Intelligent people otherwise wouldn't be qualified (read: get past the HR drones and other keyword filtering algorithms) without that given piece of paper. Yes

Intelligent people otherwise wouldn't be qualified (read: get past the HR drones and other keyword filtering algorithms) without that given piece of paper. Yes, people that receive bachelor's degrees may be highly effective and talented regardless of having such a degree, but there are few (if any other) means of attracting gainful employment to fully utilize such talents. College may not reduce inequality via increasing the education level of a given population but it does reduce inequality via providing a mechanism for individuals to signal prospective employers, "here I am." This mechanism, however, is exceedingly expensive but still probably worth it. Enterprising individuals may however be inclined to "catfish" and outright lie about their education history, as evidenced the other day by the article about one such employer encountering a catfish.