Ask HN: College degree required?
For instance, a job posting will typically ask for a candidate (aside from particular work skills) to:
-have strong written and communication/verbal skills -be able work independently and effectively multitask in a fast paced environment with minimal supervision -professional, extremely well organized, thorough, and detail-oriented -be proactive (aka go-getter) -have an analytical/sales/managerial aptitude
While a degree may signal some of the above criteria it doesn't follow that the college experience adds to what the student already is capable of by the time he reaches graduation. If anything college may erode his value to employers by allowing him to skate by on a minimal course schedule whose work product is corroded by grade inflation. Students are taught that a minimal effort is all that is needed to be rewarded with a decent grade. In the real world that is decidedly NOT true and subpar performance is the quickest way to get you fired (outside of government).
It could be argued that what once was something special and where a college degree signified something important is no longer the case. For all intents and purposes a college degree doesn't tell you anything about what kind of future employee that person is going to be and if he'll bring the abilities and qualities you want in the job.
What is confounding then is why society has placed an ever greater importance on college when its value and worth has declined. College used to be valuable when access to information was scarce and communicating with and meeting new people was hard to do but the Internet has liberated us. Now we are overwhelmed with content and spend a good portion of our time on social networks and user forums. Therefore, the inherent "worth" of college has fallen precipitously even though employers paradoxically have required ever more of us to have such credentials.
My answer is that a college degree had conferred unto its recipient an "illusion of competence" whereby employers would take as a given that the graduate was an above average worker and place his resume at the top of the pile, so it "paid" to endure four years of coursework and thousands of dollars in tuition costs to obtain that signal.
As students put in the minimal effort necessary to graduate employers find out that graduates are nothing special and the marginal value of a degree declines. Therefore, the illusion that had held up throughout the 20th century has now been shattered in the 21st leaving employers frustrated with underwhelming candidates and graduates despondent over minimal job prospects and burdened with significant student loans.