What Gen Z Is Getting Wrong About College

Is Gen Z giving up on college too soon? We explore why college still matters and whether skipping college means missing out on more than just a diploma. Kelli (00:00) Hi everyone, welcome back to this week's episode of the Goldsea Podcast. Today I'm going to be talking about if college is still worth it. Every time I go on social media lately, I see somebody talking about how college is a waste of time. People are saying that degrees don't matter anymore, that you can learn everything online, and that spending four years in a classroom just to end up working a regular nine to five is not worth it. Honestly, I understand where some of these people are coming from because college is expensive. Student loans are a huge financial burden, and we all know somebody who graduated with a degree and struggled to find a job afterwards. But as somebody who did graduate from college, I feel like I have a very different perspective. I actually think college is still incredibly important, and not necessarily for the reasons people usually talk about. When we discuss whether college is worth it, the conversation almost always revolves around one question. Will this degree help me get a good job? And obviously that's an important question, but I think we are overlooking something much bigger. College teaches you so many things that have absolutely nothing to do with your major. I'm talking about communication skills, public speaking, critical thinking, time management, etiquette, networking, and really just learning how to work with people who are completely different from you. Even something as simple as knowing how to create a resume or set up a LinkedIn profile. You would be so surprised by how many people reach adulthood without knowing how to do these things. This is why I think we underestimate how valuable those skills become once we enter the professional world. So in this episode, I'm gonna be talking about why I believe college is still worth pursuing, what I actually learned outside of my classes, and why I think some of the advice that's telling young people to skip college is missing the bigger picture. First I want to talk a little bit about my own experience. I graduated from California State University Northridge in 2025 with a bachelor's degree in communication studies. I did not take the traditional route of going straight into a four-year university because I graduated during the year of COVID and I had no idea what I wanted to do. I actually spent three years at community college before transferring to CSUN And when I look back at it, I'm so glad that I did. I kind of got to experience two different college environments, especially because the first year and a half I was pretty much all online because of COVID. But I think there's sometimes this pressure when you're graduating high school that you have to have your entire life figured out and you need to know what university you're going to and what you're majoring in and what career you're going to pursue. Community College gave me the opportunity to continue my education without immediately committing to the cost of a four-year university. And when I eventually transferred to CSUN, I was able to build on that experience. What I appreciated the most about college now isn't necessarily a specific textbook or lecture or professor. It's everything I had to learn to get through those years. I had to complete assignments on time, communicate with professors, collaborate with my classmates, and figure out how to manage all of my responsibilities. I had to learn how to present my ideas and explain my opinions, organize this information and how to take feedback. Those might sound like small things, but I use those skills constantly in my professional life, and that's something I didn't appreciate while I was in school. Here's something that I think people overlook. When you graduate from high school and go directly into college, you're entering another environment where you're constantly being challenged to learn. For the next several years, you're going to still be reading, writing, presenting, researching, collaborating and sell and solving problems. You're doing these things repeatedly with every semester because you have new classes, you have new professors, classmates, new expectations, and assignments that require completely different skills. Now, I'm not saying that people who don't attend college stop learning because some people do go straight into full-time jobs, apprenticeships, internships, or businesses where they develop incredible skills. But I do think college specifically provides a particular structured learning environment that can be difficult to replicate if you're not intentionally seeking those experiences elsewhere. Think about it. If you're taking five classes every semester, you'll have five different professors with completely different teaching styles. One professor may expect a detailed research paper, and the other might assign group presentations. When you're in college, you're constantly adapting, and that ability to adapt becomes incredibly useful when you enter the workforce. In a professional environment, you're going to encounter different managers, coworkers, and expectations. So you need to know how to adjust your communication style depending on the situation. And I think college gives you years of practice doing exactly that. One of the biggest skills that I developed in college was public speaking, and I think this is something that deserves so much more attention Many people are uncomfortable speaking in front of others. I understand why public speaking can be intimidating. You're standing in front of a room full of people trying to remember what you're supposed to say, and hopefully you don't completely embarrass yourself. But the more you do it, the more comfortable you get, and college makes you practice. You'll have individual presentations, group presentations, debates, class discussions, and sometimes you have to stand in front of people that you don't even know and explain a topic you spent weeks researching. Over time, you learn how to organize your thoughts and really communicate them clearly. You learn how to make a PowerPoint presentation that makes sense and how to explain complicated information to people who have never heard of these terms in their life. You learn how to speak confidently and how to answer questions when somebody challenges you. And again, these are more valuable skills that you will use in the workplace. Whether you're pitching a marketing campaign or presenting results to