A new essay by Nika Anschuetz of The College Conservative reminds us that although a college degree has value, it doesn’t come with any guarantees.

A college degree may be the most sought-after thing in the United States. Students are bombarded with the message that college equals success. I’ve grown up believing that the United States is a land of opportunity. When did we begin to limit opportunity to a college degree?

Merriam-Webster defines opportunity as “a good chance for advancement or progress.” The United States has long been nicknamed the “Land of Opportunity” which has, unfortunately, led most high school students to feel excessive pressure to attend college. College is a fantastic opportunity but it’s not the only opportunity.

It’s preposterous to say that college is meant for everyone. The public school system has taught us that college is important if you want a lot of money. Average college tuition costs around $29,000 per year. An average four-year degree totals $120,000. The cost of college has risen at an exponential rate. Let’s put this into perspective: if products rose at the same rate as college, we would be paying $22 for a gallon of milk. Students are incurring huge debts because they’ve been hustled into attending college, whether they want to or not.

But college guarantees a high paying job, right? In reality, the statistics are both astonishing and frightening. US News reports:

The number of college graduates working minimum wage jobs is nearly 71 percent higher than it was a decade ago, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest figures. As of 2012, 284,000 college graduates were working at or below the minimum wage, up from 167,000 in 2002 and more than two times the pre-recession low of 127,000 in 2006. The cohort includes an estimated 30,000 people with masters’ degrees, a figure that is more than twice as high as it was in 2002 and three times as high as in 2006.