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A comment on Too many students attend college, said former UCLA prof. Parent comment

Re:Too many students attend college, said former UCLA prof by nostrademons on Sunday December 02, 2007 @10:23PM (#85484)
Thing is, I don't think employers ask for a college degree because the job actually requires one. I think they do it to separate the top 25% from the bottom 75%. A degree is the easiest way to look at an applicant and be able to say "That person is not stupid" (whether or not that judgment is true...)

Now, even if everybody got a college degree, there would still be a top 25% and a bottom 75%. And I don't think that employers would suddenly stop discriminating because suddenly everyone was qualified. I think they'd add other qualifications, like "must have a masters degree" or "must have commit privileges on a major open-source project".

Then all the workers are back where they started, except that they're out $150k for their college degree.

I guess the only way to win is to refuse to play the game. Which is why most of us are on this site, I guess...

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Re:Too many students attend college, said former UCLA prof by neilk on Monday December 03, 2007 @12:35AM (#85511)
Yes. Once upon a time, businesses took responsibility for training their employees. Now they expect the student to come to them having blown a huge wad of cash on speculative investment in education for a job. One that they aren't sure they really like, that they'll probably abandon in 10 years anyway, and where the employer considers them disposable.

In most cases, the state also subsidizes this huge gamble.

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Re:Too many students attend college, said former UCLA prof by Xichekolas on Monday December 03, 2007 @10:13AM (#85610)
I think, for the first time ever, I wish I could click the up arrow on a comment more than once.

Thanks for that.

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Re:Too many students attend college, said former UCLA prof by nradov on Monday December 03, 2007 @01:04PM (#85658)
Economists have studied this as signalling in the labor market. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signalling_%28economics%29#The_... Basically, employees tend to get more education than they really need just as a way to stand out from the crowd and signal their value to employers.
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Re:Too many students attend college, said former UCLA prof by downer on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @02:22AM (#88637)
> I think they do it to separate the top 25% from the bottom 75%.

Just because only 1 in 4 people do X doesn't mean those are the TOP 25%.

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