Skip College, Get Rich Faster?

With my closest friend being a high school dropout and a successful engineer at a Fortune 100 company, I have good reason to advocate skipping college, entering the job market sooner and getting ahead faster, with concomitant salary increases. But will this work for everyone? And what do statistics and investment numbers have to say about it? Let's see.

Do College Grads Earn More?

According to a Census Bureau study conducted between 1998 and 2000, workers with professional degrees (for example: doctors, dentists, veterinarian surgeons) earned an average of $99,300 a year. College graduates earned an average of $45,400 a year. High school graduates earned an average of $25,900 and high school dropouts earned $18,900. According to these numbers, therefore, college graduates earned 75% more than high school graduates.

Are the Richest Businessmen College Grads?

According to Forbes Magazine, a look at their list of 400 richest Americans, known as the Forbes 400, presents an interesting point against associating college degrees with wealth. Fifty-eight members of the Forbes 400 either dropped out of college or never went in the first place. With a combined net-worth of $4.8 Billion, these fifty-eight members make up 15% of the total wealth ascribed to all four-hundred members. Interestingly, this number is double the net-worth of Fortune 400 members who went to ivy league colleges.

Is College Education the Reason for Higher Wages?

Economist Robert Reischauer of the Brookings Institution propounds an interesting hypothesis. If the smarter high school students are the ones who get accepted to college and later graduate, is it any surprise that they succeed more in life later and, consequently, earn higher wages? In that case, what would happen if a smart high school graduate invested his college fund instead of going to an ivy league school? $150,000 invested in bonds with a 5% yield would grow to $225,000 in 10 years. An investment in gold (which has risen by 213% since 2007) would grow to $469,950 in four years alone, should gold continue to rise at the present rate.

Does an Ivy League Education Amount to Opening Doors?

A strong argument in favor of college education, and especially ivy league education, is that contact with professors and other bright students in your field will lead to contacts later on through your career. In addition, the diploma itself becomes a magical key that opens doors into better paying jobs, with many Fortune 100 company recruiters seeking out ivy league students while they are still in school. In an article titled, "Is Yale A Waste Of Money?" Forbes explored the idea of replacing the diploma with a purchased certificate that would cost 10% of an ivy league education. An entrepreneur may start a business, the article suggests, which would certify highly bright individuals as ivy league material, thereby offering that coveted door-opener without the time and money needed to graduate from college.

In conclusion, the facts suggest that exceptionally bright people would succeed with or without a college diploma, but that most people benefit from the investment of time and money. This is especially true in the case of college graduates when compared to high school graduates. However, in the case of ivy league graduates, who are smarter and more likely to succeed anyway, there is strong evidence in support of skipping college and getting rich faster.

Reference:

Forbes: "5 Reasons to Skip College"

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