Jaleel White Admits He Should Have Dropped Out of UCLA, Says College Leads Many People to “A Lot of Debt” [Video]

Actor Jaleel White has expressed significant regrets about his college years.

Video

In a recent conversation with Melissa Rivers, the “Family Matters” star shared that while he’s proud to have attended UCLA, he now believes he should have left sooner to continue his acting career.

“I love that I was accepted to UCLA. Of course, that’s a prestigious thing, but I do wish after two years I had dropped out,” White told Rivers.

According to White, he’s never been “degree checked,” and he views the college diploma as merely a tool to keep Americans financially strained.

“College was supposed to lead you to a better career. And for a lot of people in our country, it’s just leading them to a lot of debt. And that has to be figured out. I don’t know how it’s going to get figured out, what’s going to be the tipping point,” he explained. “For a person like me to have left college early would have been no different than Kobe Bryant leaving college early to go to the Lakers.”

White also shared that his mother was a key motivator in his decision to stay in college, even when he was ready to quit.

White joined “Family Matters” in 1989 and remained on the series until 1998, spanning nine seasons in total. In 1997, he won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series for his role as Steve Urkel on the show. In 2001, White graduated from UCLA with a degree in film and television.