Posted on 07/31/2013 7:46:21 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
For years we've heard the propaganda line that everyone needs to go to college -- that a degree will improve your status and standard of living.
It has become politically incorrect to even suggest that a higher education degree might not be right for every young American. So it's not surprising that those without a college degree often feel inferior and marginalized.
Has a college degree become the litmus test for whether a person is well educated and successful? These highly successfully individuals would likely disagree with that premise.
Michael Dell, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Simon Cowell, Barry Diller, Ted Turner, Ralph Lauren, Governor Jan Brewer, Governor Scott Walker, Governor Gary Herbert, Peter Jennings, Walter Cronkite, John Chancellor, William Safire, Larry King, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Woody Allen, Karl Rove, and 33 members of the U.S. House of Representatives.
What do they all have in common? Not one received a college degree!
A college degree has long been considered the golden ticket to a more fulfilling life both financially and intellectually. Now the bloom seems to be off the rose. Students are graduating, armed with a politically-driven pseudo education, to find themselves jobless or underemployed, debt ridden, and perhaps living again with parents.
Political leaders, college presidents, and prominent foundations argue that the U.S. must increase the proportionate number of adults with college degrees if it is to remain competitive in the global economy. But this premise is incompatible with the cold facts.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
It’s the old “correlation is not causation” problem.
People with college degrees historically have been more economically successful than people without them have been. Citing a few billionaires does not change that solid fact.
The error is in thinking that the college degree caused the success. In fact, when the college degree used to be a function of the degree holder’s intellectual advantage it was not surprising that people who were basically smarter would end up being more successful.
Now that college is democratized to the extent that anyone willing to sit there for four years can get one, the correlation with intelligence is broken, and that’s why people with a degree in Puppetry Studies can’t pay off their loans.
No question college is useless. Just look at some of the posts here on FR
“your right”
“I went their”
“Its a shame”
“Your to liberal”
How did you know that they went to college?
I see. You couldn't hack it.
Many of them....yeah...many lack common sense. Ever work around engineers? Dumbest smart people in the world.
I think for most, college is nothing but a 4 year bar tab.
LOL...yeah...that’s it....
I dare say most college pukes couldn’t walk a yard in my shoes....including maybe you judging by your retort.
Still, try getting a job here in Central NC that pays more than $10/hour w/o a degree.
Well...move. That’s what people do, they move to the jobs. Depending on what you’re skill set is, be willing to go to the Dakotas where all sorts of jobs are plentiful. Most people that I’ve found that are chronically unemployed are stuck or trapped by geography and lack of imagination.
If you have an idea, business plan, or money to invest, college isn’t necessary. If your plan is to job hop and earn your money through paychecks, a high school diploma isn’t going to get much further than manager at Burger King.
IF they swallowed the PC Pablum. . .yes.
Smart people still can do VERY stupid things.
Almost ALL of my “distribution” courses in undergrad were absolutely useless, and taught nothing of lasting value.
HALF of my Master’s program was review of stuff an entry-level IT type is expected to know. . . another quarter was utterly irrelevant to current tech (example: a course on “Distributed Databases” in 2007. The technology died on the vine in 2002, but since the Prof did his Ph.D. on it in the late 1990s, we HAD to take it whether we wanted to or not. . .)
Part of what college is all about is learning which subjects or tasks you enjoy and which ones you have a talent for. Very few college graduates work in the field they thought they would when they were freshmen. It’s certainly true that, in retrospect, many college courses I took have had little direct applicability to my career. And some courses that seemed “useless” at the time (in my case, statistics) later turn out to be indispensable on the job.
Got my degree in 68 from the University of Hue.
Majored in the Humanities .
Go ahead.....look it up .
I believe only lawyers and doctors need structured education. Everyone else can learn on their own as well as PhD folks, though they may not have access to the research tools needed to get there.
Note: you’re = your
pet peeve
You gotta pay your dues to the system.
I had to finish my first degree in order to follow my boss out of a laboratory into sales—and much bigger bucks. (My company paid for most of my tuition...and the books, which was more important. I fiddled my way through subsequent book learnin’ on my own.)
If people want to move to crappy—but beautiful—places like the Dakotas instead of entering a professional career path, more power to them. But once their bodies start breaking down in a blue-collar job and the economy leaves them stranded...
I tell my students not to mess around and get the letters after their names as quickly as possible. Doors will open for them, then.
They can play at being blue collar heroes but have alternatives once they grow up.
Hint: Even though a job "requires" a(n unnecessary) degree... they do not pay any more than they did when the given position did not require any degree. I've seen it happen.
No, I think that righwingexremist1776 might be telling us that he doesn't have a degree.
Once it became legally onerous to administer tests for job qualifications the requirement to possess a degree became the default test for an employment app.
"What a looser"
and,
"This is series"
The Rachel Jantel admirers have been among us for some time.
Not here to give you crap but I find it hard to believe that illegals have the language skills to pass the licensing tests for plumber or electrician. Most states require apprentice time to be verified by a licensed journeyman before you can even apply to take the licensing tests.
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