Here’s why Kevin O’Leary thinks college is still worth the money
Kevin O'Leary argues that college remains worth the debt primarily because of the networking and lifelong relationships formed, rather than the academic content itself. He also notes that creative fields like content creation, photography, and video editing have become highly lucrative career paths in the social media and AI era, with professionals earning 10x more than a decade ago.
Summary
Kevin O'Leary addresses the common question of whether college is worth the financial investment by offering an unconventional perspective. He emphasizes that the primary value of college is not the curriculum or what students learn academically, but rather the social capital gained through friendships and professional connections established during the college years. These relationships, he argues, become invaluable throughout one's career development and remain important for life.
O'Leary then discusses his evolving views on which degrees are worth pursuing. Traditionally, he believed only engineering degrees justified the investment, but he has reconsidered this stance due to technological shifts. The rise of social media and artificial intelligence has created massive demand for content creators, editors, storytellers, and photographers. These professionals have become critical for companies seeking to grow through customer acquisition strategies. O'Leary highlights that these content creation specialists directly impact key business metrics like customer acquisition cost (CAC) and return on ad spend (ROAS). As a result, skilled professionals in these creative fields have seen dramatic salary increases—moving from approximately $40,000 ten years ago to around $400,000 today, representing a tenfold increase in earning potential.
Key Insights
- O'Leary argues that college's primary value is not academic learning but the lifelong friendships and professional relationships formed during the college experience
- O'Leary reversed his previous stance that only engineering degrees justify college debt, citing the emergence of new valuable career paths
- Social media and AI have created significant demand for content creators, editors, storytellers, and photographers as essential business assets
- Content creation professionals directly impact business metrics like customer acquisition cost (CAC) and return on ad spend (ROAS), positioning them to capture a portion of cost savings
- Skilled content creators and editors have experienced a tenfold salary increase over the past decade, from approximately $40,000 to $400,000
Topics
Transcript
[0:00] You know, people ask me all the time, "Is college still worth going into debt for?" And my answer is yes. Here's why. Probably for reasons you didn't think of yet if you haven't gone to college. It's not about what you learn necessarily. It's who you meet. It's the friends you make, the context you establish that will be around for the rest of your life. That experience, whether it's two or four years, whatever it is, is going to change your life forever in terms of who you know become very important to you as you develop a career. Now, I used to say there was only one or two or three degrees to get engineering, [0:32]…
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