By Jay Jamison
The value of a college degree has been a topic of much discussion lately. The satirist/humorist Bill Maher aired a piece on his HBO show where he states unambiguously, “Don’t go to college … it just makes you stupid.” He was reacting to the campus protests last October, but he seems to be echoing what many others are thinking. If trying to evaluate the worth of a college degree, it’s a good idea to first identify what we are talking about when we say that someone has a college degree. When people discuss degrees from undergraduate schools, they often ask what the newly minted college graduate got his or her degree in. Right there, a problem arises. Associate and bachelor degrees are not specialty degrees.
When I attended Illinois College in the late 1970s, students were required to complete 120 hours of coursework, including a hefty number of required courses, to graduate. Also, students were required to successfully complete 30 hours of coursework in their declared major, which was part of the total of the 120 hours of coursework mentioned above. I majored in philosophy at Illinois College. It would be a mistake to claim that I got my undergraduate degree in philosophy at Illinois College, for the obvious reason; the majority of the courses I completed at IC were not philosophy courses.
I was required to take several laboratory sciences and successfully complete coursework in a foreign language (I chose German). I had to complete literature classes, religion classes, history classes, along with a number of elective courses, as well as the required coursework in my major, to graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Each of the courses outside my major had their own methodology, which I had to learn, to graduate. I did not get a philosophy degree from Illinois College, I earned a Bachelor of Arts degree there. My major was just one part of the large menu of course offerings that most undergraduates have available in college. Those who only concentrate on their major, and let everything else slide, are missing out on what makes the undergraduate experience worthwhile.
I love sailing — and each time I launched my sailing canoe, I first checked the wind speed and direction, the cloud patterns and various other readings that I learned in Professor Pilcher’s meteorology class. From my undergraduate days, I developed a love for history, and a respect for literature and the scientific method, all in classes outside my major. I may be the exception to the rule, but I did not go to college with the single hope of landing a high-paying job. I believe those who think about college in those terms alone don’t understand what a college education is about. Such thinking is like going to a sumptuous smorgasbord and only eating the crackers. Upon graduation, possessing an associate or bachelor degree does not make you a specialist, but something of a generalist, having sampled a wide range of disciplines. I have never regretted the four years I spent as an undergraduate at Illinois College.
So, is Bill Maher correct? If you go to a college that restricts inquiry, hoping to have a narrow viewpoint confirmed, which includes the single-minded quest for a high-paying job, then, he’s right. If, on the other hand, you go to college to explore new vistas, with an open mind, choosing a school that is tolerant of differing views, then he’s wrong.
