A college degree isn't what it used to be. Thirty-one per cent of retail sales clerks in the US and 60 per cent of taxi drivers in Korea now have a college degree (up from 1 per cent in 1970). In India, 15 per cent of security guards for high-end agencies have a college degree now (up from zero per cent 10 years ago). But college still has social signalling value-for better marital prospects, career opportunities (employers often use a bachelor's degree as the basic eligibility criterion) and most importantly a unique opportunity for intellectual sampling that also gives young people the time and space to form a world view on the seemingly innocuous question of whether to study history, social science or literature. This is not some arcane academic debate. It's a question I wish I had given more thought about when I was in college because it represents two different world views-whether success is a game of luck or skill.
Manish Sabharwal is chairman, TeamLease Services
Thinkers such as Eric Hobsbawm and Leo Tolstoy believed that life is about circumstances, events and broader forces beyond our control. But with time we realise that life is a combination of both luck and skill. My admission to Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) in Delhi in 1987 with 78 per cent marks would have been impossible today. There are only three possible explanations for this. One possibility is that children today are a lot smarter. I recently spent some time with SRCC students on campus. I agree that they are better dressed and better looking than most of my batchmates. Second possibility is that 95 per cent is the new 78 per cent-grade inflation is surely a problem but this explanation can't explain everything. The third possibility is the most plausible. In 1987, SRCC took 800 students out of 1.2 million who took the Class XII exams but today they take 800 out of 16 million students. The brutal competition for college seats means that students need to look at the bigger picture. There are more career options than before. It is too early for them to decide exactly what they want to do irrespective of the fact that whatever they decide will change with time. There is much more to life than just marks. Here are six things I wish I knew when I started college.
