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I wasn't referring to salaries. The practical rewards of higher education is obviously important, but I also think learning and growing as a person is also impo

by daemonk 12y ago

I wasn't referring to salaries. The practical rewards of higher education is obviously important, but I also think learning and growing as a person is also important. So in context of the "worth" of a college education, I was talking about personal growth. Whether we can attribute higher wages to the nominal piece of paper or personal growth is a question I can't answer. Do employers only see potential employees on paper? Or do this personal growth get reflected in the interview? Do they even care. Not sure if there are any data to support either case. I want to say that actively participating in your education can potentially make you better equipped for the rest of your life, which can be more important than that nominal piece of paper. However, I can only attest to that with anecdotal evidence.

sanxiyn 12y ago
Higher education is a large investment, so while personal growth is all good and fine, economic concern is paramount. As the article states, "most of the benefits of college come from graduating, not enrolling". This data do seem to be in favor of the hypothesis that the paper matters. More data on this would be very welcome. It also intuitively makes sense to me, as the paper is easy to verify, but personal growth is not. While I suspect measure of personal growth provides better information to employers compared to the paper, the cost of acquiring that information may make the paper more valuable in the net. Also you seem to underestimate the value the paper provides to employers: jumping through hoops correlates with conscientiousness personality trait, which is a good predictor of workplace performance.
arethuza 12y ago
My favourite example of how University can be a lot more than courses and exams is Stephen Fry - he hardly went to any lectures, came up with an amazing "hack" that meant he aced the exams yet still worked fantastically hard at what he wanted to do. I can recommend The Fry Chronicles for the details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fry_Chronicles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fry_Chronicles

by daemonk 12y ago

sanxiyn 12y ago

Higher education is a large investment, so while personal growth is all good and fine, economic concern is paramount. As the article states, "most of the benefits of college come from graduating, not enrolling". This data do seem to be in favor of the hypothesis that the paper matters. More data on this would be very welcome. It also intuitively makes sense to me, as the paper is easy to verify, but personal growth is not. While I suspect measure of personal growth provides better information to employers compared to the paper, the cost of acquiring that information may make the paper more valuable in the net. Also you seem to underestimate the value the paper provides to employers: jumping through hoops correlates with conscientiousness personality trait, which is a good predictor of workplace performance.

arethuza 12y ago

My favourite example of how University can be a lot more than courses and exams is Stephen Fry - he hardly went to any lectures, came up with an amazing "hack" that meant he aced the exams yet still worked fantastically hard at what he wanted to do. I can recommend The Fry Chronicles for the details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fry_Chronicles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fry_Chronicles