By Lauren Robson

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” It’s the question every indecisive person, much like myself, dreaded being asked through elementary school, middle school, and high school. Senior year, come graduation, the questions tend to drift. It’s no longer about what you’re studying and more of where you’re going to study. If it’s not an Ivy League, no one seems to care or even believe that you will be successful. The truth is that people look down on small, under the radar schools. What if the truth was that they should stop worrying about where they were going and go back to worrying about the why?

According to Jon Marcus’s article, “Elite degrees don’t necessarily earn more, study finds,” students don’t need to attend elite colleges to be successful. On average, the students who attended less-prestigious schools earned about the same as their Ivy-League counterparts. There are also graduates out there with associate’s degrees that are actually earning more money (up to $11,000 more) than some graduates with bachelor’s degrees. The future paychecks of students with certain majors look more fortunate than others’ as well, no matter what school they attend. Majors such as engineering, business, and nursing are ranking in the most well-paid majors while those in liberal arts, such as philosophy and music, are on the lower side of the spectrum.

It’s about time people stop judging futures by the college one attends. The college does not determine the success of the individual, rather it is what they take from the college that will give them the edge.