Does studying for 60 to 80 hours a week, pulling all-nighters and not having time for socializing describe your college life? It describes 25-year-old Jon Morrow’s, and in this retrospective essay he questions whether it was worth it.

He did get almost all straight A’s. And he graduated with a GPA of 3.921.

But once he got out into the real world, and was offered 14 different job opportunities, not one of them asked about his grades or his GPA. Further, something had to give to make time for all of that studying. As a result:

• He didn’t sleep enough
  
• He didn’t forge many social relationships
• He didn’t gain work experience

To top it all off, Morrow says he’s forgotten 95 percent of what he studied so hard to remember.

Now don’t misconstrue. I have always believed that setting goals is one of the keys to success in life, and working hard to achieve those goals is an admirable, and often rewarding, quality.

But if you have children who are in college now, or soon will be, you may want to show them this essay. In fact, I insist that you do, because once your college years have passed, there’s no going back.

College is without a doubt intended to educate. But studying the books is far from the only way to get educated. College presents an opportunity to meet new people, to explore your passions and to be exposed to new viewpoints -- and in so doing to discover more about yourself.  

Some of the most successful people today are people who never graduated from college. Yet they did not miss a beat when it came to soaking in what the world around them had to offer. So while you encourage your children to do well in school, be sure you are also encouraging them to live their life, and to learn all they can from the experiences that follow.