Warren Buffett Doesn't Believe College Is For Everyone – None Of His 3 Kids Finished: 'If You Pool Their Credits, You Got A Degree'

Warren Buffett doesn't fit the mold of someone obsessed with traditional education, even though he's got the credentials to back it up. He has a bachelor's degree from the University of Nebraska and a master's in economics from Columbia University. But here's the thing: the Oracle of Omaha doesn't believe college is a must-do for everyone – especially not for his kids.

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In a 2019 interview with Yahoo! Finance, Buffett admitted, "My dad kind of jollied me into it. He could get me to do anything. If they'd had an SAT test in those days, he would have taken the test for me." That little anecdote says a lot about how he views college – not as some sacred path to success but as one option among many.

Buffett has repeatedly pointed out that college isn't for everyone. "Some people are going to get a lot out of advanced education and some people are going to get very little," he said in a 2018 interview with The Long-Term Investor. "I don't even think it's important that every person go to college at all." That's a bold statement from someone who evaluates the value of investments. And education, as he sees it, is one of those investments where the payoff isn't always guaranteed.

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Take his kids, for example. None of the three finished college. Susie, his daughter, came the closest – she was just three credits short. But, as Buffett joked during a 2018 Fox Business interview, "If you pool their credits, you got a degree."

Susie herself has said that growing up as a Buffett meant equal opportunity for all, regardless of gender. "He never treated me any differently than the boys as far as you should do this or you should do that," she told Fox Business. That might explain why she felt no pressure to cross the college finish line – her dad didn't see it as a finish line.

For Buffett, the question isn't "Should everyone go to college?" but rather "Does it make sense for you?" He's quick to acknowledge that there are plenty of jobs paying $70,000 to $80,000 a year that don't require a degree. "It's a big commitment to take four years and the cost involved and maybe the loans involved. There ought to be a reason you're going," he told Yahoo! Finance.

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That's not to say he's anti-education. He famously said, "The more you learn, the more you earn." But he's also skeptical of stats that oversimplify the value of a degree. Comparing lifetime earnings of college grads versus non-grads? Buffett calls that "a fraud" because it ignores factors like ambition, access and plain old luck.

Still, the earnings gap is hard to ignore. In 2020, The Hamilton Project reported that the typical college graduate earns about $1.19 million over their lifetime – more than double what a high school graduate pulls in ($580,000). It's also $335,000 or 39%, more than the lifetime earnings of someone with an associate degree.

Buffett doesn't dismiss the value of education – he just doesn't worship at its altar. He grew up watching his sisters outperform him in school, yet they faced limited career options because of their gender. That stuck with him. "They scored the same as I did at tests and all that sort of thing," he told Fox Business. "They had better personalities."

So here's the takeaway: if Warren Buffett – one of the richest, smartest guys in the room – says college isn't for everyone, maybe it's time to rethink the "one-size-fits-all" approach. 

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