Should I Go University? – Best Advice for You at the Crossroad of Your Life
You are at the crossroad of your life right now, huh? Unsure whether you should go to an University or go find a job or go pursue your dreams?
I know that frustration. Don't worry! I have some really great advice for people like you at this point of life. You know why? Because I was just like you, having the same problem.
You ready?
More...
"Should I Go University?" - Understand Yourself First
Just to make things crystal clear, the "University" I'm talking about here is the traditional University that you go and get a degree from.
In order to decide whether to attend University, you need to first understand a few things about YOURSELF first. Knowing what you want and your dreams is the key to making the critical decision.
Take a look at the following situations...
I Have a Huge Interest in Something
Ask yourself, do you have a huge interest in something that you want to pursue?
Yes? Good.
Next, is it the interest you truly want? Or is it the interest your parents want you to have it? Or is it influenced by your peers?
This is very important. Since young, a lot of people's brains are "programmed" in the way that their parents want. For example, some parents have the bad habit of inculcating their OWN dreams into their children. They want their children to become what they wanted to be. They never give their children the freedom and ability to discover their own passion. Most of us know how bad this is but it is still happening all around us everyday, believe it or not.
Some of them are influenced by their peers. Since you are at the crossroad that you need to make the important decision for YOURSELF, not for your parents or friends, be honest with yourself.
If that is the interest you truly want, then here's the next question for you...
Is the interest huge enough that you will enjoy and never give up regardless of any difficulties?
This is a tough question. But if you know yourself well and you know what you truly want, there isn't any reason for you not to get a professional education in University. As long as you enjoy what you do for the interest no matter what, you are prepared for more specialized training in Uni.
Wait! There's one more thing you need to consider - your financial situation! I'll talk about it later. Stay tuned! Let's move on to the next situation first.
I Don't Know What I Want Yet
I'm sure at this point of life, many of you are still unsure of your true passion. It's totally normal. There's nothing to be ashamed of. You may think that you are the only one who don't know what to do. But the reality is a lot of people don't know as well. There are very few who are 100% sure of what they to do at this point.
Believe it or not, there are a lot of people in their 30s, 40s or even 50s who are still not sure what they truly want. They just live the mediocre life day after day following the traditional corporate ladder without much meaning.
So, what to do now?
You need to know that your options are NOT limited. Why I say that?
Firstly, if your family's financial situation can afford you to go to University, you could go to a course that you "think" you are interested for now. Discover along the way whether the area is really for you. If not, I believe you could switch path (major/course). Just go to your University website, office or go to your professor, and find out the ways to switch path.
Don't wait until the end then you realize what you studied is not for you!
This is just one out of the many ways.
Secondly, if your family is not so well-to-do and you are still unsure about what you want, then forget about traditional University for now. Discover your true passion along the way is only for those families who can afford University tuition without much problem.
If you are unsure of what you want and you still pursue your degree by loans or whatever means, you are just putting unnecessary pressure on your family and creating more troubles.
What I recommend you is to go out and find a job and/or look for opportunities online.
If your family is having monetary problems, you should go out and find a job to support your family while discovering your passion. But I want to stress the second point here - finding opportunities online!
The Importance of Online Opportunities and How to Utilize it
Today, there are tons of online education available. If you are not ready for traditional University whether it's due to financial difficulties or you haven't found your true passion yet, the Internet is the source you should go to.
You can go and look for online training and courses that are related to your interests to discover what you want and learn some knowledge and skills at the same time.
Remember, traditional University is just a way for you to learn and get a more professional and specialized qualification to prepare you for the workforce. In today's world, this kind of training and qualification is not just limited to traditional University. There are tons of opportunities online waiting for you to be discovered, be it online classes, training, education, qualifications, degrees and on and on.
You can learn basically everything online. You can learn coding and computer languages from scratch online. You can learn all the languages online. You can learn business, marketing, everything!
