The College Dropout(s): Showing The World That Even Academia Is In Need of Some Change

By now many of my friends who I graduated high school with have probably graduated from college and are returning home or busy getting prepared for graduate school or perhaps job hunting in an otherwise haphazard economy. As I kept this all in mind I considered this article I saw a few days ago in the NY Times Technology section :

Who’s Smarter: Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg?

By John Markoff

The article questions notes that both Bill Gates & Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook (or swagger-jacker depending on who you speak to) were college dropouts. Zuckerberg is 24; I'm 22. For a brief moment I had one of those downward spiraling "What Have I Done With My Life?" moments. Than I shook my head and realized I neither attended Harvard nor found myself around web developers that were cultivating a niche social networking site (although I have worked with individuals who deal with CMS). It's stuff like this that makes me wonder about the necessity of a college degree in the 21st Century.

To put it out early: Yes it's necessary. But there are individuals, who under particular circumstances, knew what they wanted to do and went about fulfilling that goal without completing a four year degree. I'm sure Steve Jobs, Sickamore, Diddy and Kanye West would agree.The question still remains--can you ascertain the same level of success (or a substantial level of success--a billy might be pushing it) as the aforementioned individuals and still receive a four-year degree? I want to believe so, and there are individuals (particularly in finance) that have achieved that. However, I'm not an academic, or sociologist, so please don't take this blog entry as a source of expert opinion, but I feel that the academic college experience has largely become dated.

In a previous entry I stated that the those in power are at Time Warner are probably scared of the digital innovations because it represents something new and relatively unknown. They're unclear as to how to adapt to this drastic change (or maybe they do and we still haven't felt the effects yet). In the case of the college curriculum it has yet to truly adapt to the 21st Century. Sure there are tools provided by colleges (such as Blackboard) that have been used to help teachers and students, but the actual curriculum itself has yet to really advance.

Oddly enough it was a professor of mine that clued me on the backwardness of the college curriculum. The concept of having to take core classes and general education requirements are harrowing enough, and the fact that most of these classes follow the traditional content and format makes the first 2 years of school relatively boring. You're forced to regurgitate info, that may or may not stick with you when you've received your grade, and by then you're probably fed up with having to be weighed down with debt, a less than spectacular social life, and another 2 years of intense classes that pertain to your major. I appreciated taking these classes, but nonetheless, they often fail to fulfill the ultimate goal of making all students more well-rounded. They often say college is the new high school, and these requirements are a part of it. In short, it's easier to see your dreams crushed during the first two-years of college than it is to feel like they will be fulfilled. And mind you, this is the people that go into college knowing what they want to do. I feel even worse for those that don't.

Even on a basic level, if your not a tech-savvy upstart, an aspiring mogul, or heck a solid Hip-Hop producer, if you just look at your average job description they usually ask you if you're familiar with Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, or any standard office program. Maybe I've just been under a rock but I've never seen a job description asking if you can write a 7-8 page paper discussing a book that you've Spark Noted.

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In recent years there has been a major push to get students to do internships. This is probably the closest we'll see to these institutions attempting to adapt to a changing society, since getting hands on experience in the working world is starting to become a greater functional need than studying discourse upon discourse. Interning provides you with the real-world experience, and more often than not, has the potential to show otherwise unsure post-adolescents an idea of what they might want to do in the future. The LA Times has reported the growing number of students taking on multiple majors, which is somewhat indicative of the traditional one major curriculum not providing enough for students to chew on in our "post-everything generation" (to quote NY Times essay winner Nicholas Handler). This move towards interdisciplinary education strikes me as students taking it upon themselves to become more well-rounded.

So forgive me for this rant folks. In essence, I think the college degree is in need of some social networking/evolution. Of course this isn't a guarantee (mind you I'm not an expert), but just consider it as some food for thought. Feel free to leave yours...