DON’T KILL YOURSELF FOR A DIPLOMA; IT'S WORTH GOT DROPPED!

LANDSCAPE OF GLOBAL EDUCATION IS SHIFTING; WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO YOUR COLLEGE DEGREE?

PRESSURE AND TEENAGE SUICIDES

“Asian student are famous for their smartness and capacity to work hard” is a common assumption in the west. Truth is that the Asian countries have high rate of teenage suicide. Coming from Asian background I can relate to the pressure from parents and society to get a good grade. I realized same pressure or stress that Chinese society give to their youth. Getting good grades, going to big schools and working in a big jobs are expected form of good life everywhere in the world including China.

However big jobs are few, number of candidates are increased daily. Thus competition gets ruthless, and young people gets pressured more and more. Graduates in China will be mass of educated unemployed class, unless they understand value of global education. Unfortunately west is in no better shape!

For some Chinese, getting the US education is a niche. However, Chinese education versus the US education is just a matter of collectivism and individualism. From my personal experience, the American higher education institutes encourage their students to think creative and find solutions, Chinese higher education requires mass amount of textbook memorization. So, which diploma should you have to get ahead in the race?

FREE DIPLOMA FOR EVERYONE!

Chinese graduates have to know that higher education is not the only key to a successful life. Many people reach success without college degree. So instead of aiming for a job after graduation, college student should focus usefulness of their skill to create their own companies or ventures. Become job creators instead of job seekers! because college degree just got cheap!

Current state of world education and where the future is headed, reminds me of a quote from a movie named Good Will Hunting. In the movie scene where Will Hunting as a self-educated genius argues with Harvard undergraduate student, and he said “You have paid $40’000 per year for an education that can be obtained from a public library for $1.50”. Come to think of it, it states the simple fact about self-education in global terms. College diploma only shows how well you are institutionalized. It also shows that you have spent money and time obtain that piece of paper. It does not show how skilled you are. So would you really want to spend 40’000.00 USD just for diploma? If so, think about per diploma the value decrease in the global education market.

The US, and other parts of free world, hundreds of schools offer full online undergraduate degrees. Thousands of schools offer full online courses. For anyone who has an Internet access, and a computer, college degree becomes part time, easily obtainable piece of paper for very low price. There are even free western college classes online. Socio-entrepreneurs and forward thinking professors of educational institutions around the world created courses, online video lectures, test quizzes and full certified classes online for no fee. Anyone, anywhere can go to college course online and get a certificate or diploma for the completion of that course. These movement of free-world's market changes the global landscape of higher education.

FUTURE OF YOUR COLLEGE DEGREE

Diplomas earned online are apparently acceptable for employees. Thus, millions of people around the globe are obtaining online college degrees. Since its so easily obtainable, value and the cost drops significantly from 4'000 USD per class of three credit to 250$ per credit class. It will eventually become free! Worthless as a High school diploma, Bachelors degree will be available for everyone in the future. I am sure in the future; education will be free or very cheap worldwide.

Over 500 hundred years ago or more, only privileged class of few or elite of social pyramid had an access to education, which back then was more like an accessory instead of utility. 400 years after, access to education became significantly easy. Increased number of schools in Europe and United States allowed common people to obtain high school and college degree. But still it was hard to get advanced degrees such as Masters and PHD. Nowadays, a truck driver from Tennessee can obtain MBA from his home while working full time. Around the world bachelor’s degree became piece of paper that everyone carries around like a high school diploma.

500 years from now, kids will go to and graduate from school in much early age. 19 years old students will graduate with PHD. Bachelors and masters will be obsolete and will be offered in public schools right after high school. Education will be free in all stages of human life. There will be new form of receiving common knowledge that we learn in high school. Global education will be more personalized, less political, easy to obtain, and worthless unless its skill based.

So please do not kill yourself for something that holds no value!