4 ms·

> Most jobs don't care what degree you have as long as you have a degree Then why do they require a degree at all? What specific skills will a degreed applica

by glonq 9y ago

> Most jobs don't care what degree you have as long as you have a degree Then why do they require a degree at all? What specific skills will a degreed applicant have that a high school grad won't?

adamsea 9y ago
Depends what classes they take, how good their teachers are, and how dedicated a student they are!
chrisseaton 9y ago
I don't think they see it as about specific skills - rather about general skills and maturity. Also I think they value having a lot of people with deeper knowledge of a diverse range of subjects.
umanwizard 9y ago
Statistically higher IQ and various other variables that positively correlate with work performance.
maccard 9y ago
If you have a pool of applicants for a job, all with no relevant experience, it's an easy filter. You filter out all the people who haven't proven they can do something they agreed to do for 3/4 years.
- nsxwolf 9y ago
  If that's all it is, there's got to be a way to come up with something that lets someone prove they are willing to do something for 4 years, but only costs maybe $250 a year.
  - ken47 9y ago
    MOOCs will make that happen within a decade's time.
  - dragonwriter 9y ago
    While they area bit more expensive than that target, universities that focus on credentialing without doing much of the rest already exist (e.g., Western Governor's University).
  - bmarkovic 9y ago
    This is mostly a problem of the Anglo-Saxon world. In continental Europe, for the most part, at least AFAIK, publicly owned universities are harder to get in, harder to get a degree from, and valued much more in the job market. The upside is that the education is subsidized by the government to the point of being roughly that expensive. I.e. one enrolls in a privately-owned, for-profit universities if they have the money, but don't want to work their arse off to get a degree, or don't have good enough grades from the secondary education to qualify for public unis.
  - maccard 9y ago
    Remember that lots of student debt isn't necessarily on tuition fees. I went to university for 4 years with "low" fees (started at €1750, ended at €2750, now €3000), but renting a room in that city will cost you 5-6 hundred euro a month, plus other "normal " living costs like eating, transport (another €120/month). All while you're probably not supposed to be working. My loan was purely to pay for accommodation for my time there.
icantdrive55 9y ago
Somedays I wonder. After I graduated, I really felt it was a whole lot of busy work. If I owned a company, a collage degree would be not required. Hell--I might even wave a high school diploma. I would require specialized tests. Tests that cover a wide range of subjects, and specialized tests. If they can pass them, they get the job.
dragonwriter 9y ago
> What specific skills will a degreed applicant have that a high school grad won't? Just as requiring a high-school diploma is a filter for the general education requirements that apply to a diploma, requiring a bachelor's degree in any field is a filter for the level of general education that comes with that, not the domain-specific skills of a degree. And it's an imperfect filter, but its job isn't to be perfect, it's too reduce the absolute quantity of bad applications that need to be reviewed.
- SilasX 9y ago
  Right, but now it's effectively become a positional good -- you get the education to indicate being in the nth percentile by general capability. Subsidizing further education then means that people have to get more education (with no additional human capital enhancement on the market) simply to signal being in the same percentile. And refusing the rigamarole just brands you as "different" with its own barriers to overcome.
pgeorgi 9y ago
To add to what the others mentioned: critical thinking skills, and the ability to write themselves and their reader out of a paper bag. Skills which, as an aside, don't always have as high a priority with the "more practical" degrees whose use for a certain job is more obvious.
kazinator 9y ago
> What specific skills will a degreed applicant have that a high school grad won't? For one thing, the "skill" of (probably) not being from that stratum of society that doesn't get their kids through university. Asking for degrees is a subtle way to perpetrate socio-economic discrimination. (In some cases, it has to be a degree from the right set of schools, not just anywhere.) It's so easy! You don't have to look at race, or what neighborhood someone grew up in. Just this: do they have a degree or not. Saves time and protects from litigation: it's brilliant! Getting a degree demonstrates some measure of discipline and work, and the delaying of gratification for the sake of a longer term goal that is several years away, while completing various tasks, jumping through hoops and so on. It's like a job. You have to attend to certain things on time, like showing up for exams, and meet deadlines (term papers, etc). If you have a degree, you probably pulled an "all nighter" or two to submit something on time or prepare for an exam, and that's just the sort of dedication that employers crave.

