What to study in college?

I run a construction company that works on a wide variety of mostly corporate or government projects. These build sites could be considered mid-range as we aren't exactly building skyscrapers nor are we qualified to, but we build things that are a lot larger than a house, for example. The people who work on my sites are mostly skilled or semi-skilled workers but we do have unskilled laborers and even some apprenticeships going on concurrently. One of the teenagers who works on my site for $10 an hour (he is unskilled but hardworking) recently asked me a question I never thought anyone would ever ask a blue collar guy like myself and it kind of made me think a lot.

He asked me "What do you think I should study in college."

This was a difficult question for me to answer because of my own past and because of the fact that I really don't want to overstep my bounds as far as being a mentor is concerned. This kid has shown some interest in construction but I wouldn't say that he is in it for the experience, he is just trying to make some walking around money. I wasn't attempting to lure him into the construction industry because I don't think he really has a passion for it. When I was a teenager I was quite enthralled by construction as I ended up in the work in a very similar fashion to how this teenager got involved in it. My father knew someone with a construction company and asked him to hire me. He did and I did a pretty bang up job of it and found that I really liked the industry. I later went to college to get a degree in construction management and now own my own business that does pretty well. In a way I am very thankful for my father arranging that job for me 30 years ago because I accidentally found my passion.

Unfortunately, I don't think that very many people that go to college actually DO have a passion for what they are studying and they are just there to major in whatever because they feel societal pressure to go to college. I know that most of the people that I was in school with when I was in college didn't really enjoy what they were studying at all and most of them don't work in fields even remotely associated with what they majored in anyway. Then there were people that had "fun" majors like art and unfortunately for them, this is a rather stupid degree that doesn't really get you ready for the work force in any way. While I am by no means an expert, I don't feel like "art" is something that you can study and all of a sudden be good at, either you have it in you or you don't.

For this kid on my site asking me this question I kind of gave him a non-answer because just like when my father got me the job I had at 15 years of age, this kid's father is a friend of mine and that is why he got the job. He has a pretty good home life as far as I know so I don't think I am the correct person to seek advice on this topic from.

If I was being honest with him though, and I didn't feel like I could or even should be, I would tell him this:

If you don't already know what you are going to college for and are simply going there because the system dictates that you should, you probably shouldn't go to college. I saw tons of people fail out or get degrees in something stupid all because while they enjoyed college life, they didn't really have any interest at all in what they were required to study. I think of all the people I knew that were in college for business, marketing, or communications (whatever the hell that means) and they were just skimming by and doing whatever with no real idea about what this information was going to mean for their futures or even if the eventual degree that they would get was actually going to help them in any way.

I don't want to say that going to college was a waste of time for them because a lot of jobs have this really silly mandate that they won't hire you unless you have a 4-year college degree. I find this entire process to be really unfair and a bit stupid, but I don't make the rules.

This doesn't change the fact that I feel that for many or perhaps even most people, that college is a waste of money and you aren't actually going to use almost any of what you learn there in the real world. In my program the curriculum actually was very specific to exactly what I ended up doing as a career but for many other people, this doesn't end up being the case.

If this kid, or any kid, or even adults who are looking to get an education are truly interested in a particular field of study then I think college is a great idea that can be very rewarding. On the flip side though, I feel as though university education in the United States is one of the most overpriced things that we have in our existence and this is why so much pressure is put on high school students to go. They need fresh faces every year or these universities will go out of business. They pretend to not be businesses but they ARE businesses. Almost everything is a business and the idea that there is something altruistic going on there is a bit delusional if you ask me.

So even though I didn't say this to the kid that asked me the question, my real answer to this is that if you feel like you need to ask "what should I study in college?" you probably aren't ready to go to college. Save yourself $50,000 and wait until you already know the answer to it, then go. Or maybe you will discover, as many have, that you don't actually need college in order to get ahead in life. Perhaps you will just be naturally talented enough that you can do what you want without it.

I wouldn't say that I really benefitted all that much from my college education other than the piece of paper being something I needed in order to open some doors for me. In some of my classes and because of my 4 years of experience in construction by the time I got there, I actually knew more about the topic matter than the teachers did - which is something I find completely unacceptable.

Is it really so necessary for kids to jump straight from high school to higher education? I really don't think so. They have a lot of time to figure that out and perhaps a few years of joining the workforce without a college degree to up your resume might actually help to open your eyes about what it is that you actually are interested in.

But what the hell do I know? I'm just a redneck.