I am fascinated with the world. I am proficient in Spanish and I am starting to learn French. I will be applying to go on exchange for my Junior year of high school. I want to travel the world even more when I am out of high school. I believe that travelling will teach me much more about the world than college. I know I can always attend college later on.
However, I want a second opinion. Are there any reasons to go to college that would appeal to me? I am an honors student. I take AP classes, get good grades, etc.
If I do decide to not go to college, how do I tell my parents? They seem pretty set on me going and I don’t think they have even considered it. If I go on exchange, should I just tell them when I come back? I have a bit of a plan so that I won’t have to live with them for very long after high school.
I only want honest (but also rational) answers and advice please.
Traveling around the world isn’t cheap. How do you intend to finance such a lifestyle?
Frankly, without a college education, your options will be rather limited. There’s always the military, but I have a feeling that’s not really what you’re thinking when you say you want to travel the world.
One reason is that traveling around the world is actually a lot easier if you have a college degree, in that people are much more likely to pay you to do that if you do have a degree.
There are a lot of jobs that college graduates can secure that involve traveling. You can work as a consular officer or foreign affairs official. You can go into translation work or international affairs with nonprofit organizations. You can teach English abroad. You can do Peace Corps service. If you learn a skill, you can deploy that skill abroad - there are agencies that send engineers to build infrastructure, doctors and nurses to provide healthcare, business people to help with business and finance projects, etc.
Without a college degree, though, your options are far more limited. You can, indeed, always go back to college - and if you were independently wealthy, I would tell you to go for it! If your parents could finance travel around the world for a year or two without blinking an eye then what’s the harm? However, if you are not very wealthy, how do you plan on financing travel around the world between high school and college?
Also, simply traveling won’t teach you anything. You need to have a plan in mind, some sort of personal curriculum if you will that you will execute to help you learn. It doesn’t happen by osmosis. College can give you a foundation on which to build in your travels.
What you can plan to do is attend college and study abroad your junior year. You can also get a Boren or Critical Language Scholarship to send you abroad over the summer to improve your language skills (although neither will support Spanish or French). Then you can apply for one of hundreds of programs that will send you abroad somewhere different after college - Fulbright, CIEE programs, JET, EPIK, etc. You could try really hard to go to one of the 40 colleges that participates in the [Watson Fellowship](http://watson.foundation/fellowships/tj/partners), which is essentially a $25,000 fellowship to travel around the world pursuing a project of your choice. Afterwards, you could get a job with the State Department or join the military, particularly with Civil Affairs or Psychological Ops or something.
I’m not sure how you will finance your travels. I’d suggest going to college and looking into doing a year-long study abroad program for your sophomore or junior year.
“Are there any reasons to go to college that would appeal to me?”
In this economic climate, and going forward, if you want a job that pays more than minimum wage, I recommend you get a college degree.
As others have suggested, travel is expensive. I recommend pursing a career that involves travel. If you work for a multinational firm, you can opt for expatriate assignments and spend half your time traveling the world at your company’s expense. Of course, those companies expect you to be hard working and most of them will expect advanced degrees (MBAs or Engineering).
Lots of kids take a gap year before they start college. Is this what u mean? If u can afford a gap year of travel, then more power to u. I suggest u get admitted into a college first, then ask for a one year deferment of your matriculation date.
Your time traveling abroad will, however, be constrained by your savings or by your parents willingness to fund it. Don’t count on getting a paid job overseas w no work visa & no skills.
But if u mean traveling IN LIEU OF college, then your dream is half-baked. Attractive jobs typically require a college degree. And employers who hire for jobs which don’t require a college degree aren’t going to care that you visited the Louvre.
So you are entering 10th grade right now? Lots of time to think about college alternatives later. I suggest you defer making plans until you’ve had your foreign exchange year abroad. A lot can change in your life between 10th grade and the start of college. And a gap year is a great idea if you don’t want to start college right away - many parents would find that acceptable if there’s a plan in place for what to do with that time. Check out The Gap Year Advantage for ideas/resources on how to make a Gap Year a success.
As others have said, a college degree, even an undergrad one, will give you even more opportunities. One suggestion would be to go for a journalism degree or something. Then once you get that degree, try looking for opportunities that will allow you to travel more often. I think that journalism is a great excuse to travel!
Flight attendant.
We need flight attendants who don’t lose their cool under pressure in this era of unpredictable behavior of passengers while on planes and you will be able to work your way up to plum jobs and routes.
Nowadays being a flight attendant is so competitive that most of them have college degrees. My sister-in-law was a flight attendant for a short time after graduating from college, and the majority of her coworkers were recent college grads. And flight attending has minimum age requirements, too - most airlines’ minimum age for flight attendants is 21.
Do you really have enough to pay for this idea? I agree you could learn more by traveling, and I would definitely consider this if I had the funds. You can always travel after college, when you have a high-paying job.
How about you find a compromise and go to college in Europe, then? The American University of Paris is nice. Many schools in the UK could be options for an English speaker. Same for Ireland.
My American friend studied architecture in Italy and travelled a lot when he was young. He now owns a successful jewelry business in NY and has travelled to over 40 countries, financed by all his earnings.
I had the same mentality. I’ve always felt like life’s too short and the world is entirely too large to traverse before obligations and responsibilities starts to catch up and you can’t travel anymore. So, I figured out a solution.
Since entering college means moving anyways (to most), I figured why just move towns/states when you can move countries instead? You’ll be in a new atmosphere anyways. Why not? If you’re proficient in Spanish, perhaps you’d consider Spanish universities? If you’re not that confident with your foreign language skills yet, turn to countries that speak English like Canada, UK, and Australia. Just do your research beforehand - that way you know what you’re getting into.
