“I didn’t have a clear path for the future. I had vague ideas on what I wanted to do with a linguistics degree.”

Brandon Szpot graduated from Arrowhead Union High School and went to UW-Milwaukee from 2018 through late 2023. Szpot majored in Linguistics and is now working in the manufacturing field.  In a time where college is growing more expensive, he realized that it may not be worth his time. Now, Szpot is currently working his way into a field where he can work with machining, specifically operating automatic/manual machinery.

Q: What made you chose UWM?

A: Price. Other Universities in the area just get more expensive than UW-Milwaukee. Not all of them have linguistic programs. And those cheaper options are typically technical colleges, which don’t have anything to do with linguistics. There’s no liberal arts at all.

Q: Did you feel forced to go to a cheaper school?

A: I probably would’ve been able to take out a loan, get help from my family, make my own money to pay it off. It depends on what you mean by forced. No one threatened me to go to UWM, but you’re looking at a bleak financial future when you get out of an expensive university if you don’t already have the money to back up paying it off.

Q: Did you end up taking loans out?

A: No, not for UWM. I was able to have my tuition covered through FAFSA.

Q: Why did you choose to not go to school?

A: There were a lot of factors that had me not wanting to keep going. I didn’t have a clear path for the future. I had vague ideas on what I wanted to do with a linguistics degree but with such a specific field your studying, there aren’t a whole lot of options to begin with a lot of them are very select.

Linguistics already compromises of a small group of people and only a small group within that group can engage in field work. I was losing sight of what was going to be happening in the future. UW-Milwaukee is cheaper than other schools, but it’s still expensive.

Not having a clear idea of what I was going to do in the future was kind of breaking my will to keep going. It was making it hard to be a student. It was making it harder to really engage in my studies and not feel disconnected with what I was doing.

Q: Do you feel like if college was cheaper, you would’ve gone back?

A: Yeah. If cost weren’t such a huge factor, like if it were very affordable or free. The ability to leave and come back or push and keep going all the way to get a PhD in something. I feel like that’s an easier decision for people to make when its not such a massive financial burden.

Q: It states that in the coming years, most employers will require a degree. Do you feel like this will affect you?

A: Probably not me. It might. But I’ve elected to get into a field of work where you could get a degree and it can push you a little further. But in terms of the work that I do, no employer is asking what college you’ve gone to, what kind of degree you have. In fact, most of the people I work with are the type of people who dropped out of high school or finished high school and dropped out of college. I guess it depends on what one is doing, what field of work they get involved in.

Q: What kind of people do you think that really will affect?

A: I can imagine that people who get a college degree will be more affected than they realize. As the number of people who go to college and complete something like a bachelor’s degree goes up. It becomes less competitive to have a bachelor’s degree within the fields that you are trying to work in. Whereas in 20, 30 ,40 years ago it could have distinguished you, it’s almost assumed that you have it. Students who already have a bachelor’s degree are probably going to think about going back.

Q: Do you have any fears out of college? Such as a higher paying job opportunity?

A: I mean in a way. There are certain fields of study and certain degrees you can get that will absolutely open the door to start making unbelievable amounts of money. I got involved in manufacturing, and you can make a lot of money in manufacturing. But if you want to make the big bucks, that usually requires a degree. I for one don’t really care for salary, like corporate jobs so I’m not worried, there good money within the field of work I’ve picked, and I feel really good now that I’ve gotten my foot in the door.

Q: Do you think that going to college was worth it for you?

A: For me? No. However, it depends on what you want. And i get that’s such a hollow answer, but there are certain fields that are going to need it. For instance. Engineering, if you want to get into engineering, you must be one. Unless you’ve studied engineering, you’re not an engineer.

If you are really interested in a liberal art, obviously you are going to have to get a degree. I think for some fields of work it’s really not a choice, but I do think at least, based on the people that I’ve met, there are a lot of people who overlook the types of jobs you can get that don’t require a college degree and that there are a lot of opportunities that are available to people that don’t even begin to go to college. I don’t necessarily think that people who are going to college now should leave and get involved in manufacturing or a trade. But i think maybe more people could consider those options. I don’t think they’re considered enough

Q: Is there anything that you felt about college that was a bit unfair?

A: Nothing beyond how blatantly unfair the prices are. The state should probably be involved in setting those prices. I get that universities have very massive expenses, and a lot of it is fueled by the fact that more and more people are going to college every year.  I think it’s important for people to be educated and it really is a shame that what pushed me to leave college wasn’t just a loss of passion, but purely an economic decision. You should decide not to go to college because it doesn’t interest you, but otherwise I think everybody should probably be going to college, in an ideal world. It’s good to be educated.

Q: What would you say to anyone that is thinking they don’t know what they want to do right out of high school, or they don’t want to put the loans out to try and go to school?

A: Ask yourself if you know how tools work, and if you don’t see how, you can handle them. Companies will pay you a lot of money to use very simple tools to do very simple things. If you have a work ethic. Don’t write off jobs that are available to people who don’t have any secondary or higher education. Weigh your options and don’t feel you have to do it.

Q: Do you think high schools should be promoting both sides?

A: Yeah. There are a lot of trades for instance where you would be going to college but it’s not like a liberal arts degree; it’s some kind of certification within a trade, which usually involves the school working with a private sector to have you work in that field, while giving you some supplementary instructions. I think high schools should absolutely pushing that.

I think Arrowhead made huge strides in creating the wing of the building with engineering and manufacturing. Arrowhead worked with the private sector where you have Arrowhead vouching for its students and getting these young people in manufacturing jobs then they would give them credit for their time. There were kids who were leaving school early to go work in their trade. You come out of a four-year high school with the education of something that might have an associate’s degree.