Alternatives to College
Gap Year
The best way to arrange a gap year is to gain admission to college and then request that admittance be deferred for a year, if the college supports this option. This step will usually require that a plan for the deferred year be submitted and approved. There are some colleges, however, that do have specific college sponsored gap year programs for admitted students, e.g. see Tufts and Princeton. If you don’t get admitted to college before your gap year, then be sure to maintain contacts with your high school counselors in order to complete the admission process the following year.
Military Enlistment
- A salary that is on par with what a new college grad makes ($30-$45K).
- Free health care for you and your family.
- Little-to-no living costs, meaning you can save money faster.
- Tuition is paid for while in service, should you decide to earn a degree at some point. (You have a variety of online learning options, and many military bases have satellite classrooms of prominent colleges so you never even have to leave post.) You can also take advantage of the GI Bill once your active service is complete, and get at least portions of your education paid for, depending on your time on active duty.
- Travel the world – while certainly not the point of military service, this is a benefit that shouldn’t be ignored.
- 30 days of vacation per year. The average for folks with 20+ years of service in the American civilian workforce is only 17 vacation days.
- Retirement, with benefits, after 20 years of service. For an 18-year-old, that means you can retire at 38. While you likely won’t live off those benefits for the rest of your life, you’ll have much less to worry about financially.
- Must be 18 to join, without parental consent. You can be 17 when enrolling if you have parental consent.
- Must be a US resident (includes territories like Guam and Puerto Rico).
- A high school degree is not required, but is strongly desired. GEDs are sometimes acceptable as well.
- Pass the ASVAB Test – tests your comprehension in various categories like science, language, technical skills, mechanical skills, etc. It helps in assigning career roles within the military. The different branches have different passing scores for this test.
- Pass a physical. Each branch has different requirements for height, weight, and body fat. You are also tested for various physical ailments that could handicap your service.
Vocational Training and Certificate Programs
These careers are often associated with “blue collar” jobs, and sometimes carry some negative stereotypes in today’s culture. But the reality is that there are literally millions of people who work in skilled labor jobs, and they’re paid well, especially compared to newly-minted college graduates. The average starting salary for a college graduate is $45,000, while the average salary of someone who went through trade school is $42,000. Not much of a difference, and the trade school graduate is entering the workforce at least two years sooner.
In addition, you’re almost guaranteed a job coming out of one of these programs. There are numerous stories of large energy and construction projects that had to be canceled not due to money shortages, but due to labor shortages. Companies simply can’t find the skills to complete the work needed.
Yet another benefit of skilled labor is that your skills are not as exportable as those of people who sit at a computer in a cubicle all day. Even work that was formerly done by lawyers and doctors is being outsourced. You can’t outsource electrical or plumbing or welding jobs. These careers are truly what makes our nation run on a daily basis.
“There were over 3 million jobs in 2008 that were sitting there, and nobody was really talking about them because they weren’t aspirational. So long-story-short, I figured lack of appreciation for skilled labor ultimately manifested itself in a kind of disconnect that led us to push kids in one direction, ignore another direction, and that ultimately created a whole lot of jobs that nobody was too enthused about.”Rowe started a foundation that provides resources, scholarships, and even a job board for those interested in pursuing skilled trades. So, what are some specific career options? Take a look at the partial list below, and learn more details about these trades at Rowe’s website:
- Construction
- Welding
- Landscaping
- Electrical
- Painting
- Forestry
- Photography
- Woodworking
- Masonry
- Locksmithing
- Metal Work
Employment
By working full-time at a fast food joint, or as a barista, or doing landscaping, you’ll learn invaluable life lessons. You’ll learn about customer service, about working even when you don’t want to, about budgeting your income, about balancing life and work. Those are things that many people don’t learn until they’re out of college.
If after a couple of years of working you decide to go to college, you’ll be two years more mature, and you’ll have money in the bank to help you pay tuition. While wages are lower and unemployment is higher for those with only a high school degree, a little bit of elbow grease can go a long way.
Information Taken from Boulder Valley School District