Geoffrey W. Sutton PhD, Psychology and Culture

College is expensive, overrated for many, and not the guaranteed path to success we pretend it is. The data are clear: students leave with heavy debt, many graduates never work in their field, and the average student isn’t getting elite-level training. College can be fun — but fun comes with a price tag. A degree helps some people thrive, but plenty build great careers, strong skills, and fulfilling lives without one. Success has more than one doorway. College is only one of them. It’s time to stop selling one path as the only path. College is an option — not a destiny. *** Learn More: Many students leave college with substantial debt. https://educationdata.org/average-student-loan-debt Many graduates do not find work related to their college diploma. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/college-grads-jobs-underemployed/ On average, undergraduates have average intelligence. https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14293/S2199-1006.1.SOR.2024.0002.v1 Post Author Geoffrey W. Sutton, Pr...

Ambitious professionals often wait to learn if what they have accomplished will be enough to move one step forward in their career path. Would-be university professors are no exception. I survived the Ph.D. hazing activities (dissertation/ defence/ oral exams), which allowed me to enter employment as a psychologist. When I learned how little my advisor earned compared to my starting salary, I did not pursue an academic career and turned down an early offer from a small college. Eventually, after a professional career, I decided to leave fulltime work as a clinician to enter academia. I have thus been a participant-observer in a very different environment than the world of the self-employed. I had to learn to wait on others who sometimes moved at a snail's pace. I often wondered if the slowness was the reason for universities' " nonprofit " status. I couldn't imagine making patients or consultees waiting for answers or decisions as happens in academia. I used to th...