your manager, maybe just interviewing for a job or speaking with a client. I've worked in retail, marketing, media, and these skills are such an important part of those environments. Being good at your job isn't always enough. You also need to know how to explain what you're doing and why it matters. And I truly think college helped me become much more comfortable with that. So now here's another skill that doesn't get talked about enough. It's listening. And I don't mean just sitting quietly while somebody else talks. I mean actually listening to understand what somebody is saying. In college you're exposed constantly to different opinions. Especially in a major like mine, communication studies, we are having classroom discussions where people completely disagree. I was hearing perspectives from everyone, people from different backgrounds, people who have had different experiences and beliefs. And sometimes somebody will say something you completely disagree with, and you just have to listen. You have to understand their argument before you can respond to it. And that's such an important skill in today's world, not even just the workforce. Social media has made it incredibly easy for people to surround themselves with opinions that they already agree with. If somebody online says something we don't like, we can scroll past them, block, or leave a comment. But in a classroom, you can't always avoid people who think differently. You have to learn how to engage with them. And I think that helps develop emotional maturity. It teaches a lot of people that disagreeing with someone doesn't mean you can't respect them. And it also teaches you that sometimes you might be wrong. In college, you meet so many people that have information or have been in an experience that you've never even thought of. And being willing to listen can completely change your perspective. This is something that I think will benefit you not only professionally, but also personally. This can save your friendships, your relationships, because listening is one of the most important skills you can have. Now I'm gonna touch on something that I mentioned earlier because I think this is especially important for young people. Professional development. I genuinely think a lot of people underestimate how much there is to learn about navigating the job market. And I'm not even talking about the technical skills required for a specific career. I'm talking about the basics. How do you make a professional resume? What's supposed to be on it? How do you write a cover letter? What do I need to do to prepare for an interview? Who should we reach out to? I know a ton of people who don't understand what LinkedIn is used for. And I think that's so interesting because depending on the industry you want to enter, LinkedIn can be so helpful. It's not just another social media platform. It's a place where you can build a professional identity and connect with the people in your industry. Universities often provide career centers, workshops, networking events, and so many other resources that will help students prepare for employment as soon as they get out of college. Here is the important part that we have to put a star by. You actually have to use them. There are so many resources in college that people don't even know about and never get used. When you get to your first year, it is so important to find out what resources your campus has. Just because you're attending college doesn't mean you're going to graduate with an incredible resume or professional network. You need to take advantage of what's available. That's a huge part of the college experience people should pay more attention to. Because knowing how to market yourself professionally can make a huge difference when you're looking for opportunities. You could have great skills, but you may not know how to communicate them on a resume or during an interview. And that's why I think career preparation should be taken just as seriously as academic performance. Moving on to an unpopular opinion, but I actually think group projects are one of the most useful things college makes you do. I know what some people might be thinking because we've all experienced the frustration of being assigned in a group project where one person does absolutely nothing. There's always somebody who doesn't respond in the group chat, someone who waits till the last minute, and someone who's just not going to perform as well as everybody else. But they're still gonna get the same grade as everyone despite contributing almost nothing. But here's the thing: this is so realistic because when you enter the workforce, you don't choose every person that you work with. You're going to have coworkers with different personalities, work ethics, and communication styles, and you still have to figure out how to get things done. Group projects really teach you how to divide the responsibilities and establish the deadlines. Sometimes this is also going to teach you how to deal with conflict. I feel like I definitely learned how to hold people accountable and how to compromise in these group projects. And they also teach something really important about leadership. Being a leader doesn't necessarily mean doing everything yourself, it means understanding everybody's strengths and figuring out how to bring them together. And that is also another skill that becomes incredibly valuable in professional environments. Another thing I really appreciate about college is how much independence it requires because high school and college are very different environments. In high school, there's a more structured schedule. Teachers are gonna keep reminding you about assignments. You attend classes at these consistent times because you're at school all day from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. There's more supervision. But in college, you have to take much more responsibility for yourself. No one is going to remind you every day that you have a research paper due in a month. You gotta keep track of it. You have to manage your schedule and you have to decide how you're going to spend your time. Some days you might have three assignments due, and maybe you're working a job or two while taking these classes. Somehow you have to figure out how to balance everything. This is such an important life skill because adulthood is basically one long exercise in managing competing responsibilities. You have work, bills, doctors' appointments, relationships, personal goals, and things that just come up unexpectedly. No one is going to organize all of that except for you. And college