How to Avoid Making College the Worst Mistake You Ever Made

Chris Albert 00:00:01 (link to this point)

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Let's get into today's programming.

This is Chris Albert, and I'm here to remind you of one thing. Someday, you're going to die. Now that's not some morbid statement or scary idea. It's solid fact. Your time here on this earth is limited.

And we need to be reminded of this as much as possible for one simple reason, to live your best life while you can. This is the Warrior Soul Podcast.

What is going on, everybody? Welcome to the Warrior Soul Podcast. My name is Chris Albert. And today, I wanna talk to you a little bit about something I've got some experience with, which is college. I'm one of these guys who has gone to a lot of school.

In addition to serving in the Marine Corps, I got a couple of degrees. I got a bachelor's degree. I got a master's degree, and I studied for my PhD. And what I'd say to you is this, I know that school gets pushed on a lot of people. There's a lot of you out there who joined the military, and a lot of people come to you and say, hey, you want to go to college right now.

Now, I'm not going to be one of these people who says don't go to college. Try to I don't think it's black or white. I I think that there's some definite positives of going to school, but I see a lot of people making mistakes in the way that they do it. So they will spend a lot of money. Right?

Even though you're getting post nine eleven GI bill, if you're in, you are going to be spending a lot of money if if you're you're you're doing certain things. Right? A lot of guys, they'll go, they'll live at the school, they'll do it all out. And a lot of times post nine eleven GI bill doesn't cover all that, so you're gonna end up having to take out a bunch of student loans. And as you know, as you've probably seen from watching the news, student loans are literally crippling people right now.

The other aspect of it is that a lot of guys, they'll get out and they'll think that all four year degrees are created equal. Like, you go and you major in something and you major what you're interested in and that's what's gonna get you there. And, that's a mistake. Right? And I'll talk about that.

And then finally, there are some mistakes that people make when it comes to lifestyle and how they live their lives while they're in college. And I'll talk to you a little bit about that. The first one is this, the expenses, because I think this is by far the most important thing to consider. Right? Now you guys might not realize it.

Those of you who've been in the military, served for four years, everything like that, and now you're thinking about going to school. You have an advantage over other people who are your age, those of you who are 22. Right? You went in at 18, you got out, you're 22 now. Right?

And the advantage is this, you've worked, you've earned some money, hopefully, you didn't spend it all, and if you did it smart, you don't have a lot of debt. A lot of kids, when they go to school, basically, school is a four year bubble for them. They take out a bunch of student loans. They go to school. They go to class.

They live in a dorm room. And then what happens is they're racking up money the entire time, and they're not thinking about it. They're just thinking, hey, I'm working hard on it at at trying to get a degree. Hey, I'm working hard at this. I'm working hard at that.

They're not considering that, you know, every month they live in the dorm, that's thousands of more dollars racked up into their student loans. They're not thinking about that at all. So the biggest piece of advice I could give you here is don't try to go the traditional four year university route while you're you're gonna be living there. You're be living in the dorms. Try to go to a university nearby.

Alright? Don't try to change your housing situation or anything like that. Try to do everything you can to either get cheap housing or, you know, bite the bullet, let your parents if you can. If you can't, then keep a job and live in an apartment and go to work and then go to school, do online school, do whatever you can to maintain your income while you're doing that. I I get that part of going to college is the experience that you get.

Right? Just hanging out, partying, things like that, but it's not worth the financial toll you're gonna be taking because you could literally financially cripple yourself by by going that route. So try to get as much of it covered as you can. If you can get it paid for, that's great. If you can't, you gotta get a job.

I'm telling you this right now. I'm not gonna BS you about it. None of this BS, hey, you gotta focus on academics, work. You gotta work. Right?

You gotta work if you can't afford that. Right? Otherwise, again, student loans for the next fifty years. The next thing I'll say is this, the the the major, what you're gonna major in. And I I'm a big fan of liberal arts educations.

I thought it was awesome back in the day when I was able to go to school. I learned a whole lot. I learned things that I wouldn't have been able to learn anywhere else. But here's the deal. If you're going to school to better yourself, to earn a better income throughout your life, then what you need to do is you need to focus on something that's gonna be practical.

A four year degree in and of itself is not gonna get you anywhere. Right? You go and you major in something that's not highly sought after, that's not gonna teach you skills, that you need to know to learn something, then what's gonna end up happening is you're gonna get out and you're probably gonna earn less money than you would have had you just gone and got a job. So if you're in this to try to better yourself financially, don't sit there and try to major in something that that, you know, is it's like your passion or whatever. That's what people say these days.

Right? Go and major in something practical. Go and major in something that you know is going to bring you a good income afterwards. Alright? That sounds like sound advice.

Don't fall into one of these majors that that sounds really fun or that seems really interesting, but that's not gonna get you a job. The third thing is this. And I get a lot of guys, they'll go for four years in the military, they'll get out, they'll try to go to school, and they'll think, hey, you know what? I'm gonna be 23, 24, 25 while I'm in school. Oh, yeah.

I'm gonna get all these college girls and everything like that. And here's what I'm gonna tell you. It's gonna be really weird. It's gonna be really weird. There is a huge maturity differential between somebody who's 24 or 25 versus somebody who's nineteen twenty.

Right? You might have similar body types. You might still look young. You might but the maturity level is really, really different. So that's another thing about mistake I see a lot of guys make is, hey, I'm gonna go learn live in the dorms.

I'm gonna recapture this college experience that I didn't have, and it really shouldn't be like that. You are going to not like it very much if that's what you're expecting. What you should try to do as much as possible is get around guys and gals your own age. You're gonna wanna get around guys and gals your own age. You're gonna wanna surround yourself with people with a success mindset.

Try to surround yourself with other veterans, other people trying to do big things, people who are performing really well. You know, try to join some clubs that are gonna that that are centered around whatever profession you want to get. If you're interested in finance, try to join the finance club, that kind of thing. But don't go and try to do the the old fraternity thing or the the whole, you know, frat party, keg party kind of thing. Because again, all that's gonna do is it's gonna wear a hole into you.

Alright? And again, this advice might sound like simple, dumb advice, but it's stuff that's gonna save you a lot of pain, a lot of heartache, a lot of financial distress as long as you take it. Alright? So if you're thinking about school right now, and this is one thing I think COVID nineteen might be a good thing right now in some ways. I'm not saying it's a good thing at all, but in the ways that it's getting people to look at school in a different way.

Right? There is online school now. Right? You can take online lectures. You can learn as much there as you could in an actual classroom.

So these are all things to consider to drop those financial costs. And again, the only reason I tell you guys this is because these are all mistakes I've made in the past, and I'm telling you this from experience. And I don't want you to make the same mistakes that I did or the same mistakes that so many others are making. So hope this is helpful, guys. I'll be back at you later on this week with some more awesome content.

If you got any questions, concerns, wanna talk about something, feel free to reach out to me. I'm Chris Albert or I'm at Warrior Soul Agoge on Instagram, or you can reach out to me on my email address, chris@warriorsoulagoge, that's a g o g e dot com. Thanks so much, guys. Talk to you soon. Peace.