, a recent survey found that only 46% of graduates actually work in their field of study, and 16% don't even have a job at all.
Yet there are other options, as Maruyama explained. She shared a list of five “degree-free pathways” to take instead of college, the first being to get entry-level work.
She also suggested finding an apprenticeship with on-the-job training, which can be in industries like tech, medicine, and finance. Young adults can also earn a license or certification, build their own businesses, or learn practical skills.
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“Services [and] businesses are the most accessible for many of us, especially if we don’t come from money or we’re first-generation entrepreneurs,” Maruyama explained.
Maruyama had one last piece of advice for parents and graduating high schoolers: “Please make sure you’re not conflating education and college.”
Learning is a life-long endeavor. Pursuing higher education is something we should do because we’re passionate about it, not because we’re forced into it.
The more choices that exist for young adults to pave their way into a future they actually want, the better off they’ll be, both in an individual sense and as part of the global community.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers social issues, pop culture, and all things to do with the entertainment industry.