The Value Of College

I started in 1965 at 1/14 of what I retired at in 1996 – 31 years, an average 14% per year increase. Even with inflation this is significant. I did that on the reputation of knowing something about whatever we needed to do and if I didn’t I new where to look and I would find out. Evening trips to a library were not rare. Home experiments in electronics were not unusual. That was built on my college education, my high school education, experience and the reading I did outside the classroom. By the time I was 14 I had read the whole World Book Encyclopedia several times and had read part of the Britannica. I knew a lot but more than that I knew how to find information I didn’t have. There are easier ways to learn today, more information available, but the answer is the same. Do you learn the batting averages of major league players or the names of the celebrities or the things that will put you in a position to succeed?

Let me put it this way. Learning the Greek alphabet and the names of upper classmen have limited career value. How far you can kick a football or make a basket will not significantly impact your career goals unless you become a professional player – and those slots are few.

Since my retirement from my first career in 1996 I have had several jobs. I collected the retirement, consulted in computer work during the Y2K time, taught for a while, then moved on to computer networking. I have proven my value to this new organization.

I graduated from high school with an unimpressive position of the third fifth of my class. I scored a 1236 on college boards with a 469 on the verbal. I was one of less than a handful of students at Shippensburg State College from the third fifth of any class in the fall of 1961. I worked in the computer room and did the breakdowns so I saw them. I was the only one over 1000 total. I graduated from Shippensburg with a very unimpressive 2.67. But I worked a job all but a few months of those three and one half years – most of the time working over 40 hours a week and commuting 25 miles one way. With no job and living nearby that would easily have gone up a point but the degree was impossible without working. I had a goal. My first job out of college would have been denied if I had not had the degree. I passed the entrance test at that company with one of the highest scores they ever saw. My college performance didn’t matter. In fact over the next year they went back and actively recruited at Shippensburg – and hired four people, three of which stayed on and retired from the company shortly after I did in 1996 and were all top performers. The highest GPA in the group was under 3.0. The one who didn’t work out from Ship? A 3.8 GPA who passed everything by cramming but couldn’t think.

Hope this helps someone.