by glonq 9y ago

> Most jobs don't care what degree you have as long as you have a degree Then why do they require a degree at all? What specific skills will a degreed applicant have that a high school grad won't?

adamsea 9y ago

Depends what classes they take, how good their teachers are, and how dedicated a student they are!

chrisseaton 9y ago

I don't think they see it as about specific skills - rather about general skills and maturity. Also I think they value having a lot of people with deeper knowledge of a diverse range of subjects.

umanwizard 9y ago

Statistically higher IQ and various other variables that positively correlate with work performance.

maccard 9y ago

If you have a pool of applicants for a job, all with no relevant experience, it's an easy filter. You filter out all the people who haven't proven they can do something they agreed to do for 3/4 years.

nsxwolf 9y ago
If that's all it is, there's got to be a way to come up with something that lets someone prove they are willing to do something for 4 years, but only costs maybe $250 a year.
- ken47 9y ago
  MOOCs will make that happen within a decade's time.
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  While they area bit more expensive than that target, universities that focus on credentialing without doing much of the rest already exist (e.g., Western Governor's University).
- bmarkovic 9y ago
  This is mostly a problem of the Anglo-Saxon world. In continental Europe, for the most part, at least AFAIK, publicly owned universities are harder to get in, harder to get a degree from, and valued much more in the job market. The upside is that the education is subsidized by the government to the point of being roughly that expensive. I.e. one enrolls in a privately-owned, for-profit universities if they have the money, but don't want to work their arse off to get a degree, or don't have good enough grades from the secondary education to qualify for public unis.
- maccard 9y ago
  Remember that lots of student debt isn't necessarily on tuition fees. I went to university for 4 years with "low" fees (started at €1750, ended at €2750, now €3000), but renting a room in that city will cost you 5-6 hundred euro a month, plus other "normal " living costs like eating, transport (another €120/month). All while you're probably not supposed to be working. My loan was purely to pay for accommodation for my time there.

icantdrive55 9y ago

Somedays I wonder. After I graduated, I really felt it was a whole lot of busy work. If I owned a company, a collage degree would be not required. Hell--I might even wave a high school diploma. I would require specialized tests. Tests that cover a wide range of subjects, and specialized tests. If they can pass them, they get the job.

dragonwriter 9y ago

> What specific skills will a degreed applicant have that a high school grad won't? Just as requiring a high-school diploma is a filter for the general education requirements that apply to a diploma, requiring a bachelor's degree in any field is a filter for the level of general education that comes with that, not the domain-specific skills of a degree. And it's an imperfect filter, but its job isn't to be perfect, it's too reduce the absolute quantity of bad applications that need to be reviewed.

SilasX 9y ago
Right, but now it's effectively become a positional good -- you get the education to indicate being in the nth percentile by general capability. Subsidizing further education then means that people have to get more education (with no additional human capital enhancement on the market) simply to signal being in the same percentile. And refusing the rigamarole just brands you as "different" with its own barriers to overcome.

pgeorgi 9y ago

To add to what the others mentioned: critical thinking skills, and the ability to write themselves and their reader out of a paper bag. Skills which, as an aside, don't always have as high a priority with the "more practical" degrees whose use for a certain job is more obvious.

kazinator 9y ago

> What specific skills will a degreed applicant have that a high school grad won't? For one thing, the "skill" of (probably) not being from that stratum of society that doesn't get their kids through university. Asking for degrees is a subtle way to perpetrate socio-economic discrimination. (In some cases, it has to be a degree from the right set of schools, not just anywhere.) It's so easy! You don't have to look at race, or what neighborhood someone grew up in. Just this: do they have a degree or not. Saves time and protects from litigation: it's brilliant! Getting a degree demonstrates some measure of discipline and work, and the delaying of gratification for the sake of a longer term goal that is several years away, while completing various tasks, jumping through hoops and so on. It's like a job. You have to attend to certain things on time, like showing up for exams, and meet deadlines (term papers, etc). If you have a degree, you probably pulled an "all nighter" or two to submit something on time or prepare for an exam, and that's just the sort of dedication that employers crave.