What's so great about these online education is that:
- They are easily accessible. You just need a laptop and a decent Internet connection.
- Most of them cost a lot less than University tuition.
- They are NOT inferior to University Education. There are a lot today which are even better.
- You do not need any prior knowledge to learn online while University courses have pre-requisites in order to take the course.
- You can learn at your own pace.
These are just a few of the advantages online opportunities have over traditional University.
That is why your options are UNLIMITED. The only limit is your own knowledge and imagination.
So, if your score doesn't allow you to pursue the course you want in the traditional University, look for opportunities online. If your financial situation doesn't allow for traditional University, again, look for opportunities online. This is the same if you are not sure what you want yet.
Know Your Financial Situation
Let's get to a very important topic here. We have to accept that the world is not perfect and fair to everyone. Some of you come from a very wealthy family while some come from very humble backgrounds.
The financial situation of your family is not your responsibility at this point. It's your fate, not your fault if your family cannot afford your University Education. But this doesn't mean those who can afford University will definitely be more successful.
Think about this: Everyone comes from a different background but what is the ONE THING that everyone has in common, even the richest man on Earth?
It's "time"!
Everyone in this world only has 24 hours a day. This is the only thing that is fair to everyone. How successful you are depends on how you utilize your time. Your planning, productiveness and how you use your time is far more important than your current financial situation. Sounds good?
So here comes the different scenarios and what you should do...
1. If your family allows you to have University education and you clearly know what you want to pursue, then go ahead. Go get your University education and degree in your interest.
2. If you have a clear interest and dream but your family cannot afford your University education, you have 3 options.
- First, you go and get a student loan from your bank and you pay back the loans once you enter the workforce after your education.
- Second, if your scores are good enough, go and get a scholarship to fund your education. Do take note of the rules of the scholarship especially if there are bonds, meaning that whether you need to work for certain company for certain years after your education. This is something you need to consider carefully because you don't want to be forced to work for companies and do things you don't like.
- Third, once again, look for opportunities online! Forget about traditional University for now. You can always go back to University and get a degree when you have the money and time, even when you are 30, 40 years old.
3. Your family can afford you to go University but you do not know what you want. I've talked about this scenario earlier on. Refer back to "I don't know what I want yet".
Anyway, for me , I don't want to waste the time and money to learn something I'm not interested in or just to find out my passion. If I don't find my PURPOSE of going to University, I don't go. I take actions only when I know my purpose. Not only it will make you more productive, but it will also save you time and money from unnecessary things.
Money Making Opportunities
At this age, I'm sure you have more and more knowledge and experience with "money". Some of you may have already gone outside and taken up some part-time jobs to earn pocket money.
Part-time job may be the first and only thing that comes up to most young adults' mind when they need some money. To be honest, it's a good learning opportunity and experience before you enter the workforce. But I have some much better suggestions for you here.
But before that, thanks for reading until here and you are still with me. Really grateful for that. The following advice for you are my most genuine and highly recommended suggestions. You made the effort to read till here. I won't let you down. You ready?
The following two options are my recommendation for you to make some good money. You can do these when you are still not sure what to do. They can help you find your passion and also hone your skills at the same time. What's more exciting about this is that they can potentially be your career and make you full-time income. They are not just short term measures like part-time jobs. Their effects are long-term!
1. Be a Freelancer
Freelancer simply means you are self-employed and hired and paid by others to do some work in your expertise.
For example, if you are good at writing, you can offer writing services. If you are good at Photoshop, you can offer service to help people Photoshop their images. If you know about Logo design, you can offer design services. If you can translate, you can offer translation service. If you can build a website, you can offer that as well. The list goes on and on.
As long as you have an interest and a little bit of expertise which means you can do a decent work, you can offer that service. You don't have to be an expert.
Think about this: if you have an interest in something and you know some knowledge about it, you are way better than lots of people who don't know anything about that topic. When you help these people do what they want to do, they will regard you as expert even though you may not be.
