Another sign that the college degree is not all it’s cracked up to be
You might not need much more evidence that college has been oversold, especially to those who look at a four-year degree as a ticket to a good job upon graduation. Still, the latest Bloomberg Businessweek offers more fuel for the fire.
A large body of academic research shows that half or more of all jobs come through informal channels—connections to friends, families, and colleagues—according to Limited Network Connections and the Distribution of Wages by Kenneth J. Arrow of Stanford University and Ron Borzekowski of the Federal Reserve Board. “Character is a big deal,” says Art Rolnick, co-director for the Human Capital Research Collaborative at the University of Minnesota. “Character references are always big, and the Internet doesn’t change that.”
As the headline in the print version of the publication proclaims: “It’s Not What Grads Know, It’s Who They Know.”
Written by Mitch Kokai
One comment
True, but quite a lot is what you know.
College has definitely been oversold, because I don’t think people understood that college is very much like a modern trade school. I would have loved to have spent that time studying literature or history or philosophy… But i was paying money out of my own (future) pocket, so I essentially learned an enjoyable trade instead, and got my computer science degree. Those other courses of study are great secondary fields for most people, and should quite often be considered as interests and hobbies instead… not career paths where you pay massive amounts of money up front to try it out.
Your income potential with a philosophy or history or literature degree is much different than those with engineering or some science degrees. People needed, and continue to need, realistic expectations about the benefits of their college degree and what exactly it is they’re buying.
Understanding that is a big part of having personal responsibility.
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