College, for many of us it’s the next step in our lives, but is it worth the time, money, and effort?

We all grew up believing that we can be whatever we want to be if we put our hearts to it and get a good education, but many of us have come to realize that “good” really just means “expensive.” Throughout high school, many of us try to get fantastic grades and high ACT/SAT scores to get into great colleges but fail to see the true costs of going to them.

Harvard, one of the top ivy league schools in the country, makes you pay a whopping $45,278 a year, but that’s not even the highest in the country. Columbia University, based out of New York, charges a wallet-busting $59,340 a year.

Recent studies by Gallup show that companies are starting to care less about where you get your degree, just if you receive one. The study shows that only 9% of business leaders on behalf of the Lumina foundation care about where they get their education. Not to say that it’ll look better on a resume if you go to Stanford instead of Rasmussen College, but employers are starting to care more about just getting what education you need so you can get the work experience.

Many students are primarily worried about being the best, going to great schools and getting good grades. Yet this often ends up causing burnout and choking the students in debt rather than enhancing their employ-ability. In reality, most employers don’t care that you had a 4.0 in college. In the real world, they just worry about you receiving the right education.

The average amount of money earned from going to college versus the average of those who didn’t is about 1 million dollars over the span of their lifetime. It’s quite the lump sum of cash, but you also don’t consider the amount of stress they go through to receive that bonus, and the time wasted from their life getting it.

People can not go to college and end up spending their life as a McDonald’s employee, flipping burgers for $11 an hour, and they can still be happier than the guy who spent 4 years in college in order to sit in a cubicle and look at emails all day from 9-5 while he makes jokes with the other unenthusiastic employees that work with him.

Overall, it just depends on the person. For some people, the time spent in college is a waste, spending their prime years locked away in a classroom instead of enjoying what life can give them. For others, college is the right option. It just depends on what you want out of life.