Sick of being confined within classroom walls, spending endless hours studying for courses you’re not passionate about? Not only is the educational system outdated, it just doesn’t fit the bill for everyone. So why try to conform to what worked for your parents, but isn’t working for you?   It’s no wonder Gen Z is disenchanted with traditional education. College students complete hours of coursework that’s required for but unrelated to their majors, slaving away for years only to walk away with staggering debt and a very real fear they won’t land a job.

Current reports are showing that many college grads are unemployed and even more are underemployed. A shocking 83 percent of college graduates leave school without lining up their first job, a job that takes an average of 7.4 months to find. And that job may be at the local coffee shop: More than one in 10 graduates resort to working in professions outside their field of study.

In today’s world, investing in a traditional degree is becoming more and more of a gamble. The money-conscious students choose boring majors that are lucrative, while the passionate ones pursue fun but unemployable degrees. And the really passionate ones take a year off and travel the world broke. What’s a college student to do?

What if you could have the best of all worlds?

The world is different now, and a college education isn’t the only way to get where you want to go. With exciting new opportunities on the horizon, you can now pursue distinct career paths offering a guaranteed six figure salary, and far more fulfillment than anything that can fit in a classroom.   Become an airline pilot. Flying is a career like none other, with no degree required, and the opportunity to travel the world on the job. Airlines are offering perks, sign on bonuses, and a solid income to rival anything college grads can expect. You can expect to start earning a paycheck in as little as nine months, and fly for the airlines within just a few years. As an airline pilot, you’ll be making $100,000 by year five, and $300,000 by year 17. That sure beats the average 3% raise typical jobs offer.

Financially, becoming a pilot just makes sense. Training to fly for the airlines costs less than traditional education. At $85,000, flight training is less than a 4-year university tuition of $100,000. Even more important to consider is the time it takes to start earning. Doctors and lawyers, often esteemed as the highest earners, might never top the $300K annually that airline pilots make at year 17, and can’t start earning until close to a decade of schooling has been completed. As a pilot, you can start earning flight instructor paychecks while you’re still training. Meanwhile, the aspiring lawyer and doctor classmates you left behind are still stuck behind a desk, racking up debt while you’re building the career of a lifetime.