Importance of College Degree ... Another Point of View

There are lots of ongoing discussions about the unemployment situation, the lousy economy, student debt and the inability of college graduates to get good jobs upon graduation.

Gloom Widespread as College Grads Face New Math describes the situation:

"If you divide American workers into winners and losers, the 30% with four-year college degrees look like winners. They're more likely to be working: Unemployment among college grads is 4.2% vs. 9.7% for high-school grads. And they make more: The typical full-time worker with a four-year degree is earning 65% a week more than a high-school grad.

But college grads aren't feeling any better about the U.S. economy or American politics than the rest of the country. In recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News polls, 80% of the white men with four-year college degrees and no graduate education said the country is on the wrong track, compared with 74% of all those polled. These college grads are just as pessimistic about the next year as everyone else: 33% expect the economy to get worse, while only 17% expect it to get better."

Later it says this about the loss of confidence in college graduation as the ticket for realizing the American dream:

"Things are worse for the young. The unemployment rate for recent college grads is 10.7%. More than 14% of Americans between 25 and 34 (5.9 million in all) are living with their parents, up significantly from before the recession. Nearly a quarter of them have bachelor's degrees.

Having a college degree no longer guarantees a rising wage or a shot at the American dream. That is contributing to a widespread sense that the U.S. economy isn't working any longer for the bulk of Americans. Two-thirds of those polled by The Wall Street Journal—two-thirds!—said they aren't confident life for their children's generation will be better than it has been for them. This loss of confidence is corrosive."

Like far too many Americans today, college grads are indeed having a very difficult time. Especially younger ones with lots of student debt to repay.

Is there an effective alternative to college as the path to success? Well, yes, there is, as a matter of fact.

For a somewhat unconventional but convincing take on whether a college degree even matters, Will Dropouts Save America? makes a compelling case that college often isn't the answer. For those people with an entrepreneurial streak, learning by doing is a good alternative to college.

The article argues the case persuasively:

"If start-up activity is the true engine of job creation in America, one thing is clear: our current educational system is acting as the brakes. Simply put, from kindergarten through undergraduate and grad school, you learn very few skills or attitudes that would ever help you start a business. Skills like sales, networking, creativity and comfort with failure.

No business in America — and therefore no job creation — happens without someone buying something. But most students learn nothing about sales in college; they are more likely to take a course on why sales (and capitalism) are evil. . . .

Start-ups are a creative endeavor by definition. Yet our current classrooms, geared toward tests on narrowly defined academic subjects, stifle creativity. If a young person happens to retain enough creative spirit to start a business upon graduation, she does so in spite of her schooling, not because of it."

While agreeing that for certain professions a college degree is essential, he argues that in many cases it doesn't matter:

"Certainly, if you want to become a doctor, lawyer or engineer, then you must go to college. But, beyond regulated fields like these, the focus on higher education as the only path to stable employment is profoundly misguided, exacerbated by parents who see the classic professions as the best route to job security.

That may have been true 50 years ago, but not now. In our chaotic, unpredictable economy, even young people who have no interest in starting a business, and who want to become professionals, still need to learn the entrepreneurial skills that will allow them to get ahead.

True, people with college degrees tend to earn more. But that could be because most ambitious people tend to go to college; there is little evidence to suggest that the same ambitious people would earn less without college degrees (particularly if they mastered true business and networking grit).

And while most people who end up starting businesses likely have college degrees, those degree-bearers should be well aware (as they learned in their freshman statistics classes) that correlation does not equal causation. Assuming that college was responsible for their success gives higher education more credit than it deserves."

He wraps it up in convincing fashion:

"Classroom skills may put you at an advantage in the formal market, but in the informal market, street-smart skills and real-world networking are infinitely more important.

Yet our children grow up amid an echo chamber of voices telling them to get good grades, do well on their SATs, and spend an average of $45,000 on tuition — after accounting for scholarships — while taking on $23,000 in debt to get a private four-year college education.

It’s time that we as a nation accepted a basic — and seldom-mentioned — fact. You don’t need a degree (and certainly not an M.B.A.) to start a business and create jobs, nor is it even that helpful, compared with cheaper, faster alternatives."

There you have it.

For proof that business success and job creation don't come from the classroom, people like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are strong examples. None earned a college degree and probably incurred no student debt.

Nevertheless, they started enormously successful businesses and created many jobs as a result of their entrepreneurial risk taking.

Thanks. Bob.