When I was in college, I often used to wonder if I was going to ever use the things I was learning at an actual job. Things like the Fortran programming language or differential equations or organic chemistry.
I had a strong feeling that I would probably never see any of these things ever again after I graduated. My suspicions were correct. I never did see those things in the real world.
So was college a waste of time for me and others who never use more than 90% of the actual content taught in classes?
The answer is a resounding No. College is Not a waste of time.
Let me explain.
Following are the reasons in my mind of why I think everyone who can afford to do so should go to college.
Learning to interact with others
College is a social affair. You are often learning and interacting within teams. That type of interaction, hopefully in person but even virtual is better than nothing, is a necessity to be able to learn how to interact with others in the real world. I’m not saying that learning by yourself is not necessary, it definitely is, but collaborative learning and interaction in a social setting is equally important to understand and be able to relate with others.
Networking with people
Building on the last point, when you are learning alongside others, you’re making connections with them at a deeper level. You are automatically understanding what makes people tick and what ticks them off 😊.
You will most probably see the same types of personalities that you see in college and the real world as well. No doubt you will run into a Susan in your career that will remind you of Liz back in college or a John at a work social event who will sound eerily similar to a Michael who was in your chemistry class. These things are a given. On top of that, if you are lucky enough to go to a prestigious school with really ambitious people then chances are that the connection with these people will by itself give you an upper hand within your career by helping you get the right introductions or that lucrative contract which requires a level of trust in the individual and not just a competence of the company they represent.
Learning how to learn
Learning by itself is an art. There is automatic learning by consuming things from our surroundings. And then there is intentional learning. The intentional type of learning is a skill that we learn in school. Just to be clear, I’m not talking about memorization. I don’t really call that learning. That’s much more like ingesting stuff that you are supposed to be able to regurgitate when the need arises. I’m not fond of that type of “learning”.
The learning that I’m referring to here is how to teach your mind to break down information and to consume it in a manner that brings clarity and focus. That’s the type of learning that is crucial in the real world, in our careers as well as our relationships.
Building capacity to learn
When you want to tone or enlarge your bodily muscles, you work out.
Now while your brain is not a muscle (it’s an organ), I do believe that we need to work out our brain on a consistent basis for it to not become dormant and also for it to stretch its boundaries. If we believe that different different parts of our brain controls different things like appreciation for the arts, mathematical calculations, empathy for others, understanding of our surroundings and the cosmos, all of which has been proven that brain different parts of our brain do these things, then we owe it to ourselves to stretch boundaries of each of these areas and to grow in each direction.
When we are exposed to different subjects in college or in any schooling for that matter, that’s exactly what is happening. It is stretching our mind in all different directions. Music, physical education, math, english, science, critical reasoning, etc.
All that stuff stretches your mind and gets you ready to accept new information in those areas.
All throughout our lives, we have new information that we are exposed to whether we like it or not. If we don’t have the capacity in our brain to understand what information is helpful and what is not, what we should be paying attention to and what we should be ignoring, what we need to be diving deep inside, we will flail through life getting pushed by others who make decisions for us. And that’s not a good way to live our lives. We deserve better.
So persevere through college. Don’t believe that it’s a waste of time. It’s helping you get ready for the rest of your life.
And hey, enjoy your summers off because once you get into the real world, there ain’t no such thing as a summer vacation 😃.