College is not something that everyone needs, or even wants, to be a part of. Some are quite happy to leave high school and go right into work, and if that is what is the right thing for them, that’s great; they can do well in life and be happy. However, for others, this would be a mistake; if they want to be happy, they are going to need to obtain a college degree, as they will have the opportunities they are looking for when they do.
If you’re not sure where you sit, if you’re not sure whether having a college degree is going to benefit you or not, read on; here are some useful ideas to help you understand the benefits of having a degree so you can see if it would help you in your ultimate goals.
More Money
The idea that money isn’t everything or that it isn’t important is a nice one to have, but it often doesn’t work out. In fact, having the right amount of money (that doesn’t mean necessarily a lot of money – it just means enough to live on, enough to enjoy and having some left over to put into savings) is what keeps most people happy, satisfied, and even mentally healthy.
If you have a degree, studies show that you can earn as much as $30,000 per year more than non-graduates at the same level. As your career goes on, the gap between what those who have a degree can earn and their non-graduate counterparts widens, and in some sectors – specifically finance and banking – the difference could be hundreds of thousands of dollars. Although it costs money to obtain a degree, and although it can take a number of years to achieve it, once you have that qualification, you can make the rest of your life much easier thanks to being able to earn more money.
Easier To Get A Job
A degree is not a magic wand, and it won’t mean that every job is suddenly available to you. However, it will make it somewhat easier to get a job. It won’t make it easy, and this is a big distinction – there is a lot of competition for jobs, and you’ll still need to impress in an interview and have other elements on your resume apart from a degree – but it can help a great deal.
The reason for this is that employers want to know they are hiring the right person. If you have earned a degree, it will show that you are willing to work hard, that you are interested in the sector, that you can focus, and that you can plan. All of these things are necessary to do well at work (as well as many more that a degree will indicate), and rather than having to prove everything to a potential employer bit by bit, having a degree is like a shorthand, telling them what you can do and how well you can do it. If you have a degree, an interview will be a simpler thing to get.
Better Job Satisfaction
It’s possible to live your life with only a little money if you’re careful, and it’s possible to get a job without having a degree on your resume, but if you don’t have job satisfaction, you’re going to be miserable. You might even develop depression and anxiety. Job satisfaction might not seem to be all that important, to begin with, but once you start work and you realize just what it means, you’ll also understand why it’s such a crucial part of your life – or that it should be.
If you’re unhappy at work, it’s going to have a knock-on effect on the rest of your life. Your friendships and relationships will suffer because you can never fully unwind and enjoy yourself – you’ll always be worrying about work. Your hobbies will fade away because you just can’t get past the obstacles you’re facing in your job, and it’s distracting you. You might become quick to anger; you might just want to stay at home all the time. You’ll dread the end of the weekend. None of this is conducive to a happy, healthy life.
If you have a job you enjoy, however, you’ll not worry about it so much (and ideally not at all). You’ll have better days, and you’ll come home in a better mood because of it. You’ll be generally happier, and therefore you’ll find more time to exercise, eat healthily, spend time with friends and family, and generally enjoy things a lot more.
When you have a degree, you are much more likely to have more job satisfaction. Because you chose your degree and that led to a job that relates to your degree subject (in many cases, this is what happens), it’s much more likely that you’ll enjoy the work you’re doing because it’s something you already have an interest in. There is also more chance of keeping your job for longer; employers are going to be less keen to make anyone with a degree redundant because it will be harder to fill the gap left behind.
Your Social Network
It’s crucial that you work hard at college to get the best degree you can and to ensure a good future for yourself, but it’s just as important to relax and have fun when the opportunity arises. You should try to make friends with those working on the same course as you or living in the same area. Having friends at college is different from having friends at high school, and many people say that the friends they made during their time in higher education became friends for life. Having friends is good for your health, so if you can make some friends at college, you’ll be happier and healthier once more – and it won’t matter what degree you take or what degree they take as long as you have other things in common.
As well as being good for you and making life more enjoyable, these college friendships can have other benefits. You’ll be meeting people you would never have met outside of college, meaning that you’ll be able to appreciate many different backgrounds and cultures, giving you a more in-depth understanding of the world around you. This can help you in the future as you’ll have a more well-rounded world view and more ideas about how everything fits together. Plus, you might even find a business partner or someone who can help you (and whom you can help) through this college friendship group, enhancing your life and career even more.
Even if you study at an online school such as Marymount University online, you can still enjoy friendships and find people to spend time with. It might not be done in quite the same way as if you were to be together in ‘real life’, but the principles are the same. So if you prefer to work online because you already have a full-time job or you have other responsibilities that make online learning a much better option – and it does make a lot of sense for many people, since it allows you to work at a pace that suits you and gives you an excellent qualification – you don’t have to miss out on any aspect of college life, and you’ll still get all of the benefits if you plan things out well.
You’ll Deal With Challenges Better
Life is a challenging thing to deal with; we’ll be faced with challenges every day, and we’ll have to get over them and remove them from our path if possible if we want to get ahead and achieve the goals we set out to achieve. This is not going to be an easy thing to do, but it’s absolutely necessary.
When you have a college degree, you’ll already be a step ahead of anyone who doesn’t when it comes to solving problems that are getting in the way of what you want. As a college student, one of your main tasks will be to work out how to do this or that thing or what makes this thing work. You’ll be solving problems and overcoming challenges all the time, so by the time you get to the ‘real world,’ and you are working, you’ll be in a much better place when it comes to challenges and moving forward.
You’ll Know Yourself Better
When you know yourself better, you’ll be much more able to seek out and make the most of opportunities in your life. You’ll know the best way to learn for you, you’ll know your likes and dislikes, you’ll know what you want out of life, and you’ll know what you’re willing to do to achieve it.
College will teach you these things better than most other options in your life. If you want to know more about what you are like and who you really are, going to college, either at home or moving away, will give you a much deeper insight, allowing you to really make the most of your life once you have earned your degree.
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