The Biggest Investment Decision you May Never Really Think About!
Any way you look at it college is a large financial decision! Tuition, room and board can be thousands of dollars and upwards of a quarter million at an Ivy or elite 4-year institution. This does not include opportunity costs and or grad school. Yet most prospective students don’t have the financial literacy or relevant facts required to make an informed and educated decision….and quite frankly neither do their parents.
Would you take a $100,000 business loan without doing some homework? Of course not! Ideally you would have done your market research and have a written business plan. The bank would ask you for collateral to make sure you have “skin in the game”. But student loans are unusual. They are relatively easy to obtain but can’t be discharged in bankruptcy ..which means that they can be “forever”.
Today, there are career options that have only recently come into being that require deep expertise. Job titles such as “data scientist”, “UX designer”, “customer success manager”, “webmaster”, “search engine marketer” and “Barista” were not in our vocabulary a few years ago. Given the rate of technological acceleration, it’s questionable whether traditional higher education will be able to keep up.
Granted, college is a requirement for graduate and professional schools. So if you want to be a doctor, lawyer or accountant, you need to attend. But beware, many of those professionals, if given the chance, would not do it again.
Unfortunately, many students will graduate from college with significant debt and no clear pathway to pay it off.
Our Personal Experience
We have personally spent/invested thousands of dollars on education at some of our nation’s finest and most prestigious universities. (Stanford, Art Center, Vanderbilt and Northwestern’s Kellogg School). We both remember fondly our time in college which included engaging and boring lectures, staying up all night to write papers and grueling exams. We had some amazing experiences, attended football games and fraternity parties, made good friends, received diplomas and ultimately landed great jobs.
But a realization we have had is that formal education hasn’t fundamentally changed since the industrial revolution. By design it is an assembly line and the process teaches you to be reactive versus proactive. Let me explain. All too often a professor lectures, hands out assignments and you respond. At the course end, you are evaluated on how well you accommodate that process. To be fair, there is critical thinking involved and that is a good thing. But you are probably not identifying or solving real world problems or creating real value for society. In the end, many people graduate college without finding their passion.
College and high school commencement addresses are aptly named because they are “beginnings”. And we’ve observe that some of the most successful people view learning as a life long process and are constantly reading new books, talking with other thought leaders or scouring the internet. But the distinction is that they are most likely focusing on those topics in which they are passionate. Imagine you have a world changing idea that needs your full attention… but have homework to do. In today’s world we have amazing access to information that was now available just a few years ago.
If we knew then what we know now we might have approached things very differently. And that is what inspired us to create this resource.
An Employer’s Perspective
A few years ago, I found myself interviewing a young man for a position in my company. His resume was accomplished. He had internship experience, taught math to high school students and claimed to know a number of software programming languages. Having noticed no college was listed on his resume, I asked him about it. He replied that he was only 17 years old. For a few seconds, I looked at him in amazement and managed to utter the words..”I’d like to hire you”.
As an employer I knew that what I really wanted was team members who had the initiative and problem solving abilities to get things done. And I don’t believe I’m too different from other hire managers. He made it easy for me to hire him. And I would not be disappointed. My young hire would go on to make significant contributions to my company.
Years later, without ever completing his degree, he would join a leading software company making the kind of money most college graduates can only envy. To this day we still talk, share insights and reading lists. He taught me a lot!
A few years later I would meet and partner with a man who had built an electrical contracting business to over $120 million in annual sales. He only had a high school diploma but valued learning new things every day. As Jim Rohn once said, “Formal education will make you a living, self-education will make you a fortune.”
Introducing the Insider’s College Investment Guide
Finally! The resource we wished we had when applying to college ! We have compiled our collected insights and wisdom based upon years of experience, reflection and understanding of psychology, business and finance. The result is a hands-on resource that will not only provide clarity to to college decision process but help you get on a pathway to success regardless of the direction you choose…including whether you decide to attend, take a gap year or go directly into the real world.
- Understand what it is that you are Really Buying
- Learn what college actually teaches you and what it does not.
- Financial Literacy Framework
- The College and Career Calculator
- Better retain what you study.
- Gain insight into why some people succeed without ever getting a degree.
- Become aware of genuine alternatives to college.
This is the must have resource that can potentially save you thousands of dollars
How you Benefit!
Understand what it is that you are Really Buying
College offers a number of tangible and intangible value propositions that go beyond pure academics. This might include a social experience or being with a talented peer group might help you raise the bar on your personal expectations. Remember that Google, PayPal and Facebook were all started by students.
Learn what college actually teaches you and what it does not. Having this level of awareness can transform your journey. I remember thinking that taking an investment course at a leading business school would teach me how to make money in the stock market. It did not. But reading one book recommended by Warren Buffet entitled “The Intelligent Investor” totally transformed my perspective. Most people are asking the question “How do I pay for college?” There are far better questions you might be asking.
Financial Literacy Framework – We will teach you to look at college as an investment instead of as a consumer purchase. Imagine having the financial framework to understand the true costs and potential benefits of attending college before attending college! We will teach you the three most popular financial evaluation tools taught in business school. Armed with this knowledge you will be able to make better informed decisions on where to apply, where to attend, what to major in or whether to take a gap year.
The College and Career Calculator – Not all colleges are created equal and neither are majors. In fact some degrees from some institutions have a negative expected return on investment. You might be better off doing your own independent study… or backpacking around Europe. We include a college/career calculator. See how long it will take to pay off your student loans.
Better retain what you study. The “Forgetting Curve” is real. Without reinforcement most people will forget most of what they learned within days. Learn why cramming for exams is a total waste of time and money. Not reinforcing learning is like going to sea with a hole in your boat. There are some amazing techniques such as mind mapping that will help you retain more. You will want this before you take your first class.
Gain insight into why some people succeed without ever getting a degree. Finding your passion and discovering opportunities and problems to solve worthy of your time and energy might be bigger keys to success. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Ellison elected to drop out of college but continue to be voracious learners.
Become aware of genuine alternatives to college. Today, the internet has opened the door to new ways to learn. In other words, most knowledge is not proprietary to universities. We show you how you can take a course at Harvard for free or be tutored by a world famous movie directors. We point you to resources that allow you to develop marketable skill sets.
Other things you will learn include:
- The highest and lowest paying jobs by college major.
- The colleges that have the highest earning graduates both short term and over length of career
- The universities with highest number of billionaire and ultra high networth ($30 million plus) alumni
- The secret benefits of attending certain colleges that may not even be on your radar.
- The dirty secret about college loans and select colleges with with “no debt” policies
- Learn about the top highest paying jobs where no college education is required.
- Resume tips – learn how to present your informal education in a compelling way
Reviews and Testimonials
This book opened my eyes to a whole new way of thinking about college. I still decided to attend university but now have much more clarity in terms of my expectations and course of study.
After reading this book I decided to take a gap year filled with travel, self-study and start an internet business. I am learning so much that I feel like I’m drinking from a fire hose.
This is the book that I wished I had read 30 years ago. Sometimes real wisdom is not conventional.