Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion College May Be the Next Burst Bubble

This is pretty much how I viewed law school.

As the purchase of a commission.

However, I can't *sell* it, so it's not quite like one, since it's non-transferable.

From Martin Hutchinson:

"In other jobs, the requirement for a degree seems purely a matter of bureaucracy. For example degree-learning is little used in the major banks and consultancies, yet few rise in those professions without a college degree. The federal government also is over-impressed by academic attainment, with many employees holding higher degrees, albeit generally from third and fourth tier colleges, without any great need for the skills those colleges have supposedly imparted. Finally, while schoolteachers may be thought to need some modest qualification in education skills, those qualifications are not available without the prerequisite of a college degree, the skills of which are often never used in the teacher's career.

The requirement for degrees in large bureaucracies that do not use the skills learned can be equated to the requirement in the British Army before 1870 for the purchase of commissions. In both cases, there was no implied requirement for skill in the tasks undertaken by the bureaucracy, but simply a desire that the incoming bureaucrat or officer be "one of us" who had paid his/her dues to enter the organization concerned.

Commission purchase was derided by Victorian reformers as keeping the Army unprofessional and dominated by the aristocracy. In reality it had certain logistical advantages; for one thing if promotion had been only by seniority, by the time of the Crimean War, after forty years of peace, all the colonels would have been 70 – as it was too many of them were. It also provided an automatic pension scheme since an officer wishing to retire simply sold his commission and used the proceeds as a pension.

Note the financial similarity between commission purchase and 4-year college. An infantry captain in 1837 earned 192 pounds annually, while his commission cost 1,800 pounds, or 9.4 years' purchase. At the top of the scale, a cavalry lieutenant-colonel earned 600 pounds, while his commission cost 6,175 pounds or 10.3 years' purchase. At the bottom of the scale, an infantry ensign's commission cost only 4.7 years' purchase, presumably reflecting the lesser demand for such a low-paid post"

http://www.prudentbear.com/2013/06/colleges-may-be-next-burst-bubble.html#.UcHO3PmG2uw

Interesting.

I do agree with the premise that college/educational attainment in general terms may be viewed as an intentional barrier/sorting mechanism. I'm not sure what the actual correlation is, but I do think that most employers want to hire those who are:

a) able to see themselves through lengthy goals which have moderate to high personal costs;
b) from a background which is 'functional' in societal terms
c) mature adults w/r/t executive skills

It's point b that is the sticking point here, IMO, just as it was with military commissions. It's possible to buy your way in without having really much in the way of a or c above, and even with minimal amounts of c, when it comes to that. Assuming that your family has more wealth than sense, in fact, such an outcome becomes positively LIKELY if you're a screw-up in their eyes, because it's something to DO with you that gets you out of their hair.

It also provides some insurance that the "wrong kind of people" will never encroach upon the 'civilized' world with any regularity. They lack means, even if they possess determination and ability in abundance. Of course, as long as the power-holding agencies in the scheme reassure themselves that anyone who lacks means is automatically less able and less worthy, this isn't much of a problem.

Where this becomes a VERY large problem for gifted people is that much of the process toward the proper educational attainment is stultifying and a complete waste of time. But you have to get your ticket punched to get through the gatekeeping mechanism. What to do... what to do...