Through this process, you not only can earn money but you also can hone your skills in that particular area of interest. You will eventually become better and better at it and you will know whether that's your passion if you are still not sure.
There are tons of ways to offer freelance service. One of the most popular and convenient way is via Fiverr.com. It's a platform that allows you to offer literally any service, usually for five dollars. (You can have custom offers for any other amounts as well) By the way, there are a lot of full-time freelancers out there.
Freelancing is a great way to earn money online for anyone in any area. At this juncture, you can earn money, hone your skills, and also find out your true passion all at the same time. So I think it's a perfect fit for you!
2. Be a Blogger
Being a blogger is something that everyone can do as well because you can be one as long as you have a interest, hobby or expertise.
As a blogger, you can take your knowledge in that area to the next level because you will learn and get better when you research about it and share things with others. Also, you can connect with others who are in the same field as you and learn from one another. Lastly, there's a huge earning potential as a blogger. Let me tell you why...
A blogger has a website, which is his online "asset". There are a lot of ways you can monetize your website. Let me give you some common ones.
After you've developed your website to a certain level, you can promote related products as an affiliate (other people's product which can be from Amazon.com). When people buy that from your link, you earn commissions. This is called Affiliate Marketing. (If you have not heard of this before, I know you will be confused. Don't worry, learn the best way to get started with affiliate marketing here.)
Another way you can earn money with your website is through advertisements. When you have Google ads on your website and visitors click on it, you earn money. Just by clicking the ad, you earn money! This seems like magic to many beginners. Also, you can rent out spaces on your website to private advertising. This means you work with companies to put their ads on your website and you earn money every month for renting that space out. One small ad can earn you hundreds or even thousands per month depending on your website popularity.
These are just a few ways you can monetize your blog. I don't want to include too much information here or else it will be too hard for you to absorb. Refer to this page for more information on this.
To be honest with you, I do not have an University Degree. But I'm learning a lot more than what you can learn in traditional University at a very very little cost as compared to University tuition fees. At the same time, I'm earning online passive income. How awesome is that?!
This is all possible because I invest my time and some money to my online education. I joined Wealthy Affiliate University, the online community which offers you the tools, education and training you need to start your online business. You can set up a website, become a blogger and make full-time income online.
Take a look at this income report from a WA member:
Click image to read the full post
This guy is not a genius. He is just ordinary people like you and me. After he set up and develop the website, he is able to earn thousands of passive income per month. This means that he can stop working on it and the money is still coming in. (Of course, this takes months or even years of consistent efforts.)
And see this young man's profile at WA:
Click image to see full profile
This young man named James is really mature and entrepreneurial. He started venturing online at the age of 13. When his friends are playing online games, he is investing time into his online education and online assets (websites). There's a recent update that he is earning at least $500 per month passively and I believe the number is increasing.
Let me tell you, this is my career. I build websites and do affiliate marketing business online without an University Degree. If you are interested, click the link below and set up a FREE account with Wealthy Affiliate now.
My Final Advice for You
We are all able to succeed, in one way or another. But in order to get there, you need to take real actions. At the same time, you need to know what you are doing. Plan and do things with purpose. Don't follow others. When all of your friends go to University and you don't, there's nothing wrong. As long as you know what you are doing and you are using your TIME well, you will succeed eventually.
So, Should you go University?
My answer is YES and NO.
Yes you should, when you know University can equip you with things you need to succeed and you can afford it.
No you shouldn't, when you can't afford it or you haven't found your purpose of going to University.
And that's it. My advice for you at the crossroad of your life. I hope this has been very helpful for you to assist you in making the critical decision.
Learning how to make money online and how to build websites, etc is becoming more and more important in today's digital world. You should really go and check out Wealthy Affiliate University. After you finished the courses, I can guarantee you that you know a lot more than graduates with degree in online marketing related courses.
In the comments below, tell me what are your thoughts about going to University and your opinions about the concepts that I talked about in this post, okay?
