When you ask an adult what the path to success is, one of the most common responses goes like this:

“Go to school, get good grades, get into college and get a job.”

Well, maybe that worked twenty to thirty years ago, but today it is neither a guarantee of a good job nor is it necessarily the path to success.

As we all know, the price of college tuition has been rising dramatically over the past few decades here in America:

That graph scares me. Who knows how expensive college will be when I come of age? This graph is just an average; it doesn’t even show all the more expensive colleges that cost $40,000 or more per year!

I am especially saddened at the fact that this growth in prices will disproportionately affect low-income families. Considering wages have grown at a much slower pace than college tuition, low-income families will find it increasingly difficult to bridge the gap towards university, putting them at a disadvantage in an increasingly automated society.

Furthermore, a lot of college graduates are ending up without a proper job! Three in Twenty graduates are underemployed and five percent don’t even find a job at all! This lack of jobs is leading to an unhealthily competitive environment all the way back in high school. Trust me, I see the pressure myself.

So… you’re telling me that I:

• Cut through the competition of high school and get good grades,
• put myself through debt/4 years in a good college,
• and then end up without a good job?

That doesn’t sound like a very good deal to me…

Looking towards the future, I’m worried about entering college in three years. I’m worried about putting my relatives in debt and getting good work to raise my own family. I read stories on Quora.com all the time about college graduates without a job.

The future is uncertain, and when I read those stories, I can’t help but ask myself:

Could I be next?