Numerous people preach that college is a waste of time. Although this might be true for some people, here are my top four reasons why I think college is the best thing that can happen to an entrepreneur if they have the opportunity to go without a lot of debt. Please read until the end of the article before you get critical of what I’m going to say.

More than 2/3 of billionaires have a college degree and more than 80% of millionaires have a college degree. Most of the famous entrepreneurs that are college drop outs at least went to college, so statistically speaking, you have a better chance to succeed if you go to college.

Now I’m glad we have that out of the way because I can’t stand statistics like that. They have no indication of how likely is going to happen to you so let’s get into the five reasons.

First, colleges gives you a cushion. Most entrepreneurs from the starting off have no idea what they want to do. And when you’re out of the real world the pressure is on and your mom is going to be on your back every day to start making money. That might tempt you to start the wrong business because you need money immediately.

When you’re in college, you get four years to experiment, see what you like, meet people, and start a business without the pressure of having to make a profit tomorrow. But this is only beneficial for real entrepreneurs who can discipline themselves to get their work done while they spend their spare time partying the night away.

Secondly, when you’re in college, you’re surrounded by potential customers. If you go to a big college, you will be surrounded by tens of thousands of people of the same demographic, with the same interests, all within just minutes of you. People pay a lot of money to Facebook and Google to target people that narrow it down to people in college which are all around you. If you have something to sell, start selling it, knock on people’s doors, pass fliers, and talk to other student organizations.

Thirdly, you learn to work hard. Let’s face it, if you want to do well or even pass in college, you have to go to class and put in the work. Now add running a start-up business on top of that. It becomes very hard, but it teaches you to be disciplined, forces you to manage your time, and it teaches you to hustle and make sacrifices.

Fourth, you can learn a lot of interesting things. No, you probably won’t learn a thing about making, managing, investing money or starting a business. But you can broaden your knowledge base. You can learn about things like psychology, philosophy, perception, motivation, chemistry, and the space. These things will allow you to have more intellectual conversations and make you look at a business idea out of it.