School is all about signaling, not skill-building
Maybe for the elite. But for middle class people like myself, I developed marketable skills, secured multiple internships, and found it easy to get a full-time job straight out of school. I had about a years worth of industry experience via internships (one for 6 months, two others 3 months each).<p>Signaling doesn&#x27;t buy you much. At least in engineering, because a technical interview will sort out whether or not you actually demonstrate basic programming skills very quick.<p>Software Engineering is a notable exception, most other fields don&#x27;t quiz as part of the job interview process: soft skills and credentials or state licenses or bar exams are relied upon more heavily. Maybe signaling matters more in these fields? Again, signaling is no measure of real skill.<p>Obviously, like most people I&#x27;m upset about the pay-to-play scheme but in reality very, very few people choose that option. 99.9%+ of applications are not pay-to-play, so we should still hold a good deal of faith in our higher education system. It is imperfect and has many issues, but this article title is broadly incorrect about the purpose of higher education today.<p>edit:<p>&gt; Researchers consistently find that most of education’s payoff comes from graduation, from crossing the academic finish line. The last year of high school is worth more than the first three; the last year of college is worth more than double the first three. This is hard to explain if employers are paying for acquired skills; do schools really wait until senior year to impart useful training?<p>My first company that hired me out of college got a much better deal waiting for me to complete my senior year. Yes, each year isn&#x27;t worth the same. This makes sense. Senior year was my capstone -- building valuable communication skills in a team environment. Year 1? I was finishing the basics of CS 101. Of course the last year is worth more than the first.<p>Would you pay 50% the price for a half-finished version of Microsoft Word? Probably not. It&#x27;d be far less useful of a piece of software.