Monday, May 1, 2023

Opinion Today: Examining the power of a college degree

What a writer without one has learned about our focus on higher education.
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By Vanessa Mobley

Op-Ed Editor

There's a game working professionals can sometimes play: imagining what their next job could be. Anecdotally, I've observed that lawyers often wish to be philosophers, and doctors like to imagine their lives as artists.

I've also played this game. One day, I'd like to be a high school English teacher. But really, what gives me the audacity to imagine I could do that job? Not much more than my 30-year-old college diploma. Those with college educations assume that their futures are boundless; those lacking that piece of paper can incorrectly assume the opposite. This is the reality that Christopher Zara reveals in his Opinion piece "You Learn the Value of a College Degree When You Live Without One."

He describes his experience working as an editor at Fast Company. Now a leader in the magazine's newsroom, Zara observes the irony of being a hiring manager when his own résumé would be unlikely to pass muster.

As the editorial board pointed out earlier this year, "the path to prosperity has narrowed significantly in recent decades — especially for those without a college education." This fact makes Zara's reflections, which he elaborates on in more depth in his forthcoming book "Uneducated," all the more important. He closes his piece with this observation: "Higher education is always going to be a great way to secure professional opportunities and ensure the chance for upward mobility. Maybe it's even the best way. But need it be the only way?"

What our readers are saying

I once had to battle the organization I was working for to hire a candidate for a digital marketing job who had years of solid experience but hadn't completed his college degree. I won, we hired him, and he was the best person we ever had in that position.

Meanwhile, I have hired college graduates who cannot write a simple business letter. — Debra L. Wolf, New York

I work as an educational assistant, even though I have a B.A. and an M.Ed. Turns out you can pay the money and do the work and earn the teaching license and then they move the goal posts while you're home with your babies. Anyway, our superintendent once tried to defend our low wages, as assistants, on the grounds that we didn't need degrees to do our work. But every single time they advertise for an assistant's position, they say, "Four-year degree preferred." Some nerve. — Elsie, Massachusetts

After years of trying to make it through life with a G.E.D., I entered college at age 38. I didn't just want a better job; I wanted to not feel ignorant. Even if I had been given the job my eventual degree enabled me to have, I don't think I would have done nearly as well in my career without having had the college experience.

A college degree is more than a ticket. It's a sign that you've been through a life-altering process. It changes your thinking in ways that are both demonstrable and intangible. It unlocks self-confidence and self-worth. At least it did for me. — Jonathan, Cleveland

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