Does a Degree Truly Indicate Candidate Quality?

I am not stating that University degrees are entirely worthless, but that contrary to popular belief, the value of a degree should be dramatically reduced.

I'd like to point out that

1. I'm not claiming that not having a degree is better.
2. I understand some young adults lead rather sheltered lives and simply aren't ready for the real world. University could be required in some cases as the bridge between adolescence and adulthood.
3. I understand certain degrees are essential to some fields. The following is mainly my experience of students studying subjects such as Politics, Economics, History, Sociology, Media, Art, Film and Philosophy.

The University degree (and the position of that university in the ranks) can propel you further in life, increase your value, and ultimately, bag you the job at the end.

How is that possible with virtually no real-work experience?

Because of the qualities universally deduced from the term 'degree-holder'; hard-worker, organised, team player, critical thinker, skilled, independent, experienced, respects authority, well-disciplined.. and so on, and the impact this has on the 'non-degree-holder', the one who resigns himself to a life of burger-flipping (which, by the way, takes a considerable amount of all the above).

The point?

Employers should evaluate the value of an applicant without the credentials of a traditional degree, rather than simply having computers filter them out.

Why bother with those losers/dropouts/idiots/*insert stereotype of a non-degree-holder here*?

Because the presupposed qualities of a degree-holder are not absolute. In my experience, many students are the most lazy, disorganised, idle, unskilled, dependent, inexperienced, disrespectful, and undisciplined people I've ever come across. Of course there are exceptions, but the students I've lived with both in halls and off-campus waste the majority of their time while throwing both their student loans and their parents money into learning only the theory of the workplace.

What 'Degree-holder' means to me

The ability to squeeze a term and/or year into the 1-2 weeks before deadline, producing some kind of assessment, be that an essay, report or exam, that regurgitates everything into a format that passes the set criteria, and voilà! (Plus, bad grades are entirely the result of a bad department, not ones own poor effort, of course!). I wrote four assignments the night before they were due and received marks between 68% and 75%- does this make me a good quality candidate in the workplace?

Status

The degree-holder simply waves a copy of their BA as a signal or status of candidate quality – yet that piece of paper does not necessarily provide the employer with someone who has the skills needed for that job. So long as employers advertise jobs to require a degree, the filter will remain in place. I can't help but wonder, since attaining a degree requires a significant amount of money, are we really just using money to determine a persons value?

Me

I have enrolled and left university twice for different reasons. I refuse to believe that I am less valuable than my peers who made it to graduation.

What do you think, does a degree truly indicate candidate quality? Or should the value of a degree be reduced?

What Brings Me Here

Every person has a story and so I started this blog to capture mine.

My name is Sarah, I'm 20 years old, I grew up in Essex where I spent my childhood in fear of my step-dad who decided he hated me. I'm one of six and we're an exceptionally dysfunctional family to say the least. I left home at 16 and moved in with my eldest sister where I juggled college with helping to bring up her beautiful boy. I haven't had contact with her, or with my second eldest sister, in a long, long time, and I don't know if we ever will.

I gave uni a first attempt in 2011 with a shot at a BA in Sociology and Philosophy at York. Not long into first year things got bad- break ups, drugs, death, grief, anxiety- I was issued with a leave on “compassionate grounds”. My mum pretty much declared me a failure at this point. 2012 I decided to pack up and leave, got myself TEFL qualified, and ventured over to Vietnam where I lived and taught English for 5 months. I was only 19 at this point. I didn't yet realise that travel could be more than an escape, it could be a way of life.

I came back to Essex and moved in with my best friend, who just happened to be my eldest sisters ex-boyfriends mother. She's an amazing woman, a very important figure in my life. I picked up my old college job at McDonald's which started its work on destroying my soul and could only focus on getting myself back to university. The summer before University started (2013 June, July, August and first two weeks of September) I spent in Italy teaching English in children’s summer camps. I stayed in various Italian host families, which was perhaps the most enjoyable part of camp- I got to see what it's really like, family life. A mum and dad under one roof. Never seen my own folks, I think I was still in the womb when the divorce went through.

The other most enjoyable part of camp was the time off between camps. I had about a month of blissful solo travel around the country. Somewhere in the middle I met my man I'm with today, just 8 months on. He flew over to England to come visit me, and he's probably my favourite person. It's still early stages... but I've got a good feeling about us. He doesn't seem to mind either that I'm bat shit crazy, which helps.

Gave uni it's second attempt not long after returning from Italy, enrolling in a BA in Social and Political Sciences at the same university as attempt no.1. I moved in with friends who were now in their final year soon to graduate. That was weird for me, starting over in first year. A few months later, as the desire to be abroad increased, I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, a condition which causes widespread muscular pain. I figured if I'm going to wake up every day in mind-numbing pain and go to bed feeling the same way, I might as well be somewhere I really want to be. Somewhere I've chosen to be not just what I think is expected from me. In March 2014 I left Uni and accepted a position teaching English at a language school in The Maldives.

This time round my mum was real sweet about my decision. We are much closer now, me and my step-dad too. Of course we'll never be a totally normal family, but who is? I've been living in Malé, the capital of Maldives, for about 3 weeks now and can't wait to start blogging about my experiences thus far. I just thought I'd start with a little background info so anyone reading can understand me and my story a little bit better.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. Everything else is secondary.”   – Steve Jobs