How improtant is to be graduated from an university?

With the Covid-19, we had a long sign up process for universities and adolescents had one major question on their minds; which universities are the best ones.

I graduated from my university in 2015 and later on graduated with a masters degree too. So I have a little bit of experience in education. (especially in Turkey) So I came up with some quick tips for the freshmen. (these are my own opinions, please don't rely on them, just consider them. Also, these tips are for Turkish adolescents)

• First of all, learning English is the biggest part of everything. If you can't understand English (both listening, writing, speaking), you should focus on that part in your first years. Your university will probably nearly zero impact on your English because they just teach basics. You need hardcore stuff. And you know what, you don't need to go to a foreign country or some English course. You have YouTube, Games, Netflix, ChatRooms etc. These are free, just learn how to use them. If you want to work in a Real Estate Company or Hair Transplant Clinic just continue in Turkish. But if you want to work on a reliable, visionary global company, you need to learn English first. (That is why I only use English on this website. You must showcase your English skills well. You shouldn't aware of making mistakes, I make mistakes, my boss makes mistakes, everyone makes mistakes when speaking English)
  

• Let me share my opinion about universities in Turkey. Most of the universities in Turkey are focused on money and profit Margins. So their basic motivation (or value) is money. This causes poor education. I honestly got several good teachers at my university (my universities basic motivation was earning money too). So I gained what I can in that system. But I shouldn't blame the university for all. We get so many information based on theories and until I could get a job and start my career, all of the theories I've learnt in the university are mostly expired. We should focus more on successful & failing examples. When I finish my license degree I've immediately started my Master's Degree in Istanbul Bilgi University and that experience changes my life & career at a big time. Because nearly all of my teachers were successful business executives in mid-top range companies in Turkey. We had actual business experience for once in our lifetime. So this point is very crucial. Because I strongly disagree with this countries education system and this may sound a bit harsh but I think we need to have more business executives than academicians in universities (license degrees). I see academic processes as a long waste of time for acceptance of the large communities. I think lots of academicians could spend their time on something more valuable. I don't want to be misunderstood, academicians should have their roles in the world. But they should only focus on the things that can change (or add great value to) the world.
  

• As I said before, theories are very dangerous. Everything changes rapidly so you can't rely on theories. You need to adapt (implement) theories and sometimes just need to accept that they are expired. When I was doing my master's degree, I have read (still reading) most of the books in our booklists which our teachers gave us in our classes. These books were a treasure. Some of the books were contradicted with each other but that was the good part. There wasn't one truth. There are many ways to try. I've read HBR's Best Reads on Strategy & Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen. These two books have 10x more valuable information than my Strategic Business Planning class at my university. If you want to learn on (or specialize in) something, reading a book is a safer way than a going to a university and have a class about it. For a final example, let's have a look at work experience. So when I got graduated from university and started in a new job, my knowledge I've learned in my university didn't mean anything. I've started from bottom again. Imagine that you are going to a university to graduate and have life-long working skills then you just realize that after graduating from your university, there is another university that you must have started from the bottom and this university is life long. Work experience is a whole another level and I don't believe that any academician can pass reliable work experience to their students.
  

• If we sum up all of these points, going to a university seems not that important in my view. If you are a disciplined person, you can choose to improve yourself in different ways. (Like books & straight work experience) But if you choose that, you can lack socializing & acceptance in public because of this whole educational system. But the main point is "going to a university is not an obligatory option". There are many creative ways (other than universities) to develop yourself and I think most of the people will try these untraditional ways in the future because of the high prices in the education system. Nowadays university certificates seem to me like just a piece of papers for acceptance in our civilized country and nothing more.

• Finally, (for the ones that still want to go to university) I strongly suggest that you should read David & Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell. And I'm leaving a perfect quote/brief from this book about university choices. "The best option isn't the best always Caroline Sacks is a woman who has always believed she would become a scientist. From an early age, Sacks excels in her academic pursuits and takes a special interest in science. As she gets older, this interest only gets stronger, and she takes pride in the fact that she stands out as a stellar student. When it comes time to decide where to go to college, she chooses Brown University over the University of Maryland. This is an easy choice since most people would opt to attend an Ivy League school over a public state school. However, Sacks struggles at Brown, finding herself discouraged not only by her subpar grades but by the feeling that she isn’t as academically capable as her peers. By the time she’s a sophomore, she decides to stop pursuing a science degree even though it has always been her dream to become a scientist. Looking back, she says that she would most likely still be in the sciences if she’d gone to the University of Maryland. Gladwell tells this story to show readers that it can be demoralizing to be a “Little Fish in a Big Pond.” He then uses this point to suggest that it’s not always beneficial to attend an Ivy League school since many people end up getting discouraged by such competitive environments and quit before they have a chance to establish themselves. In turn, Gladwell argues that the things society sees as prestigious and sought after aren’t always as desirable as they seem."