Comments:

I will acknowledge right now that I am probably biased, given that I am employed by a university.

That said, I think there's an important distinction to be made here. It is obviously true that a college degree does not guarantee a good job, health, and happiness to everyone who obtains one. It is admittedly less of a differentiator than it was 20 or 30 years ago. But the very "commoditization" of college degrees mean they still matter--very much. In a highly competitive market, it would be that much more difficult to be a young person looking for a job or advancement without a degree.

Having said that, as educators, we are very aware of the fact that we need to rethink our curriculum to give our graduates an advantage in the job market. In fact, communications and critical thinking skills are the differentiators in a market where more and more applicants have the basic knowledge associated with an undergraduate business degree.

In short, I fully agree with the above content. I find the title misleading.

Ok, so people with college don't have as much discretionary income as they used to. I think there is a bigger issue that whether salaries are keeping up with inflation.

I live in an affluent area in the Northeast. I see a lot of people who are raise in a left-brained school district, go to left brained universities (often for multiple left-brained degrees), and work in left brain careers. A good number of these folks make a ton of money. Money they would have been less likely to make if they had not gone to college.

The problem is, they all too often look to me like the cobweb guy. Some I'm sure are the cobweb guy in the chosen career, suck in one place trying to figure out what happened to their career advancement plan. But many of these cobweb people are flying up the corporate latter with no real purpose.

Some of them are so stuck on themselves that they won't ever get Johnny's lesson #3. But some never even get to that point. Life has never been about them as much as it is about a duty to achieve as much as you can achieve because otherwise you're letting down your family, your community, your god, or your [whatever it is they felt compelled to not let down].

I understand and agree with the bigger point of this article: our educational system isn't working in the world as it is now. My problem with this is that we are still measuring what's working by what it gets us. We are measuring instrumental success, not fundimental success.

I have a burning desire to see what means are developed to help take us beyond where our universities have taken us, but I'm more excited to see us measuring (if that's the best term) our careers in better terms than income.

Reframing the college/university credential as an ASSET, among a three other key career categories, is essential to helping people get the experience they need. Problem is... recent grads mistakenly see their degree as THE key to unlock their futures. They mistakenly overstate its important. It is important, like Catherine England says, but it's only one ASSET among many others. I've personally talked to over 2000 college aged students about their "careers," and what I've found helpful is to REFRAME their whole life stories into a "career sketch" that includes DESIRES (what you want), ABILITIES (skills and knowledge you actually want to use), TEMPERAMENT (your natural preferences), and ASSETS (including "demonstrated interests" that are, btw, way more important to employers than recent grads think, and including other skills and knowledge like French or Excel or bike repair that are good to have in your "back pocket," and finally, including that college/university degree). Reframed this way, the recent grad is more likely to identify exciting possibilities and sidestep other people's expectations, is less likely to overly rely on his/her credential, is more likely to identify career possibilities that draw on his/her strengths, is less likely to ask that dumb question ("what can I do with my degree in biology?") is more likely to lead them to the "excellent mistakes" that invariably lead to self-learning that invariably lead to career happiness--at least in people smart enough to have completed a college/university education in the first place!

"...artistry, empathy, inventiveness and big picture thinking."

I wistfully remember that those are what we used to do in kindergarten before kindergarten became the entry point of the "high stakes" academic/career pipeline.

While I have never believed that a college degree was the key to success, I'm thankful that I chose to go to school. What I found out when I got there was that college wasn't going to make me successful unless I put those tools to use.

I believe that you get out of school (and life) what you put into it... nothing more, nothing less. School provides the resources (professors, mentors, advice) necessary to make success possible, you just have to put them to work.