NYT-What a college education buys

<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/magazine/25wwlnlede.t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine&oref=slogin%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/magazine/25wwlnlede.t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine&oref=slogin&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Thought this part was interesting:</p>

<p>"Moreover, if you’re not planning on becoming, say, a doctor, the benefits of diligent study can be overstated. In recent decades, the biggest rewards have gone to those whose intelligence is deployable in new directions on short notice, not to those who are locked into a single marketable skill, however thoroughly learned and accredited. Most of the employees who built up, say, Google in its early stages could never have been trained to do so, because neither the company nor the idea of it existed when they were getting their educations. Under such circumstances, it’s best not to specialize too much."</p>

<p>and:</p>

<p>"But for the past few years at least, the particular advantage of an American degree has been that it doesn’t qualify you to do anything in particular."</p>