2.  A College Education Opens The Door To Distinction

There is irrefutable evidence that there is a definite relationship between a college education and the probability of personal distinction.

In a study of the 1958-1959 edition of Who's Who In America, which contains biographies including full details of educational backgrounds of 50,645 persons who have achieved distinction in America, it was found that 79.6% of the persons listed were college graduates, and more than 91.7% had attended college for one or more years. Only 8.3% had less than a college education. The following chart gives the analysis in detail:

There is also evidence that this relationship between education and distinction in life is growing. In the above study it was found that 79.6% of the persons listed in the 1958-1959 edition of Who's Who In America were college graduates, while only 74.3% of those listed in the 1946 edition had graduated from college. However, it is estimated that over 86% of those now included are college graduates.

When I was a young man there were many examples of successful and prominent people who had started at the bottom and worked their way to the top without the aid of a college education but, as stated before, this is becoming increasingly difficult, and soon it will be wellnigh impossible. Said Dr. Homer D. Babbidge, Jr., principal officer for higher education in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare: "Our figures show that, in the next decade, there will be a sharp drop in national requirements for unskilled and semiskilled workers. But there will be a big increase in demand for people in the professional and managerial brackets" . . . "large employers - the Federal Government, for instance - seem to equate marks with merit. A college degree becomes an arbitrary threshold to better pay, more responsibility, higher status." This notion is spreading. In 1960, the police commissioner of New York City, Stephen P. Kennedy, said he saw the day coming soon when "a college degree will be a requirement for every patrolman."

In a study by the Intercollegiate Guidance Association of 153 professions and vocations, it was revealed that 70% of them require college training. In other words, lack of a college diploma closes the door to at least 70% of the major occupations.

Today the colleges are crowded, and each year the enrollment will increase by leaps and bounds. Competition for opportunity is growing fast, and though a college education by no means assures the attainment of distinction, fame and fortune, it opens the door and certainly makes for much better odds.
 

 3.   A College Education Brings Job Security

Various studies completed during and after the great depression of the 1930's, provide convincing proof that education contributes to job and personal financial security.

A study made by the American Federation of Teachers shows that, during the depression years of the early 1930's -

Of 3980 "breadline" families:

• 86% of fathers had grade school education or less 12.4% had one or more years of high school
• 1% had one or more years in college

 A survey made by The United States Office of Education produced the following results:

Of 46,000 graduates of colleges, in 1928-35:

• 60% were never unemployed
• Only 2% of men and 1% of women were on relief

 In a study made by the University of Denver, it was found that: "Not only is the employment record of college graduates best of all the groups, but they have shown greater ability to maintain full-time employment (during the depression) than any of the other groups. This is strikingly true for the later ages. College graduates had higher average earnings at every age group from 25 to 75. For all ages, the lower training groups suffered most from loss of employment."

And James P. Mitchell, Secretary of Labor in the Eisenhower administration, sums it up with this pertinent statement: "The more education a worker has the less chance there is he will be laid off during a business slump." 

• The Brain
• The Power Of The Mind
• The Importance Of Formal Education
• Five Reasons For A College Education
  
  
  1. A College Education Opens The Door To Distinction
  2. A College Education Brings Job Security....
  3. A College Education Enhances Earning Power
  
  
• An Educated Citizenry Is A Vital Requisite For Our Survival As A Free People
• Learning - A Continuous Process
• Never Too Old To Learn
• Business And Education - 1
• Business And Education - 2
• Business And Education - 3