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Statistics of enrollment percentage doesn’t really describe the culture surrounding college in the United States, though. Plenty of people don’t end up going to

by least 5y ago

Statistics of enrollment percentage doesn’t really describe the culture surrounding college in the United States, though. Plenty of people don’t end up going to college but that certainly hasn’t stopped it being considered a panacea for employability in this country. This is still being pushed by politicians. It’s still what pretty much every parent hopes for their children as well. On this website I’ve seen people derisively describe people as not college educated.

deleted 5y ago
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cbozeman 5y ago
> On this website I’ve seen people derisively describe people as not college educated. This is unfortunate, because I've met quite a few very smart people who never went to college, or who started but had life circumstances that pulled them away before they were able to complete a degree. College is not a panacea and the sad but honest truth is that most jobs do not require a college degree. Most of the jobs in America can easily be done with on-the-job training; we've just seen companies shift to a model where they want to offload those costs to the American worker by letting them spend $50,000 to $250,000 and four years of their lives "proving" they can get an education that many of them don't really need, and don't really want in the first place. We also allowed well-meaning people to pass laws preventing companies from conducting IQ tests and thereby sorting people as was done many years ago. I know this is true because years ago I used to eat lunch with the Director of Human Talent Acquisition at my company almost every day, and we would discuss this. He was a very engaging gentleman in his mid-70s with an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of current and past HR topics, philosophies, and controversies. He had worked for a well-known Fortune 50 company for almost 35 years before "retiring" to my company, a mere Fortune 1000 player. He can recall using IQ tests to sort applicants into positions for which we now demand bachelor's degrees, or in some cases, even master's degrees. A bit sad, if you ask me. Our culture should be progressing, not regressing...

by least 5y ago

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

cbozeman 5y ago

> On this website I’ve seen people derisively describe people as not college educated. This is unfortunate, because I've met quite a few very smart people who never went to college, or who started but had life circumstances that pulled them away before they were able to complete a degree. College is not a panacea and the sad but honest truth is that most jobs do not require a college degree. Most of the jobs in America can easily be done with on-the-job training; we've just seen companies shift to a model where they want to offload those costs to the American worker by letting them spend $50,000 to $250,000 and four years of their lives "proving" they can get an education that many of them don't really need, and don't really want in the first place. We also allowed well-meaning people to pass laws preventing companies from conducting IQ tests and thereby sorting people as was done many years ago. I know this is true because years ago I used to eat lunch with the Director of Human Talent Acquisition at my company almost every day, and we would discuss this. He was a very engaging gentleman in his mid-70s with an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of current and past HR topics, philosophies, and controversies. He had worked for a well-known Fortune 50 company for almost 35 years before "retiring" to my company, a mere Fortune 1000 player. He can recall using IQ tests to sort applicants into positions for which we now demand bachelor's degrees, or in some cases, even master's degrees. A bit sad, if you ask me. Our culture should be progressing, not regressing...