While there are people who spend their entire childhood and teenage years trying to build a portfolio to get to their dream university, this seemingly endless pursuit is simply a dragging experience for individuals. With the pressure that accompanies the decision-making process, there are multiple other downsides that come with desperately needing to go to college.

1. Faulty process of getting in.

How often do you hear stories about the rigged process of being admitted to prestigious universities? If these things can happen to luxurious and well-thought of universities, then who knows how many similar events happen on a daily basis go unreported? There are hundreds of testaments of people who have surpassed all the publicly-announced horrendous entrance tests just by handing out money to superiors. If even the mere process of getting in is already complex and unfair, then why would you even try?

2. The unreasonable, excessive expenses.

You see it all over the internet and personal financial sites: people constantly complain about incurring a stupendous amount of debt from attending college. If the fees are not insane enough as they are, then look at the textbooks and other supplementary material that you are being asked to acquire. Most of these textbooks, if you have noticed, are even co-authored or edited by some of your professors. Guess now why they make it compulsory for you to buy these textbooks.

3. Why not just spend your time earning?

College simply postpones the time you could have spent earning. Don't you think so? Consider this: you spend years in the pursuit of a degree that you're not even fully certain about. You hope that this degree would help you find a driven career in the future. When you jump into the job market after graduation, you would find entry-level positions that require a few years of work experience. Can you imagine how ironic that is? Thousands of dollars you could have earned have gone down the drain.

4. But really, will you ever use these courses in your life?

Setting aside the financial aspect of college, look at your syllabus and course manuals. Are you a hundred percent certain that you would be able to use these in the future? Even if you're taking up a political science or any theoretical-based program, a huge percentage of the work you are bound to do in the future is still reliant on your skills, not necessarily on the stacks of paper that you are forced to consume on a daily basis. Not unless, of course, you're planning to teach American history-that would perhaps be an adequate reason to go.

5. Takes away your time from learning skills you actually need to have for work.

So, you find yourself spending eighty percent of your day attempting to study for a course-not because you want to or see that it is beneficial for your career but because you are required to accomplish it to graduate. Imagine all the time you could have used instead to be productive. You could have diversified your skills during this time span. You could have learned coding, marketing, or found the cure for a disease. Imagine all the possibilities you are letting go of.

6. Current accessibility to education makes spending all the money worthless.

Back in the day, the only way for you to acquire education was through enrolling in classes. Databases and e-learning all did not exist. However, these days have seen a tremendous shift in learning. With the array of online courses and paid trainings that you can digitally acquire in the comforts of your home, why would you limit yourself to anything that is formal nowadays?

7. Job market looks more into experiences than an actual degree.

As aforementioned, it is insufficient to simply hold a degree nowadays. Someone who does not have a degree but has a proven track record when it comes to providing quality service can definitely get the job over someone who simply has a degree. While some may say that there are alternatives such as working part-time while finishing your degree, these do not provide ample time for people to truly grow in their working environments. Nothing beats full-time work-even a college degree cannot surpass this.

8. Even if a job required a degree, skills needed to get the position are not from the degree.

Have you ever noticed how most of companies nowadays are seeking for candidates who have soft skills and are easily trained? This is because despite needing a degree, most positions actually focus on your capacity to adapt to changes and learn on a situational basis. This makes it even more redundant to get a degree when the primary requirements do not even consider acquisition of skills that are related to the degree itself. Not unless, of course, you're going into perhaps the research industry?

9. Let's talk about mental health.

By the time you are out of college, you are not only drowning in student debt with lack of experience-your mental health by this time will also be on a tightrope. Stress levels are at an all-time high during this period. All the research papers and the heavy-weight examinations to gain that degree surely do come with a price.

10. Skills from life over classroom-based knowledge.

Remember those instances in your life wherein you are learning a new concept and just can't help but think of how useless the information would be when you grow up? Other activities such as participating in volunteer programs, being a part of non-government initiatives, and accumulating hard skills from internship and training programs are all better ways to learn than to be stuck in walls of a classroom.

Surely, there are exceptions to this like everything else in the world. However, always be cautious when you entering into a long-term educational commitment such as going into college. Remember that the costs do not just cover the financial side of it-rather it is much more complicated than the surface level.

Do you agree?