We are living in times where the labor market has become very fast-paced and hectic and workplace mobility has become one of the most desirable qualities of the present-day business world. With that in mind, it is easy to see why spending years on earning a college degree can be seen as a waste of time.
After all, when you start working out your life and your career you will be judged on what skills you have not on what academic credentials you possess, right?
Well, not entirely. While real-life skills will always be valued, obtaining a college degree not only makes a critical step in obtaining these skills but also forges you into a more complete person and helps you realize your full potential. Let us see how this process works in greater detail.
Access to curated and vital knowledge
Let us start this conversation by debunking one of the most common misconceptions regarding the and that is that formal education and which is that the knowledge you get at college or university is not only very practical and applicable in real life but also very carefully selected to improve your competencies in the field of work where you want to make your career. Trying to compile these bits of knowledge and skills on your own takes too much time and effort. You also need to go through a painful trial and error process and make the whole thing even more taxing. Getting good marks makes learning much simpler.
Improving valuable soft skills
Another common misconception regarding formal education is that even if you manage to learn a lot of useful things you don’t really develop the skills necessary for competing in the present-day labor market which sets you back behind your peers who have more real-life experience. These claims are, of course, false, and all activities you need to perform during your college years are designed to improve your communication abilities, leadership skills, time management, as well as critical thinking. What’s even better, you get to develop all these vital traits in a structured, safe, and progressive environment.
Learning how to learn
All the things we have covered above don’t change the fact that present-day society forces people to adopt the mentality of life-long learning and be ready to quickly adapt to current circumstances as quickly as possible. College education plays an incredibly important role in the development of these skills as well.
When going through their college years, the students are not only pointed to valuable student-oriented learning resources like Warwick essays but are also encouraged to structure their learning sessions and discover new ways of learning efficiently. These skills can be applied even after graduation.
Endless networking opportunities
The business world is full of stories of overnight empires and billionaires who rose from nothing and used only their wit to reach stardom. Although such examples can be found, recent research tells us that as many as 98% of active CEOs hold at least a bachelor’s degree and 64% have a Master’s degree.
So, enrolling in college does not only represent a perfect way to follow in the footsteps of these great people but also get to know the future industry leaders while they are still young and form friendships that will last a lifetime. Trying to build such a powerful network from scratch is nowhere near as easy.
Pushing yourself out of your comfort zone
Being able to take your life journey at your own pace usually gives you too much freedom to make safe choices, go down the path with the least resistance and ultimately deprive yourself of the opportunity to grow as a person. Choosing to get a college degree definitely takes you out of this comfort zone and forces you to fit into a system that plays by its own rules and forces you to adapt to other people. You need to change your habits, become more responsible, and learn to work with deadlines. Realizing your full potential will never be possible if you don’t allow yourself to experience such a welcome change of pace.
Broadening your personal horizons
Last but not least, we would like to point out that even despite all the valuable things we have covered above, the greats value of earning a degree possibly comes in the fact that you get to leave your ethnic, regional, cultural, language, or personal interest barriers and experience the world of opposing opinions and backgrounds where you will get an opportunity to thrive. Also, subjects like literature, history, or philosophy that may seem unnecessary at first glance can go a long way in broadening your horizons and teaching you to observe the world from a different perspective. Such experiences are truly invaluable.
So, there you have it – the top six ways in which earning a degree makes you a more realized, happier, and successful person. As we can see, enrolling in college or university is nowhere near a waste of time. It does, however, represent a slower, more methodical, and more deliberate way of reaching your personal goal. Some people may look at this as a setback but let us all remind ourselves of the tale of the rabbit and the tortoise – slow and steady always wins the race.
