From time to time, Extra Muros will revive, refresh, and republish an older article. This, the maiden post of this substack, is one such piece.
A decade ago, economist Bryan Caplan argued that, where access to well-paying jobs was concerned, a college degree served chiefly as a “signaling device.” That is, it showed employers that the graduate was smart enough to get into college and, having done that, sufficiently persistent to complete a long series of (frequently dreary) tasks.
Five years later, the pseudonymous Audacious Epigone wrote an article documenting the long term drop in the average intelligence quotient (IQ) of people who had earned various academic credentials. In particular, he noted that, while the average IQ of Americans who graduated from college in the 1960s was a respectable (if far from spectacular) 111.3, that of their compatriots who earned a bachelors degree in the 2010s was but 100.4. Similarly, people who earned college degrees before 1970 were brighter, on the whole, than folks who earned graduate degrees after 1981.
To put things another way, the ability of a bachelor’s degree to identify the holder as smarter than the average person has disappeared. At the same time, while a graduate degree can still provide that service, the IQ gap between Random Rando, MA (105.8) and Middle O. Dapack (100.0) is closing fast.
If both Professor Caplan and Audacious Epigone are correct, then intelligent people should be looking for alternate ways to showcase their smarts. One obvious way to do this is to take an IQ test. Another is to take an examination, like the Scholastic Aptitude Test, that produces rankings which correlate closely with IQ scores.
Consider, if you will, the hypothetical case of two remarkably similar people applying for the same job. Milo Rando, BA (the younger sibling of the aforementioned Random Rando, MA) recently earned a bachelors degree at a local college.1 Center O. Bellcurve, who devoted the four years since graduating from high school to remunerative employment, recently scored 1000 on his SAT. (This means that half of the people who took the test answered more questions correctly than Mr. Bellcurve, while half were less successful. Moreover, when combined with a “B” average in high school, it correlates with an 89% chance of gaining admission to the aforementioned local college.)
If you were doing the hiring, which of the two applicants would you pick? (A better question might be, “if you would have to work closely with the person whom you hired, which candidate would you prefer?)
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While the Rando brothers are imaginary, the local college is real.
Interestingly in July/August of 1981 General Robert Barrow (then CMC) came to Camp LeJeune for a “visit”. All three commanding General’s at Camp LeJeune CG MCB, CG 2MARDIV, CG FSSG and their staff were present at gathering in a conference room at the O Club. One topic that the CMC brought up was the quality of the Marines entering the Fleet, and he asked if there was any noticeable difference of late. Many minds agreed, yes the Marines seemed to be more able from jump street, “brighter” if you will. CMC asked next why they all thought this was the case. No one got the joke. It was in the SRB of every Enlisted Marine reporting in to Camp Swampy. All had a high school diploma or GCT equivalent. CMC then asked why they thought this was important. Many bright and willing answers but all wrong…what General Barrow learned and knew from his days as a DI was that knowing how to finish something is critical. So when he revamped recruiting, he revamped recruit training. Thusly when a young man or woman put their feet on the yellow foot prints no matter how awful or good their personal family background might be or not, the common thread was “they know how to finish.” General Barrow’s words still ring in my ears. He explained that having recruits that didn’t have to be taught the importance of starting and finishing a task was a HUGE saver of time during the recruit training process. The DI’s could focus on training and not baby sitting with black boot polish and rifle cleaning rods and patches.
To answer the question whom would I want to employ? The man or woman that is thinking through to the end, adapts to problems quickly and could care less if they have a college sheepskin or advanced degree. Think how highly trained the Navy corpsman are, arty, aircraft maintenance, even is ground pounders etc etc., need just enough intellectual capacity to get into a problem and get out of it.
Further, with all the advantages of the speed and fullness of the internet and other technologies we are left with the simple axiom of “garbage in is garbage out.” Equally, the corollary is “don’t pass your trash.”
PS in life if someone asks me where I went to college and what kind of degree I have, A. I don’t answer B. I put that individual immediately into the middle basket between “in” and “out” which of course is the “too hard” basket, so why waste time with them….if pressed it’s easy, I was commissioned at the Pleasure of the President in the United States Marine Corps. The greatest learning institution the world has ever seen…
College at this point is a negative. It implies that he will have a negative approach to work ethic and social interaction. The person with the work experience wins, even without any test at all.