Professionals, is college life better or post-college life?
Rising senior here getting depressed thinking about how I’ll only have one year of college left. Honestly, college is so great. Classes don’t take up much time in your day, you have a huge body of potential friends or SOs, access to a gym, and fun extracurriculars. Sure, homework and studying can be annoying, but it’s generally manageable unless you overload yourself. Plus you can slack off occasionally and get a slightly worse grade, but there aren’t any major consequences.
Now when you enter the real world and start working (especially in finance), it’s an endless cycle of working all day, eating, and sleeping with little time for anything else. Work, eat, sleep. Work, eat, sleep. Your main social group is made up of some co-workers you probably wouldn’t be friends with naturally. You’re more independent than when you were in school, but you can’t really slack off because you’ll lose your job and have to sleep under a bridge. Making money is nice, but can you really enjoy it? Working just seems to suck.
I need to come to terms with the fact that one of the best periods of my life will be coming to an end soon. It’s saddening and hard to accept. Can any seasoned professionals push back? I’d love to find some reasons why life can improve after college. Thanks.
My man, you're have an existential crisis at 22, lol.
In the spirit of optimism, some reasons why life would improve after college:
Move to big city with lots of things to do (sorry, corona)
Finally earning a paycheck, lots of money to spend on things/experiences
Newfound maturity / presence, depending on the person
If you find the right job, you will like it more than you liked writing college essays (some people say they love going to work every day!)
Most importantly, for many guys, much easier to date once you're a professional
In reality, I 100% miss college and still dream of those days. While both working / studying have their pros/cons, there's definitely a spirit and youthfulness in undergrad that's incredibly hard to replicate.
Like hundreds of professionals say, I wish I had soaked it in and enjoyed it more while it lasted. Almost noone has ever said "man I'm glad I didn't go to that party (/ hook up with that chick) and stayed in tonight." So go get em tiger!
That helped a bit, I guess
I disagree, that was the stupidest reply I've ever heard. Who the fuck says Go get em tiger, like what the actual shit
Truthfully, I think it depends on 3 things
Your family's wealth while you are in school
The school you go to
Your career aspirations
Someone coming from a rich family and going to a target, say Harvard, can not have to worry about working, worry about GPA less than their peers at other schools, have fun and spend tons of money in Boston, and know that they have a comparably very good chance at top-tier jobs.
For another example, imagine a poor student going to a non-top state school (idk maybe Kelley or somewhere else with deent placements but filled with tryhards so its competetive). They are likely going to be putting in 20-40 hours a week working in order to put themselves through school and take on as little loans as possible. It's a fairly competetive environment and the school isn't that great comparably, so GPA really matters and students will have to try really hard to land a top gig, or even a decent MM IB or something. They won't be able to mindlessly order hundreds of dollars of clothes or stuff from amazon every weekend, and they won't be able to go out to eat 3 times a week without stressing about the cost.
For some perspective, I attend a VERY wealthy semi-target and work 20 hrs/week (the max) of workstudy so I can try and get through school without any unsubsidized loans. Add in the extra time commuting to work and back as well as having to get ready for work and change after etc, call it maybe 25 (for easy math) hours a week that I have to give up compared to my wealthy peers . That might not seem like a lot, but imagine if you spent 25 hours a week prepping for IB interviews and networking, or 12.5 hours of that and 12.5 hours of extra study-time a week. It's a pretty big difference, and as a result I'm pretty constantly stressed out and worrying about my GPA as well. I very much hope that college isn't the best time of my life, or I may as well shoot myself now and end my suffering. I;m not a social outcast and I still have fun in school like everyone else, but it's not the true "college experience" that many of my wealthier friends are having.
P.S. Obviously not a professional, but I really can't see myself being less than I am now happy now 3-5 years out of school.
savor your last year.... all you can eat cafeterias for affordable prices, clubs like jiu jitsu and boxing, shit ton of amenities, getting laid with a different lass every 5 days, and coming back from summer internships with a fat bank account and wild tales of debauchery
Fr I never knew how much I'd miss being able to swipe into the cafeteria, load up 3 or so plates, gorge, then go do it again at no cost.
