every year we have to say it
Trade school is ok!
I will bang this drum until my arms fall off:
Community college is not only OK, it’s a very good idea. 90% of jobs aren’t going to care where you got your degree. For those remaining 10%, here’s a hack that can save you tens of thousands of dollars in tuition.
Go to community college, get an Associate’s Degree in General Ed. This will take you two years, and it is statistically likely that at the end of those two years you will have a better idea of what you want to actually do with your life than you did when you were fucking seventeen years old.
THEN Decide on your major. If you need a Prestigious School, you are much more likely to get in with an associate’s degree and a good GPA than you were with a diploma and a good GPA. Since you have an associate’s degree, those credits are locked. None of this “Okay, you can transfer to our college, but you’re going to have to retake your English Credits and maybe another humanities course” shit. You have a degree that says you completed that part of your education, and you can now concentrate on the remaining two years required for a four year degree in your major.
We are doing kids a major disservice when we act like college is the only life path that can lead to success. These days the market is oversaturated with hyper specific degrees that there aren’t enough jobs for, while not enough people are going into trades to keep those professions running smoothly.
You can go into a trade school or an apprenticeship instead of college, you won’t spend as much, and you will start making money sooner. And let me just add: people make good money in the trades.
Trade school or tech institutes are really good alternatives to even community college. Many MANY jobs don’t even require a degree, just certification (or you get better pay with a cert) so you may be spending more at even a CC than you actually need to. And most trade/TIs will get you in and out in under a year!