“Sometimes I forget that I even got my diploma. To me it’s just a piece of paper.”

Morgan Weathers, 22, graduated in May of 2023 from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a bachelor’s degree in Marketing and a minor in Communication. Weathers discusses the positives and negatives of her college experience while also sharing her take on the value of a college degree.  

Lauren Meehan: Could you tell me how college has impacted you?  

Morgan Weathers: It impacted me in both good and bad ways. There’s a lot of indifference overall. Everyone said going to college would set you up for success, and that going to college would do all these things and open doors for you. That’s not the experience that I had. Socially, I did connect to a lot of people that I would have never met otherwise. The social aspect of college gave me lifelong friends and good experiences, but it did not impact me in the way that I assumed it would if that makes sense.  

Lauren Meehan: Could you elaborate on that, where you said that college did not open the doors you thought it would?  

Morgan Weathers: When I graduated, I could only think of maybe one or two people who had a job lined up for them on graduation day. They didn’t find these jobs through career fairs or through connections made at school, they found them on their own through job hunting. Half of the people I know are either still unemployed or working part-time jobs; nobody really had that starting point that I thought we all would have had.  

Lauren Meehan: Does your college education hold value to you?    

Morgan Weathers: To an extent because I’m still unemployed, I don’t hold as much value to it. Sometimes I forget that I even got my diploma. To me it’s just a piece of paper. I haven’t done anything with it yet. In this moment, I hold no value in it other than the social aspect I got from college and having experiences I would not have had without it. But physically I see no value in it. I think I ended up in more debt than I needed to. I’m not seeing those rewards personally, and I don’t think anybody I know who has graduated is seeing those rewards either.  

Lauren Meehan: If you were able to take everything back now knowing what you do, would you and what would you do?  

Morgan Weathers: That’s a good question. I feel like there are so many different paths I wish I would have taken. I went into college with a major that had 100% job placement, and I changed my mind and switched to the major I graduated with. Part of me wishes I would have never switched but I knew I didn’t want to do that anymore. I wish I would have explored something that had more growth potential. It was hard because with COVID-19 many opportunities such as career fairs were reduced. There weren’t as many employment opportunities throughout COVID-19. So I think I would figure out what I wanted to do early on in terms of employment decisions.  

Lauren Meehan: Do you have any advice for people in a similar situation to you?  

Morgan Weathers: There are so many people who just take internships, positions and degrees in places that they don’t want to be in just because it’s more important for them to be hired than happy. For me, it’s more important to be happy than hired.