I can’t tell you how much my heart burns for young secondary school leavers in Nigeria…maybe because I taught during my NYSC days. My best moments teaching at ICY were spent listening to my students dream. I still keep in touch with a number of them who gained admission into universities. About 5 of them got back to me on what schools they got admitted into and what courses they are studying – all 5 are studying courses they were ‘given’ i.e did not want. But, guess what? they are getting exposed to the real world and I see it as my duty to remind them to continue dreaming. To dream as much as they did while they were in school.
Please excuse my sentiments. I am just hear to remind you @timi to continue to dream. And yes, go to college…use it as an excuse to get away from familiar voices, to discover yourself; not in the courses or departments but in the personal and group research, interactions and activities you will get involved with. Find yourself in the relationships you will have (hopefully good ones). It is an already established fact that Nigerian universities do not really have your best interests at heart (well, they cannot give what they do not have). However, you are of a generation that is most privileged - a generation that can carve out their own learning path given all the access to information and connections you have. You already got concrete suggestions from others who commented - and if you notice a consensus - formal education is still important. However, do not fall into the trap many fall into - allowing the courses you study and schools you attend to define who you are.
Cheers
P.S - If you decide to give Nigerian universities a chance, please avoid schools that go on strike on every whim - waste of time and lives!
This may sound a bit crazy as someone who left undergrad with 1 year to go, but looking back, I’d still probably recommend going to school and graduating. The unfortunate reality is that while you probably won’t learn a huge amount that is professionally useful, the experience will do two things: Help you mature as a person, and give you a marker of credibility.
The credibility part there is less well understood, but perhaps even more important.
The challenge is that humans - in all countries - are remarkably bad at evaluating the talent and competence of other humans. As a result, they frequently use things like university degrees as proxies for ability. In effect, they outsource judgement of an applicant’s potential to a university (despite the fact that universities are also not very good at it).
There are other ways to gain credibility without a university degree, but they are less common. Once you have credibility, your degree matters much less, but establishing initial credibility without one is challenging, as @asemota and other thoughtful folks have already mentioned. More often than not, it lands you in a rut that’s tough to get out of without luck or outside support.
The importance of gaining credibility is also one of the most overlooked aspects of why @Andela works, and why we don’t run away from comparisons to Harvard or other elite institutions. As more people learn about Andela, it builds the reputation of the organization, which then creates credibility for Andela developers around the world.
Think about it this way: If you were accepted into Y-Combinator, investors no longer care about whether you have a university degree. If you are an Andela graduate, and the investor knows about Andela, then you’re going to see a similar response.