As a father who is about to send his daughter off to (hopefully) earn a bachelor’s degree that will cost approximately $200,000 over the next four years, I read with interest your recent post about the efficacy/necessity of a college degree. I very much agree that there are far too many students going to college in pursuit of degrees that they don’t really want, in order to land jobs that “require” but do not really need degrees. Many, many of these students will drop out of college without degrees, and will have arguably wasted a lot of time and money that would have been better spent obtaining more relevant vocational or technical training prior to entering the workforce. I fault the system for this, as most employers hiring workers for “white collar” jobs want to see a college degree.

While it would be easy to criticize employers for this, I completely understand why this would be the case. Using a bachelor’s degree as a screening tool, an employer can at least infer a few things about the potential employee. If the college has a decent reputation, there is a good chance they employee is actually educated to some extent, and can hopefully read and write. A high-school diploma is much less reliable in this regard. A college degree also indicates that a candidate has a certain level of work ethic, perseverance, and tolerance for interfacing with mysterious bureaucracies. Finally, hiring a degree-holder exposes the Human Resources folks to less risk. If a candidate has a degree, its akin to the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. “How was I to know the kid was a dud? He has a degree from the University of California!” Hiring someone without a degree can mean taking more of a leap of faith.

So that’s the system we’ve got, and unless one has a kid with exceptional ability in a field that falls outside this system, those are the rules we play by. An exceptional musician, or athlete, or computer geek need not go to college. But the rest of the ambitious kids with some academic ability pretty much need to go to college as a starting point on a career path that will hopefully enable them to provide for themselves and their families.

My daughter is a very bright young woman who will absolutely thrive in the academic environment of the university. She could study history, or literature, or psychology, or political science, or English and excel. But the reality of life beyond college is that she will have to choose a major that strikes a balance between what she loves and what she needs to compete for a job in four years. She will probably pursue a double major, with one of the two majors being in business. She doesn’t particularly love business, but it doesn’t take much research to figure out that a B.A. in psychology won’t get you a job. Of course, there’s always law school.

My son is interested in the military. Because he is also smart and has real leadership ability, he should be an officer. Which requires a college degree. So he’ll go to college too. Picking a major will be easier for him, as he loves business and will be an entrepeneur someday.

I’m rambling now, but I guess the point is that I agree too many kids are spending too much time and money pursuing college degrees that are either useless or unecessary. But I also agree that our economy is structured in such a way that attempting to begin a career without a bachelor’s degree puts one at a significant, and avoidable, disadvantage.

Earl B.

Tustin, Calif.