Want to guide your 16-20 year old to careers that help them reach their goals? Check out our workbook set: ➡️ https://degreefree.com/book

Want a custom career plan for your 16-20 year old? Apply for the Degree Free Launch Program: ➡️ https://degreefree.com/launch

Here's the thing most parents don't know: "degree required" on a job posting almost never means legally required. It means a company added a filter to avoid defending their hiring in court, a direct result of a 1971 Supreme Court case called Griggs vs. Duke Power. Degrees became a litigation shield, not a job requirement.

And now that shield is crumbling. States across the country, red and blue, have stripped degree requirements from state jobs. Pennsylvania freed up 92% of state jobs. Massachusetts freed up 90%. Maryland saw a 41% increase in degree-free hires after making the change. The federal government just removed degree requirements for all federal IT managers.

And companies like Google, Apple, IBM, and Walmart have already dropped or are planning to drop bachelor's degree requirements entirely. The real number that matters: only about 14.8 million U.S. jobs legally require a degree, and 38% of those are just three roles: registered nurses, elementary school teachers, and high school teachers.

Teachers alone make up 25% of every legally gated job in America, and they earn 7% below the U.S. median. That is not a strong argument for the degree filter. The right move for your child is not to pick a major. It is to start with the life they want, figure out what they need from work, identify careers that fit those needs, and then find strategic entry level work.

Get hired first. If a credential is actually required and worth it, many companies will pay for it. That is exactly what happened with Quinn McLaren, who broke out of college, got hired as a real estate financial analyst at a Fortune 50 company, and had his employer fund his CPA credential.

The system rewards people who show up, apply anyway, and build real skills. Your child can be one of them.

Want to guide your 16-20 year old to careers that help them reach their goals? Check out our workbook set: ➡️ https://degreefree.com/book

Want a custom career plan for your 16-20 year old? Apply for the Degree Free Launch Program: ➡️ https://degreefree.com/launch

We want to talk about what is actually happening to young men right now, and why college is making it worse, not better. The data is not subtle. Gen Z men with college degrees now have the same unemployment rate as degree-free Gen Z men. Four out of ten students who start college never finish.

Of those who do graduate, 41% end up working jobs that never required a degree in the first place. And the mental health picture on campus is not better. Depression and anxiety are the most common outcomes we see, not employment. The reason most parents miss this is that they are not in the classroom.

They see the grades drop and the mood tank, but they do not see what is actually happening inside those classrooms. Professors who cannot communicate clearly. Coursework with no connection to real American hiring practices. Career centers handing out personality quizzes and calling it guidance.

Here is what we know from working with these families directly: 18, 19, and 20-year-olds are not hard to place in entry level work. Employers are more willing to hire a young adult with a little hustle than a recent grad who expects a salary that does not match the role. The problem is that most families have never even tried that path.

They go straight to college because that is the only option anyone handed them. The fix starts with one question. Not what major, not what college. What life does your son actually want? Start there. Work backwards to the career that fits it. Then find the strategic entry level work that gets him moving.

That momentum is what these young men are missing, and it is completely within reach.

Want to guide your 16-20 year old to careers that help them reach their goals? Check out our workbook set: ➡️ https://degreefree.com/book

Want a custom career plan for your 16-20 year old? Apply for the Degree Free Launch Program: ➡️ https://degreefree.com/launch

The whole K through 12 system is built around one goal: college enrollment. Schools track it, report it, and put it on banners. But enrollment tells you nothing about what happens after your child signs the form. So let me show you what the numbers actually say. About 62% of high school seniors enroll in college.

Only 7% of jobs legally require a degree. That means we are sending eight times more young adults to college than there are degree-required jobs waiting for them. Of every 100 students who start a four-year degree, only 47 finish on time. A third never finish at all. And of those who do graduate, only 27% will work in a field related to their major.

Put it all together and the odds that your child enrolls, graduates on time, and works in their field of study is about one in seven. On top of that, 52% of recent graduates are underemployed one year out. And 45% are still underemployed a decade later. Meanwhile, parent plus loan debt has grown 77% in the last decade, at an interest rate of nearly 9%.

The average borrower takes 17 years to pay off their loans. That debt delays homes, marriages, families, and businesses. At more than one in four American colleges, the typical graduate earns less than a high school graduate 10 years after enrolling. The fix is not to panic. It is to change the question.

Stop asking what college your child should attend. Start asking what they need from their work to live the life they want. Answer four questions first: what income do they need, what schedule fits them, what environment do they want to work in, and where do they want to live. Work backwards from those answers to find the right career.

Then, and only then, ask whether that career legally requires a degree. For most careers, it does not. And the path in without a degree is faster, cheaper, and less risky than the one in seven shot the brochures are selling you.