The 13 Keys to College Success. Beer Bongs Suspiciously Absent.

“Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son.  Mr. Hoover, president of Delta house?  1.6; four C’s and an F.  A fine example you set!  Daniel Simpson Day . . . has no grade point average.  All courses incomplete. Mr. Blutarsky.  Zero.  Point.  Zero.” – Animal House

Meet my freshman adviser, Mr. Morpheus.

Here is my advice to a new college student, or even one currently in college if they’re slow.  Hey, roomies, if they’re currently passed out on the floor of their bedroom after one too many $1 Zombies® at Applebees™, you can write the following post on their face in Sharpie® for them.  Don’t worry, they’ll thank you later.

Sage Wilder Advice Number One:  College is an investment.

And not like a lame “investment as a metaphor” – college is an actual, real investment of your time and somebody’s money.

College costs a lot, tens of thousands of dollars a year, plus the cost is going up every year.  The primary reason costs go up is that colleges are a great machine that turns the maximum amount that you can borrow for college into debt, a hangover, and twenty extra pounds of weight where you used to have a waist, all while giving you fancy coffee and climbing walls.  Why those things?  It’s well known that Socrates did no teaching until after he’d had his caffeine and a good climb.

The other cost of college is your time.  During the four or five years you spend chasing sorority girls studying hard for a degree, you could be out working, making money.  The time spent at college has this second cost – the income you give up – embedded in it.

So how do you make money?

Well, depends on your degree.  If you’re getting a degree that’s not directly tied to a career, often you emerge from college well suited to be a retail clerk.  Oops!  You were qualified for that before you went to school.  Hmm.

Degrees matter.  Science.  Engineering.  Accounting.  Finance.  Economics.  Computers.  Construction Management.

Those are good.  They pay well, and there are often more jobs than graduates.

Sociology.  Anything with “Studies” in the target.  Exercise Science.  Music.  Art History.  Anthropology (over 12,000 grads, 700 jobs).  Art.

These are a waste of your time and effort, if you expect to work in those fields and/or be able to afford to eat anything more than ramen.

Average return also depends on what school you go to.  Not as much, but there really is a difference in the job offer you’ll get if you go to Northern Southwestern State Community College versus, say, Harvard.  Ahhh, good old NSWSCC, no one can hold a candle to you!  The school does matter, both to employers and to the quality of connections you make, but more on that below.  If you’re more likely to impress an employer with your school?  Yeah, you’re more likely to get a job offer.

What’s the net cost?  This varies greatly by school.  Every school has a list price – what they’re saying they’re going to charge you.  But after scholarships and other discounts, what will you really pay?  This hits to the cost side of the equation.  Combined with the lower income during the college years, this is the cost your degree must pay back.

And it has to pay this back not with your total income, but the difference in what you would have made if you never graduated college.  And we all know that no one could ever make fortunes like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg if you don’t finish college.  What?  Gates and Zuckerberg were dropouts? Hmm.  Well, could it be that college graduates would be more successful . . . even if they didn’t graduate?

That’s the difficulty – you can’t live your life 15 times and measure which way you would be more successful.  But college has free beer and climbing walls, so, it’s got that going for it.

Sage Wilder Advice Number Two:  GPA is probably important.

When I was doing college recruiting, we specifically recruited for graduates from a window – too high a GPA?  We were pretty concerned that they might be, umm, not real humans, but that was a very long time ago.  Grade inflation has taken the average grade at Harvard to an “A”.  Yes.  The average grade is an “A”.  So if you don’t have a great GPA?  You’re below average.

But the second part is we can use GPA as a real estimate of what you’ve learned.  So, study!  Spend the hours, learn the material.  Get together with friends to study.  Have smart friends.  Get examples of old tests, and study those.  By my junior year at school, I was studying an average of eighty hours for a test in my harder subjects.  For one, I spent over 120 hours studying for the final.  I was thrilled when I got a ‘B’.  There were about two A’s given for about 150 students.  So, I was thrilled with my ‘B.’  Especially since I dropped that class the first time I took it.

Yes.  Drop classes if your grade is like one of those “fail” videos on YouTube.  Oh, wait.  Those fail videos took the name from the grade.  Yes.  Drop the class.  Go again next time.  Avoid YouTube.  Seriously.

And the best way to a good GPA?  Go to class.  I had one class that was just . . . so very early.  On the occasions I went, I actually learned lots of stuff that was helpful and showed up on the test.  But going to class was . . . so early.  So I didn’t.

I passed.  Barely.  And I was thrilled about it.  Easier method?  Actually go to class.

Sage Wilder Advice Number Three:  It really is who you know.

Successful people hang out with successful people.  Make connections at college.  When you graduate, you should know 100% of the top 10% smartest people in your major.  Also?  Know the rich people.  They might not be the best students, but I have never gotten a job from a poor person.  Meet them.  Don’t be fake or lie, but don’t miss the chance to hang with the son or daughter of a billionaire.  One major mechanism of moving social classes is, well, being useful to a billionaire’s kid.  His dad will set you up.  Or, better yet?  Marry one.

I had one friend who went to college and married an heiress who was worth over a billion dollars.  Nah, just kidding.  It didn’t work out, so he dumped her.  And, yes, that’s a true story.

But almost every job I ever got was from someone I knew who liked me.  So know those people.

