Yes, a College Education is Still Important; Peter Thiel is Right, to an Extent

An interesting article is going around that asks if college education is as important as it used to be. The idea that Peter Thiel is looking for 20 bright college dropouts to give $100,000 a piece to start up a new company is nothing new. In fact this story may have actually been covered over a year ago by another publication. The real issue, is that kids need to learn a thing or two about developing relationships with the right people while they are in college. The reason why so many kids tragically fail when they graduate from school may have as much to do with the connections they developed while they were in school as it does the fact that the job market simply is not what it used to be. There are plenty of B and C students that take advantage of great opportunities to network with the right people and get great jobs upon graduation. If you are looking towards an education to earn as much as you paid for a year of school you will be severely disappointed if you do not focus on networking and meeting the right people.

There are plenty of ways to do this. Some people prefer sororities and fraternities, some take advantage of academic clubs and organizations, some get in good with their teachers and advisers, some take whatever internships they can get. But the bottom line is that you have to do something. You interview for jobs and try to advance yourself while you are still in school. You do not wait until graduation to try to do something about it.

You can have a job lined up before you even graduate, in a lot of cases. The only thing that an institution of higher education is there for, is to give you the tools to succeed. The knowledge that you acquire is just one of those tools. Good grades is a small part of the issue. You think that you are special because you have all As or because you had a 4.0 or a 4.5 or whatever in high school. That doesn't mean anything. Thousands of kids have that same grade point average.

You have to differentiate yourself from those other kids. Too often, a kid that does not have quite as high of a grade point average as the next kid is hired for a great job. It happened to me while I was in school. I got hired over a kid that clearly, had better grades and was more qualified for the position. But I fumbled the ball once I already got there; and that is an experience that my education could not have prepared me for.

Needless to say I could not keep that job. But it showed me that the key to getting the job, and keeping the job, was as much about the personality of the individual as it is the academic achievement of the person that is being hired. There are millions of bright kids that have dull personalities, that are great at memorization but cannot process abstract thoughts and that are critical thinkers. These kids are going to give their employer a hard time; they question all of the practices of the organization, they are indifferent about the goals of the organization and too often they loose what little respect they had for the organization once they get there. Most employers are going to pass on those kids and get someone that is bright that can do what they are told.

The workforce is a funny place. Do as you are told, keep your politics at home, be the person who can make everyone laugh at feel at ease with themselves while you take note of what you are learning so you can branch out on your own someday. You can get a good job, and you can work somewhere forever and there is nothing wrong with that. But if you are not pliable a lot of employers do not want to have anything to do with you.

I am not suggesting that there aren't employers that will not hire you specifically because you are the brightest in the room. That will always be the case. But you can spend a lot of money on your college education to walk away with nothing. Ask yourself if people in your field necessarily make any more money with a four year degree, a master's degree or an associates degree. A lot of liberal arts degrees cannot even guarantee that a person can make a fraction of what they paid to go to school. Then ask yourself if you are willing to learn outside of the classroom. Chances are most of what you learn in the classroom could be learned somewhere else. Do not get caught up in the social aspects of college. Make friends with the right people, get the academics out of the way before you do anything else, before you go to lunch, before you even go to sleep for that night. Do not wait until the last minute to do anything. Prepare yourself as so if the professor decides to test you on the material the day after you have been given the information you can pass that test (if you need to).

Go to school over the summer and get college over with. Do not waste four years of your life because too many students are taking six, eight, ten years to get that four year degree. Try to get it over with in three years, or even two and a half. This is one of the primary reasons why people complain about debt. You can pay thirty or forty thousand to go to school, and get it out of the way, or you can pay two hundred thousand. It is your own choice.

Stay at home; too often going to school away from home leads to pressure to work to keep up an apartment. Too often working to keep up living away from school (because you do not want to go back home during the summer) means you are on that twenty year plan, because you cannot go to school and work full time. Many try, few succeed. Get on with your life and you can get out of school with a minimum of debt, and then focus on how you are going to repay that debt and get on to that next job. The bottom line is, you should have a job lined up before you get out of school; hit the pavement and ask questions about whatever co-operative education programs your school has. If the internships are free and you are not getting paid that is okay when you are in school, but if it does not lead to a paying position with the employer you may have to use that experience to work for someone else. For the majority of us, we will never get those connections without going to college. For the rich or upper middle class there may be other options, but a poor person is not getting anywhere without college, unless they want to be an athlete or an artist. Do not encourage people to drop out of school, encourage them to better utilize the opportunities afforded to them through school.