"Just last week, the New York Times, normally a big fan of higher education, ran an article on "The Dwindling Power of a College Degree." In our grandparents' day, a college diploma nearly guaranteed a decent job.
Now, not so much: "One of the greatest changes is that a college degree is no longer the guarantor of a middle-class existence. Until the early 1970s, less than 11 percent of the adult population graduated from college, and most of them could get a decent job. Today nearly a third have college degrees, and a higher percentage of them graduated from non-elite schools. A bachelor's degree on its own no longer conveys intelligence and capability." Read the Rest of the Article at the Washington Examiner.
Although I believe Mr. Harlon's article is generally correct, I challenge the premise as to whether a bachelor's degree "on its own no longer conveys intelligence and capability". I hire a lot of young people at our company with bachelor's degrees in engineering, science, computer networking, construction management, physics, math and other hard skill disciplines. I don't hire anyone with a bachelors, masters or PhD in some esoteric feel good fun to study and discuss in class degree program such as the effect of rain on pink snails in the Amazon or Russian mythology or the sexual proclivities of protestors from 1960 to 2011.
The difference between the 1970's and now is not that the degree is less valuable it is simply that students think any degree, in any random subject, makes them eligible for a job making $200,000 per year working 30 hours a week. What is missing is good ole common sense (what can I do that might actually pay me a living?) and a serious and focused work ethic.
Just my opinion!
Willie P.
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