College Degrees: Not All They Are Cracked Up To Be?

Disclaimer before I begin this post:  I have a post-graduate education and am glad I do.

Einstein once said: "One had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year."

I have often wondered about several things regarding college.  First and foremost, a lot of people seem to think that going to college is a ticket to success and safety.  It is not.  A college degree is a symbol of educational achievement, but it is not a representation of creativity, work ethic, diligence, or any other indicators of true success.  It is just that, an education.

Now don't get me wrong, I think that having a degree opens a lot of doors, but it should never be construed as the end of a journey.  It is merely a stepping stone.  Also, depending on what you major in, you may find that it really isn't that much of a stepping stone either.  Still, traditional wisdom says go to college and you will be fine.  Traditional wisdom, sadly, is wrong.  Just look at the unemployment rate.

However, the other thing that I think college does is burn people out.  People focus so hard on grades, studying, and all of the life lessons that most learn as they get on their own for their first time.  People push so hard to get past the hurdle of obtaining a degree that they lost a lot of their creativity and drive, and settle into getting the job that they have worked so hard to have the opportunity for.

This is all fine, but it results in the delay (or complete loss) of a lot of the entrepreneurial energy and ideas that people have before they ever even get to school, and instead of thinking of how they can start their own business or develop their own ideas, graduates grab onto the job safety net.

I always wonder what would happen if we didn't teach that college was the goal, but instead taught that obtaining as many tools as possible was the goal.  Instead of graduating, where most people seem to think they will stop learning, what if education was pushed as a lifelong process.  It isn't about graduating with a degree, but accomplishing dreams.