Читать книгу To University and Beyond - Mandee Heller Adler - Страница 8
Оглавление2 College Is Not for Everyone: Get Paid to Learn
We realize you'll most likely get a traditional undergraduate degree and maybe more degrees beyond that. That said, a traditional degree is not the right choice for everyone. It can be expensive, time consuming, and may leave you with a mountain of debt. Of course, it's also a credential and network you can use for the rest of your life.
Before you and your family make an expensive long‐term commitment, we encourage you to consider some other options that may pay you immediately, may be more prestigious, and are likely much faster. We think that regardless of what path you take, the ideas we discuss in this book are going to help you take maximum advantage of whatever road is right for you.
We've ranked in this chapter some educational options for you, roughly in declining order of how much money you can get paid. “Much better that someone pays you, than you pay tuition to someone else, right?”
An exceptional, and very competitive, option is the Thiel Fellowship (thielfellowship.org). “The Thiel Fellowship is a two‐year program for young people [under age 22] who want to build new things. Thiel Fellows skip or step out of college to receive a $100,000 grant and support from the Thiel Foundation's network of founders, investors, and scientists.”
Another option is the technology accelerators, that is, Y Combinator (ycombinator.com) and TechStars (Techstars.com). These will give you capital (typically $100,000–$200,000) to build a new company, and you can pay yourself a salary out of that capital. You need to have an idea and typically a prototype before they'll accept you. You'll graduate as chief executive officer (CEO) of a funded start‐up company.
An emerging category of accelerator is the “Talent Investors.” These typically provide many of the services you would see in an accelerator: mentorship, office space, investment into the company. However, Talent Investors fund individuals, rather than companies. They typically pay you a modest stipend (e.g. $2,000/month) for several months to research a start‐up idea. Leaders include Antler (antler.co) and Entrepreneur First (joinef.com).
Military training teaches you real‐world skills that you'll never get in a traditional college, and in certain roles you'll work with sophisticated technologies that typical universities cannot afford. See https://usa.gov/join-military and https://military.com/join-armed-forces.
Another option is targeted education programs that are squarely focused on career preparation and dispense with most of the traditional overhead of universities. These are typically far cheaper than a conventional university. Some examples:
HackerU (hackerusa.com) collaborates with top tier universities to provide immersive, comprehensive, and rigorous programs in digital skills, with salaries ranging from $50,000 to $100,000.
Lambda School (lambdaschool.com) teaches the tech skills you need to launch a new career in just 9 months. You don't pay tuition until you land a job making at least $50,000 a year.
Praxis (discoverpraxis.com) says, “During … . bootcamp you'll learn the skills employers are looking for as well as how to showcase those skills, and then you'll put them to use during your apprenticeship while getting paid. During the apprenticeship you'll make a minimum of $15,000, and the average salary upon graduation for Praxis grads is $50,000/year.” Tuition: $12,000.
Revature (revature.com) teaches coding at no cost and then helps you find a job.
For an overview of coding bootcamps, see Coursereport.com. If you want to borrow money for this purpose, you may find ClimbCredit.com helpful. Forte (forteofficial.com)1 finances vocational reskilling at no cost to either students or governments.
The last option is to simply teach yourself. Famed writer Ray Bradbury said,
I didn't go to college, but when I graduated from high school I went down to the local library and I spent ten years there, two or three days a week, and I got a better education than most people get from universities. So I graduated from the library when I was twenty‐eight years old. 2
Bradbury did this long before the Internet. Now you can teach yourself almost any skill online, for free. This does take a high level of self‐control and motivation. If you take the autodidact path, it will typically be challenging to get your first paid job, because you'll be lacking traditional credentials. However, once you're employed and do well in your job, your lack of traditional credentials will matter much less.
On almost any subject imaginable, you can find newsletters, podcasts, videos, and books. You'll find very influential people are sometimes surprisingly approachable on social media, if you engage thoughtfully with them. TheForage.com offers free virtual work experience from leading companies such as Deloitte, KPMG, and more.
The simplest way to learn a subject online is via a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course). Many offer professional certificates, and some offer courses in conjunction with traditional colleges. Businesses offering classes include Disney, Goldman Sachs, IBM, and The Linux Foundation. Courses are typically free unless a student intends to obtain recognized credit, such as a degree or certification.
We've listed here the major MOOCs:
Coursera (coursera.org)
EdX (edx.org)
FutureLearn (futurelearn.com)
Khan Academy (khanacademy.org)
MIT OpencourseWare (ocw.mit.edu)
Open Education (sparcopen.org/open-education)
OpenLearn (open.edu/openlearn)
On Deck (https://www.beondeck.com/)
