They like to point to studies that show how much more college grads make over their working lifetime as proof of their worth... but that is a red herring.
Here's why:
Let just say that I create a club today called the super success club... and only the smartest, hardest working, most driven young people in America are allowed to join (let say the top 5% of each high school graduating class are automatically members of the club) Then after 30 to 50 years or so I start releasing data showing that members of the super success club average $2,000,000 more in earnings over their working lifetime, which proves that being a member of this club is very important to your future success ... so important in fact that we are going to start charging for memberships....
and the rest is history.
You see, when you get to select the best of the best, it doesn't mater you if have them draw doodles on plywood for 4 years, when they finish and eventually enter the work force they are still going to outperform their peers. because they are the best.
Attendance at college may be correlated to having a higher ( on average) income. The attendance at college may not at all be the cause of that success. The fact that those who do finish college have higher IQs and are more driven and organized is the cause of their success.
By the way, Charles Murray, author of the “Bell Curve”, recommends that the B.S. degree be completely abandoned. He recommends that students take privately administered qualifying exams or certifying exams.