Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish has some recent posts about the value of a liberal arts education. From a reader who went to Carleton College:

I’m only 33, and many of the technical skills I learned both in biology and in computer science courses in college are obsolete just 11 years later. With the job market as uncertain and changing as it is now, it’s many of my “distribution” courses and the ones I took for fun that are becoming the most useful. Most importantly, though, Carleton’s emphasis on writing skills, which seem to be endangered at many universities, has been a major difference-maker in my career. That alone has opened numerous opportunities for me.

In Defense of the Liberal Arts, Ctd.

@Stephen – It sounds more like you are looking for vocational training. Traditionally this isn’t what most universities were designed to teach. For years MIT taught their introduction programming course in Lisp–a language that is anything but common. Their rational was that it is a good language to learn in and forced you to think in different ways about programing.

Universities are starting to shift toward vocational training. Just in the last few years MIT replaced their programing course with one based on Java. I think this type of shift is detrimental in the long term. A university degree should show that you have the capability to learn just about anything and that you have a good solid foundation in a particular area. A vocational degree should show that you know how to do a particular set of tasks based on current practice.

Years ago people were hired based on their education…today people are being hired based on their experience. This is a great topic by the way and one that I find usually brings out the extremists on both sides.

Regards,

http://www.marginalia.org/dfw_kenyon_commencement.html

If you have any doubt about the value of a college education after reading this, then perhaps you are defining “value” too narrowly.

Yes, the primary physical benefit of a college degree is the potential financial payoff. But financial gain is not the purpose of college. “Making a life,” as Leddy quotes his old professor, is about learning that the world is a messy place, the world does not owe you anything, and that, ultimately, you will be judged by what you do and the decisions you make. Living a life is easy; making a life is hard work.

Of course, the school of hard knocks is cheaper. So is the military. Both are excellent avenues to learn the same things. But not everyone is fit for military service, and the school of hard knocks rejects a lot of people on principle.

Remember, college often leads to starting out in life not only with a leg up on your resume and knowledge, but also brick holding you back in the form of debt. That debt limits choices, taking away the opportunity of entrepreneurialism away from the young and energetic who would otherwise be best suited for such risk taking.

Worse, if one doesn’t complete college for one reason or another, the debt remains without the benefits of a degree. And student loans can’t be discharged via bankruptcy.

But in general your experiences outside the classroom are what gives you skills and getting those experiences are more a result of who you know that who was teaching you.

It’s about what you do outside the classroom, developing yourself, meeting people, tapping into your alum… Think they teach anything different at Harvard than they do at Community College? Nope, but it’s about the networking that you can tap at HBS. Everyone’s parents are doctors and lawyers, it’s globally known, you can walk in the door anywhere.

Even if you go to a small school, tap that network! The more people you talk to, the luckier you get