My Beef With College 🎓And Why I Started My University

I wrote this in August 2023.

I’ve come back and updated the numbers for 2026, and added a section on what’s changed since. Some of it makes my case. Some of it complicates it.

The argument itself I left alone. Three years later, I still believe every word of it.

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Ok, I went to college (university or uni – depending on where you are in the world) for four years from age 18-22.

I had a great experience — I went to the same school my dad and sister attended.

Auburn University (War Eagle!)

It’s a public university (uni) in Alabama (more affordable), three hours from home, and I earned a scholarship.

So, I attended affordably.

But even while there, I knew I would be in business for myself, and I wasn’t sure that what I was learning would serve me in the world.

Ok, so what’s my beef with college?

Well…

We’re pushing young people to go to college like it’s the golden path.

But today, there are many great paths, and college is no longer the only one.

It’s a trade school for specific industries – not somewhere you should go to ‘find yourself.’

It is a great trade school to train to become engineers, doctors, and attorneys.

And also teachers.

Teachers have a weird cycle – starting from classroom pupils to leading the same classroom.

(teachers who lack experience outside of the classroom also concern me).

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But here’s where we are in our present time.

Today, you can learn a computer language for free online (chatGPT will teach you).

You can get Google certifications.

Want a free MIT education? Here you go.

Trade schools in my area are wide open to train folks – welders, HVAC, plumbing.

Local community colleges often have specific schooling – auto mechanics, culinary.

That doesn’t even consider other options that might be more valuable, like taking a year away from education and exploring the world’s cultures!

And to carry on this line of thinking, here’s a bit more reading for you (a few articles we’ve written)…

Should you drop out of college if you’re there already?

And more ways to be successful without college.

Ok, carrying on…

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I promise I’m not trying to be a college hater. But this one will be useful if you like watching videos more than reading. Or watch below…

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So what’s my beef?

We make it appear as if college is the big goal.

But I see a different reality.

We’ve got student loan debt that’s just under $1.87 trillion.

The average student now graduates owing close to $40,000.

And a high schooler starting a four-year public university this fall? Projected to borrow $43,500 before they finish.

(Regarding consumer debt in the U.S., student loan debt is 2nd in the U.S., following only mortgage debt.)

What’s my beef?

The idea is that we’re pushing more and more kids in that direction.

In the 1950s, about 25% of students went to college.

Today, it’s about 62%.

Now, that’s fine.

More kids with higher education.

But…

Tuition costs keep rising at dramatic rates.

The cost of attending university has quite outpaced the economy’s inflation rate.

Oh, but it gets worse.

The U.S. government gives loans to students to go to school — no matter the cost of the school.

How insane is this?

So the cost of college continues to rise, and the U.S. says, “No problem, we’ll just give the students larger loans to attend your school.”

And…

It gets even worse.

After graduating, if a student cannot pay off their student loans, it’s tough for these loans to be discharged into bankruptcy.

Ok, so why is that bad?

It helps the entire system continue to spiral out of control.

Lenders (the U.S. government) are lenient on loans because they have to be paid back.

Therefore, more loans are handed out.

Colleges make most of their revenue from students getting loans.

If their tuition increases, students get more loans.

And their loans are approved by lenders without significant concern for their creditworthiness.

Insanity!

If just one simple change was made, this escalating roller coaster of insanity could slow down.

Make student loans able to be discharged in bankruptcy, similar to other non-secured debt.

Then… 

Lenders are more concerned with the creditworthiness of students.

Less loans equal fewer students.

Bloated universities might go out of business (which is fine).

Students who can’t get loans find different avenues (see examples above).

Adam Smith’s invisible hand at work.

So what’s my beef?

That’s my beef.

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What’s Changed Since 2023

I wrote everything above in August 2023.

Here’s what three years did to it.

The enrollment cliff showed up

Undergraduate enrollment likely peaked this spring.

Not “slowed down.” Peaked.

There were about 3.8 million U.S. high school graduates in 2025 — the most there will be for a long time. That number falls roughly 13% by 2041.

Fewer 18-year-olds. Fewer applicants. Same bloated cost structure.

Remember my line up there about bloated universities maybe going out of business?

We’re about to find out.

The trades are having a moment

Vocational and trade program enrollment grew 11.7% last spring.

Bachelor’s programs grew 2.1%.

Certificate programs jumped 28% in the fall.

And roughly 9% of high school grads now skip higher education entirely — straight to work or skills training.

That’s not a rounding error. That’s a generation doing the math.

But here’s the part I didn’t see coming

In 2023 I told you that you could learn a computer language for free, and that ChatGPT would teach you.

That’s more true now than it was then.

The problem is what happens next.

Computer science graduates currently carry one of the highest unemployment rates of any major — around 6-7%.

Roughly double philosophy majors.

Read that one again.

AI didn’t just make the learning free. It also ate the entry-level job you were going to learn on.

There’s a word for it now — seniorization. Companies post junior roles that quietly require senior judgment. The bottom two rungs of the ladder are gone.

So does that change my beef?

No. It sharpens it.

If a $43,500 computer science degree no longer guarantees a computer science job, then paying $43,500 for the credential makes less sense than it did in 2023, not more.

My answer was never “the degree is worthless.”

It was always “stop buying the credential and start building the skill.”

Three years later, I’d just say it louder.

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So Here I Am (And What Happened To My University)

When I wrote this in 2023, I had just started my own university.

Let’s call it my anti-university.

DTBU.

Destroy the Box University.

(I think we need a mascot).

The plan was big: dozens of creators, hundreds of courses, none of them costing more than a single hour at the school I attended.

Here’s what actually happened.

It started as a home for courses I’d built and sold myself.

But I’ve always been 50/50 on whether I wanted to sell courses in the first place.

Something about it never sat right — telling you the education system overcharges, then handing you an invoice.

So I changed it.

Today DTBU is a resource library, not a marketplace. Free courses from MIT, Yale, and Stanford. Google certificates. Grants and programs most people don’t know exist. A few of my own things.

And I’ll say here what I say over there: all of it is available free on the internet. You don’t need me.

That’s a worse business.

It’s a better answer to my own beef.

Would I still like to build the bigger version? Sure.

Never say never — I might launch an actual brick-and-mortar school one day 🙂

But I’d rather point you at what’s already free than sell you another credential.

We still need a mascot, though.