General education is absolutely more important than career-specific education. The education that happens outside the classroom is even more important: and gene

General education is absolutely more important than career-specific education. The education that happens outside the classroom is even more important: and general education contributes to this by mixing together folks from different majors and walks of life. Personal story: I went to high school in France. When it came for me to decide between colleges, I had the choice between a 3 year degree at Cambridge and a 4 year degree at Stanford. The Cambridge program was for "Natural Sciences", Stanford didn't ask me to select a major until 3 years in. I chose Stanford, took a wide variety of classes far outside anything i had been exposed to previously, and ended up with a degree in Economics -- in addition to a BS and an MS in Biology during which I had the opportunity to pursue many courses in CS, statistics, data analysis, etc. It was also fun, so much so that I ended up staying 5 years instead of 4. Today I work in tech. Had I chosen Cambridge my perspective (and my life!) would be very different.