What's the Value of College Education

The following is an extract from a blog by Tamara Erickson posted on Harvard Business Online. The full article is entitled "I've Got a Job Offer! Placing a Future Value on College Degrees".

clipped from discussionleader.hbsp.com I caught an interview with Simon Cowell on Good Morning America recently (June 6). In case you’ve somehow managed to insulate yourself from popular culture over the past five years, Simon is the hard-hitting judge on American Idol. He is also #21 on the Celebrity 100 list Forbes compiles of the most powerful and highest paid stars, has launched half a dozen shows, and is worth an estimated $200 million. After commenting on his success, the interviewer asked him if he had any regrets for having dropped out of high school as a teenager and never having gone to college. His response caught my attention to the degree that I replayed it on TiVo often enough to write it down word-for-word. Here’s what the wise one said: “Absolutely not. Because there was nothing I could or wanted to learn in school; it was just a complete waste of my time. What I did have, and I've always had, is that I'm a hard worker. The secret of my success is that I make other people money.”

Isn't it "basic human nature" that those of us that went through college - at least if we consider ourselves even a little 'successful' - are going to take the position that "a college education is a prerequisite for a balanced, fulfilled, and successful life", whereas those who didn't - and consider themselves even a little 'successful' - are going to take the view that it's not.

Too often, it seems to me, people are encouraged to do the right thing according to someone else's set of values, rather than to work out what their own values are and then do the right thing according to them. "Above all - to thine own self be true".

The fundamental question, it seems to me, is not whether it is more 'valuable' to have a college degree than not (those whose interests lie in 'selling' college education will, of course, attempt to quantify its value in terms of dollars and cents), but whether young people have the opportunity and the mentors to help them a) establish what their life goals are, and b) find the best ways - inside or outside of formal education - to equip themselves to achieve those goals.

Finally, I can't help but wonder at how 'success' is defined. Simon Callow - as far as I can make out - is a bitter, vindictive, publicity hound, a bully whose "talent" lies in his ability publicly to ridicule and humiliate people without shame or remorse.

Hands up all those who want their kids to grow up to be like that!