My generation has fallen into a huge trap when it comes to our philosophy about higher learning.  We have created a society of young people whom think that having a college degree will automatically make them successful in the marketplace.  Young people will spend anything and everything to get a so-called “prestigious” degree, and most young people look to Uncle Sam to help them fit the bill.  The end product is a young and broke twenty-something whom is working at a decent job making $30,000 a year with $25 - 50 grand in student loans. 

Allow me to step up onto my soap box as a 24 year old who hates paying his student loan payment every month.  Stop being brainwashed that going to a prestigious school and getting a great sounding degree will get you far in life.  Employers could care less about your “pedigree” rather than your work ethic and personality.  Employers want to know less about what your GPA was and what ranking your business school is rated. They want to know more about what kind of value you are going to bring to their company.  A degree may get your foot in the door, but an education will be the determining factor for how successful you are in the marketplace.  Your education is what you made of your four or eight years of school.  Your education is how much you learned and how well you apply it to real life situations.

Just take a step back for a moment before you go to graduate school and spend another $25 grand on schooling.  What is the REAL value of that degree.  If you have the money, then by all means go for it if that is what you want to do.  But if you do not have the money, don’t get caught up in the lie that you should borrow as much money as you want to keep piling the initials up after your name.