gives everyone the opportunity to develop these habits while you're still in the educational environment. That transition from being a teenager to becoming a more independent adult is one of the most valuable parts of the experience. Attending college also really teaches you how to think. When we're living in a time where information is everywhere, you can search almost anything online, watch a tutorial, ask AI to explain a subject to you, and that is amazing. But having access to all this information isn't the same as knowing how to evaluate it. Critical thinking is such an important skill to have that higher education will help you develop. In college, you're often required to research topics using credible sources. You have to distinguish between evidence and opinion. You have to support your arguments, and you have to consider perspectives that might challenge your original beliefs. This is becoming even more important nowadays, especially because AI can fully generate essays, images, videos, and information that sounds convincing even when it's not accurate. We need people who know how to question what they're reading and recognize weak arguments because just because something is popular online doesn't mean it's true. I work in media, so this is something I constantly think about. Researching a story isn't just about finding the information. it's about determining which information is credible, understanding the context, and presenting it responsibly. These habits are Far more useful beyond journalism and media. They're important in business, healthcare, finance, politics, and really everyday decision making. So at the end of the day, is college actually worth the money? I didn't want to spend this entire episode praising college without addressing the biggest criticism, the cost. This is where the argument against college becomes much more understandable because yes, tuition can be incredibly expensive. And the idea of taking out tens of thousands of dollars just to be in student debt without a guaranteed drop afterwards is a legitimate concern. According to a two thousand twenty six study from Gallup and the Lumina Foundation, only about one in four adults without a college degree believed that most people could access a quality, affordable education. Now this says a lot. People aren't necessarily rejecting education because they think learning is useless. They're questioning whether they can afford it. That same research found that nearly three quarters of adults without a degree still believed earning a credential was just as important as it was twenty years ago. So the conversation is more complicated than simply saying Gen Z doesn't believe in college anymore. And the financial data is worth considering too. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2025, full-time workers aged 25 and older with a bachelor's degree had median weekly earnings of about $1,578. For workers whose highest education was a high school diploma, that number was about $966. That's a difference of more than $600 a week. The unemployment rate was also lower among bachelor's degree holders. Now, this doesn't mean every college graduate will earn more money than every person without a degree. There are successful entrepreneurs, tradespeople and professionals who earn incredibly high incomes without attending college. These numbers don't account for every individual's tuition costs or career path, but they do suggest that on average, higher education continues to be associated with meaningful economic advantages. So I think the better question isn't necessarily whether college is worth it, it's whether the specific college experience you're considering is worth its cost. So to conclude, I do want to be clear about something. I don't think everybody needs to go to college. There are plenty of careers where a four-year degree isn't necessary. If somebody wants to become an electrician, work in a skilled trade, or start a business, there might be more other ways to reach their goals. And some people are very self-motivated and know exactly what they want to do and they're capable of developing the skills they need independently. But I think the problem came when we started treating college as though it was universally unnecessary. Just because one person became successful without a degree doesn't mean everybody is going to be successful without their degree. We see so many success stories online, people who dropped out of colleges and built million-dollar businesses, entrepreneurs who never even finished school. And these stories can be inspiring, but they're not representative of everybody's experience. I think it's really important for young people to be realistic about their options. If you don't want to attend college, that's fine. But what's your plan? How are you going to develop your skills and build your network and gain real experience? Skipping college doesn't mean you can skip professional development. It just means you're responsible for finding other ways to achieve it. So when I hear people saying college is a waste of time, I understand some of the frustration. I get the concern about student loans, and I get the job market is difficult. And I understand why some people would just rather start building their own business. But I really believe that college can be one of the most valuable experiences a young person has. Not just because of what you study, but because of who you become while you're there. We learn how to communicate, listen, collaborate, and manage our time. These are skills that we're going to use every day for the rest of our lives. And yes, I don't think college is the only place you can learn them, but I do think it's one of the few environments designed to give you repeated opportunities to practice so many of them at once. For me, the experience was 100% worth it. I'm glad I went to community college, I'm glad I transferred to CSUN, and I'm grateful for the things I learned that had nothing to do with my major. Now that I'm working professionally, I can recognize how much of that experience still influences the way that I approach my work. So if you're younger and trying to decide whether college is right for you, my advice would be to look beyond the degree itself and think about the environment you want to be in. If college isn't the right path, make sure you're still investing in your education and personal development in other ways. Because whether you're in a classroom or not, learning should not stop when you graduate high school. Thank you guys so much for listening. I will see you all in the next episode.