Why do people think that having a college degree makes you smart? (skill, degrees)

[mikejj2004]

I fundamentally don't understand why in our society having a college degree is used by employers to decide which job you can have. I read a study taht showed the average IQ of a college graduate today is 105, compared to 115 back in the 60s - due to the ideas everyone should get an education. People with high IQ of 125, without a college degree make less than people with an IQ of 100 and a college degree. Shoulden't the most competant, intelligent people have the best jobs? Do you realize how massive a misallocation of human resources this is to have highly intelligent people working at low level jobs because of no degree and have average people given highly complex jobs simply because they completed college. Why don't employers just give intelligence tests? I can't help but wander that the education industry and the millions of people who work in are the ones that perpetuate this idea on our society.

Source: http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2008/09/col...st-pay-off.php

[Eresh]

I think it's because for many jobs, mere intelligence is worthless without a certain amount of ambition and willingness to complete a long term task. Most employers have the perception that people with a college degree probably possess those traits since they went to the trouble to obtain a college degree. I'm not saying that the opposite is true for people without a college degree - only that's it's probably harder for them to "prove it" without an outstanding track record in their career.

[sailordave]

For some jobs, having a degree is meaningless unless you have real on the job experience. There are some pretty stupid or ignorant people with college degrees. What makes it worse is these are usually the ones who hold their degree before them as if a shield to protect them from critics who don't have a degree.

[jps-teacher]

Originally Posted by mikejj2004

I fundamentally don't understand why in our society having a college degree is used by employers to decide which job you can have. I read a study taht showed the average IQ of a college graduate today is 105, compared to 115 back in the 60s - due to the ideas everyone should get an education. People with high IQ of 125, without a college degree make less than people with an IQ of 100 and a college degree. Shoulden't the most competant, intelligent people have the best jobs? Do you realize how massive a misallocation of human resources this is to have highly intelligent people working at low level jobs because of no degree and have average people given highly complex jobs simply because they completed college. Why don't employers just give intelligence tests? I can't help but wander that the education industry and the millions of people who work in are the ones that perpetuate this idea on our society.

Source: Gene Expression: College is Still the Best Pay-off

Intelligence may not equal College Degree, but equally surely, Intelligence does not equal Competence!

Intelligence does not guarantee Good Employee, either.

Nor, unfortunately, does Intelligence translate automatically to Good Job Fit.

Completion of college shows a greater degree of persistence than College Dropout does, and is a lot quicker and easier for an employer to use than Intelligence Test Results would be - it is not all that simple to administer a decent IQ test, even if you are among those who believes in them.

Yes, though, I do agree that Competent, Intelligent workers should be hired over incompetent, unintelligent workers.

*****
I have to be honest and tell you that the combination of spelling errors, grammar mistakes, and questionable word choice in your paragraph may inadvertently undermine your argument, as well.

[mikejj2004]

Originally Posted by jps-teacher

Completion of college shows a greater degree of persistence than College Dropout does, and is a lot quicker and easier for an employer to use than Intelligence Test Results would be - it is not all that simple to administer a decent IQ test, even if you are among those who believes in them..

You can administer accurate intelligence tests in 10 minutes, it takes 4-5 years to get a college degree.

Originally Posted by jps-teacher

I have to be honest and tell you that the combination of spelling errors, grammar mistakes, and questionable word choice in your paragraph may inadvertently undermine your argument, as well.

If grammar were a priority for me, as it seems to be for you, I would have excellent grammar. You may have excellent grammar but you probably only know 5% what I know about technology, which is priority to me.

[Wingfoot]

Originally Posted by mikejj2004

I fundamentally don't understand why in our society having a college degree is used by employers to decide which job you can have. I read a study taht showed the average IQ of a college graduate today is 105, compared to 115 back in the 60s - due to the ideas everyone should get an education. People with high IQ of 125, without a college degree make less than people with an IQ of 100 and a college degree. Shoulden't the most competant, intelligent people have the best jobs? Do you realize how massive a misallocation of human resources this is to have highly intelligent people working at low level jobs because of no degree and have average people given highly complex jobs simply because they completed college. Why don't employers just give intelligence tests? I can't help but wander that the education industry and the millions of people who work in are the ones that perpetuate this idea on our society.

Source: Gene Expression: College is Still the Best Pay-off

I once asked a recruiter for GE who worked primarily Big Ten schools about the same thing, being half loaded at a BBQ he gave me what I took to be an honest answer. I quote-"If they will eat that kind of s..t for 4 years,they will probaly do it for 40 more.

[jps-teacher]

Originally Posted by mikejj2004

You can administer accurate intelligence tests in 10 minutes, it takes 4-5 years to get a college degree.

If you believe that (the 10 minutes line), I have a bridge to sell you.

Originally Posted by mikejj2004

If grammar were a priority for me, as it seems to be for you, I would have excellent grammar. You may have excellent grammar but you probably only know 5% what I know about technology, which is priority to me.

If you were as intelligent as you represent yourself to be, you would know how absurd it is for you to make such an assumption.

You were discussing why employers might want a college graduate, rather than somebody who may be more intelligent. One of the marks of a certain aspect of intelligence is to figure out how to make compelling arguments.

If your goal was to convince people of your point, then doing it while using "wander" instead of "wonder," for example, is going to make it harder to reach that goal. Communication is the priority for me - and there is more to communication than just words. That makes a difference to employers, too.

And the number of folks who insist, about something they do less than superbly, "well, I could if I felt like it!" is very large - I've been among them. It comes across less... sincerely than the speaker might like.

[AQHA]

I gave four years of my life to gain a higher education; I also gave lots and lots of money. I sure wish I would have known a ten minute test was just as valuable.

[StarlaJane]

The point of a college degree is not to show that you are intelligent but that you are educated. Just b/c someone has a high I.Q. does not mean that they are not ignorant, the same way that a college degree doesn't necessarily mean that you are smart. It [a college degree] does, however, mean that you are educated--or at least have been exposed to educated individuals and their ideas (i.e. college professors), which is why many employers look at the gpa as well as the degree and area of concentration of prospective employees (i.e. to make sure that they actually paid attention and listened in class.)
And BTW, the converse of this situation in which people with four-year degrees are offered low-paying jobs under people who are skilled but not very well-educated is just as frustrating and annoying for the people with four-year degrees.

[Wingfoot]

Originally Posted by StarlaJane

The point of a college degree is not to show that you are intelligent but that you are educated. Just b/c someone has a high I.Q. does not mean that they are not ignorant, the same way that a college degree doesn't necessarily mean that you are smart. It [a college degree] does, however, mean that you are educated--or at least have been exposed to educated individuals and their ideas (i.e. college professors), which is why many employers look at the gpa as well as the degree and area of concentration of prospective employees (i.e. to make sure that they actually paid attention and listened in class.)
And BTW, the converse of this situation in which people with four-year degrees are offered low-paying jobs under people who are skilled but not very well-educated is just as frustrating and annoying for the people with four-year degrees.

The point is ,as you say to become educated.Its a poor life without same.
"Exposure"- in the mind as in the body usually leads to a vacination against
ideas as it does to disease in the body.

The truest of old saws is that "a liitle education is a dangerous thing".
The most college can do is point you down a path of lifelong,liberal, not vocational learning.its a process not a destination.

One has to do what one has to do, but more educated men have come out of the public library than any university.