College Dropouts

Did you know that half of all college students drop out? Me neither. In fact, some schools (cough, cough YSU) have higher drop out than graduation rates. I knew there were some bad colleges, but I had no clue there were so many…

Google any Ivy League school and you’ll notice how few students drop out. Why do you think there is such a difference? Does it come down to the work ethic of the students? Probably to a degree. But there are hard working students everywhere, so what’s the real story?

The two greatest determining factors of financial stability are 1) intelligence and 2) industriousness. This little piece of knowledge is the key to solving this puzzle. In high school we measure someone’s intelligence by their GPA, class rank, and certain club memberships (like National Honors Society). But there’s an issue with this formula: none of these metrics measure work ethic.

“Lazy people don’t have high GPA’s”, says anyone duller than a box of Crayola colored pencils. I’m living proof that the opposite is true. In my sophomore year, I didn’t study for a single exam, yet I still finished with all A’s (except for Spanish because I’m not mexican). Even now, I’ve earned multiple industry credentials for the simple fact that I’m a good test taker.

So if none of the metrics above measure work ethic, then what should we be looking at instead? To be honest, I’m not sure. Speculatively speaking, work history and athletic participation might be two good places to start.

It’s reasonable to assume that someone with a job is more financially stable in high school than someone without one. But the field and quality of work also matter. To measure this, things get complicated. For example, someone working at a farm might make less than someone working at McDonald’s, but they could also be a harder worker. The only connection to properly calculate this is looking at a value for work ratio. How valuable is the work of farmer compared to someone in the fast food industry?

Now let’s look at athletic participation. All the research I’ve seen shows no indication that varsity sport performance has anything to do with having a good work ethic. But you know what does? Hours spent training. The person who receives the “Most Improved” award is typically the hardest working in the group. And if that student has a job and maintains good grades, then watch out!

But what does any of this have to do with college dropouts? Prestigious schools are such that the smartest AND hardest working are accepted. Thus, they have lower drop out percentages and greater financial outcomes.

Here’s a curveball. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and the infamous doge-coin-lover Elon Musk are all college dropouts. But where did they drop out from? Ivy League colleges. In other words, the hardest working, smartest people in the world, dropped out of the most prestigious schools in the country. But it wasn’t for the same reasons as everyone else. They realized at some point that they already obtained the value college provides to most: the creation of a work ethic.

And now we’ve come full circle. Education is necessary. But so is work ethic. Typically, the one helps shape the other, but in the most exceptional circumstances, they are indistinguishable. Let that sink in for a moment… read it again if you have to.

The divide between education and a blue-collar work ethic is the epicenter where the most amazing things happen. Like the collision of atoms, these two things are what give us life as we know it.