Sage Wilder Advice Number Four:  Avoid debt.  Avoid debt.  Avoid debt.

Debt is horrible.  Student loan debt is the worst.  With a car loan, a home loan?  Declare bankruptcy and you can walk away.  How do you get rid of student loan debt?  Die.  Bankruptcy won’t do it.  I wrote about it here (College Funding, Value and Grade Inflation: Should Your Kid Go? Should You Pay?).

Even with an awesome job, college debt is a killer, and you don’t even have a crappy used car to show for it.

The best strategy?  Have someone else pay.  Get a scholarship.  Have your parents pay or help.  The Reserve Officer Training Corps?  Yeah, you can get the Army, Navy, or Air Force to pay for your college.  And all you owe them is one weekend a month, and two weeks a year.  Not a bad deal for tens of thousands of dollars in tuition.

Sage Wilder Advice Number Five:  Nobody cares.

Instructors and professors don’t care about you.  The school doesn’t care about you.  Your friends?  They might care about you, but as soon as you’re off campus if you flunk out?  Yeah, that door is closed.

It’s not meant to be a demotivator.  You were raised and told you were a super special precious snowflake of a human.  But the reality is that if you’re “one in a million” that there are 7,200 people just like you on Earth.  And if you flunk out?  The college doesn’t care.  The world doesn’t care.  Your mom and dad will care.   But don’t get mad at the situation – the situation doesn’t care.

Your roommate might care.  But he or she might be happy you’ve headed to other locations.  Privacy so they can play their progressive jazz harmonica at 2:24am!

Sage Wilder Advice Number Six:  Activities are a yes.

Join clubs.  Join sororities.  Join professional organizations.  Do all of those things.

I was in a car reviewing résumés from my alma mater while on a recruiting trip.  The leader of the recruiting team, a graduate of the same school as me, asked about a particular candidate.

“What clubs was he in?”

I listed them.

“What offices did he hold?”

“Um, none.”

“So, a member, member, member.  Pass.  We’re looking for leaders.”

This was the guy who hired me.  So, if you’re in a club?  Do more than be a member.  Lead.  Bring cookies or beer.  Do something.

Heck, that might be great advice for life:  don’t be a non-player character.

Sage Wilder Advice Number Seven:  Manners.

You’ll be surprised how often you’ll be expected to have a tie.  So, have one.  Or whatever fancy things girls wear.  Dresses?  Pantsuits?  Whatever.  Have at least one of those with you on day one at school.

Also:  drink slowly.  You’re not used to alcohol.

Don’t eat like a pig.  Your mom taught you better than that.  Use your knife and fork properly and KEEP YOUR ELBOWS OFF THE TABLE.

And don’t try to eat a hot dog in one bite.  It might nearly cause you to choke to death.  Not that I’d know.

Sage Wilder Advice Number Eight:  Relationships.

Get married later.  Like after you have a job and some money.  But have lots of relationships.  Go to parties.  After you’re done studying and your homework is done, unless you’re going with your billionaire girlfriend.  Also?  Don’t leave any evidence on YouTube.

Sage Wilder Advice Number Nine:  Have a “Plan B.”

Your high school boy/girlfriend will dump you.  Your plans for Friday will change.  Life in college is the most tumultuous period of your life.  Ride the wave.  You will not have the same major on day one as on day 300.  Your ideas will evolve.  Wonderful!

Sage Wilder Advice Number Ten:  Discipline.

Be disciplined in sleep, study, exercise.  College will try to pull all of your routines away.  Maintain them even though you’ll see a lot more nudity than ever before in your life.  Odd nudity.  Weird nudity.  Party nudity.  Covered in 7-11 nacho cheese nudity.  But keep your discipline.

Sage Wilder Advice Number Eleven:  Go all in.

When Cortez or Obama or whoever it was that conquered the Aztecs landed on the beach, he burned the boats.  That way his sailors had no way out.  They had to be committed to the conquest.  Thus, they peacefully slaughtered thousands of Aztecs until they converted them all to Scientology.  I think.

But the point remains:  If you’re in college, you’re in.  All in.  Go for it.

Sage Wilder Advice Number Twelve:  Is it for you?

The narrative is simple:  do well in high school, go to college, get a good job, work 40 years, retire and die.

Okay, we’re all going to die.  But what if . . . you could get a good job after high school without college?

You can.

My neighbor is a lineman.  That means he knowingly works with high voltage lines to fix them when they’re broken.  This is a big deal after hurricanes – these are the guys that bring Netflix® back.  And they make good cash.

So do plumbers.  And guys that fix air conditioning.  And guys that suck septic systems.  All of those people make pretty decent money, at least around here.  And they don’t have to worry about office politics, or showering.

I had one youth I worked with in Scouting.  He wanted one of the careers above.  My basic reaction was to tell him – “Go to college.”  I would have been wrong.  He has three job offers.  He’ll be making $80k a year before an engineer his age will.

Good for him.

Sage Wilder Advice Number Thirteen:  Enjoy.

Life is like a bodybuilding elf.  It’s short and hard.  So?  Enjoy yourself.  But understand that your choices at 18 might impact your ability to be a billionaire when you’re 30.  Or 50.

Unless you married the billionaire heiress.  You did do that, didn’t you?