NYC has impressive 24hr buffets when the city is normally up and running. As far as getting food, if you go to NYC its basically 24hr on demand whatever you want. I'd say that's a huge plus.
I’m not gonna lie, college was a fun time with no responsibilities besides going to class and pretty much setting your own schedule. It was easy to grind to get your work done and also have time to make it out to the bars for the Thursday drink special. Not to mention game days and other wild nights. Going into IB, all I thought about was the money beforehand. But, to be honest money is the last thing you will think of at least early on. I work sweaty hours going into my second year but have become close friends with a lot of other analysts in my class while also keeping in touch with college friends. Life happens and college doesn’t last forever. I enjoy the grind but have a whole group of other people in my same shoes. You have to make the best of it and realize you’re a person outside of work not just some excel monkey that your boss thinks you are. Find the right balance, keep a positive attitude, and you’ll be happy
Rising junior here with a 2021 offer secured already and I cannot imaging life getting much better than this (COVID-adjusted, of course, assuming bars were still open).
It’s up to you to make it good or bad. In college everyone lives on relatively the same level. There is a very high floor to how bad it can be but also a relatively low ceiling to how awesome it can be (living in shitty living circumstances and going to the same bars / parties every weekend gets old). Once you graduate it becomes the opposite - unlimited floor and unlimited ceiling. You will see people who don’t have their shit together fall through the cracks and live a miserable life. Ex- know a guy who had a shit gpa and 0 internships who was fired from his job and has lived with his parents for over a year doing absolutely nothing. Or on the other hand, you can kill it and your life will be far better than anything you had in college. An example of this (pre COVID) is a guy I know making 6 figures in a sweet city, with a big social circle who is partying like he’s in college, but on another level. Nicer bars, nicer food, hotter girls, weekend trips to fun places that he could never afford in college etc. And that’s just people I know. Look at people like Bill Perkins who made a shit ton of money in finance and now travels the world on yachts with Dan Bilzerian and beautiful women. There’s really no limit to how good life can get if you can find a way to make good money and have solid relationships
I mean it’s a matter of personal preference. If you really savor life experiences as opposed to big money, there are a lot of finance jobs that don’t require 80-90 hours /week which leaves time to carry out interests like college. You just have to choose your path.
Post college life is better and I fully enjoyed college.
You're comparing apples and oranges. College isn't real life (it's a delayed childhood imo), you don't really have to make any hard decisions since you're still following a 'guided life'. You are told where to go, what to do and what you need to do almost everyday. After college, there's no plan, no schedule for you - it's all on you to figure it out. Life after college will be much more stressful and difficult, but there's more freedom.
[This is a good documentary on post-college life ;)](
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Stop living in the past. Maybe it was the best four years you've had so far, but it pales in comparison to what you'll experience should you choose to embrace and grow at every stage of life. If you think your best life is constrained to a campus, where you sleep half the day, wake up hungover, party incessantly, pay attention sometimes in class in the same few square miles - you will have messed up something once you graduate. You've been at summer camp for four years - sure, it's fun but dear god would it get old after years 5 and 6 (and I did everything i could to make my first few years out of college look like college. jesus). You thnk your college had a huge social pool? Try 7 billion people in the world - 350 million here.
Once you leave college - the whole world is open to you. You can do anything you want - no, really, you literally can - you own 100% of your time. Not half of it, not 75% of it - all of it. No one is forcing you to accept that IB job where you sleep and eat finance. If that's not what YOU want out of life - go do something else. Go backpack. Go build shit. The fun part is you get to figure it all out and build the life that you want - not what your parents want, your teachers want or whatever. That is fun.
Want to know what's really fun? Being able to go on a ski trip with a few close friends from college. Not having to worry about that night you went out with some people and spent way too fucking much on dinner. Being able to have a cheap bottle of wine with someone who is really special to you - not someone you met at Johnny's house of natty ice. Visiting your parents and talking about all the things you've accomplished in the past year at your job - or getting to learn from other more accomplished people and what they've done.
I'm now roughly 9 years out of college - and I couldn't be happier having left all of that behind, except for some close friends and social network from some organizations I was a part of. The world is big. Choose to make your life more fun after college - don't be the guy whose proudest moment is a beer Olympics victory over kappa kappa alpha.
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