The Saint
DEVILS ADVOCATE: Does a degree = success?
YES
Lucy Pawle
February 16th 2007 was not a good day for me. On my own for two months in America I had recently fallen down a pot hole and experienced my first earthquake, but the icing on the cake had to be logging on to my UCAS profile to check my university applications. I wasnt surprised for the rejections had been coming through thick and fast since December. But apparently my exam results and personal statement became equally unappealing to two universities on precisely the same day and so there I was in a one star hotel alone, academically undesirable and resolutely rejected. My eyes turned watery, my bottom lip wobbled and expletatives were uttered.
You might tell me to buck up and stop being a self-indulgent sissy, and normally I would agree, but I cant help feeling that in this instance my emotional response was justified. Why was I so upset? Why was I so fearful of being rejected from every university I applied to? You see I had done my research, my friends, and the facts are crystal clear: those who gain more academic qualifications have a much higher chance of becoming successful than those who dont. So when I dreamt of university it wasnt just the thought of making new friends or being able to delve into my passion for history that appealed to me. It was the knowledge that I would be more employable than if I didnt.
Although in this recession there are many unemployed graduates, would you rather be applying to a job with or without a degree to back up your credibility? Although employers want life experience and all that, they also want someone who has a proven record of solid academic achievement and university provides ample opportunity for an impressive array of extra curricular activities to whack on the CV. By doing both, our chances of being employed are greater, and our pay bracket most probably higher.
So unless you have the entrepreneurial skills of Richard Branson, fellow students, I can reassure you that you made the right decision in going to university.
More from Viewpoint
NO
Grace Schermerhorn
Lets face it. We all have those friends, or know those people, who make us question just how prestigious the University of St Andrews actually is. Im not in the slightest calling anyone stupid or trying to highlight any deficiencies in the University selection process. Im only saying that there are some people here (like everywhere else in the world) whose personalities bely their academic strength. Thats because, when it comes down to it, some of us are just better at performing in the academic arena than others, regardless of IQ levels. The world is chock full of unique individuals and I refuse to believe that future employers (because when it boils down to it, very few of us would be here if we could get our dream job without a degree) cannot recognise that sometimes the people who are perfect for the job arent perfect academically speaking.
I feel after years of academic pressure, that trying to put people in an academic box is just as bad as all the other labels that society tries to slap on us. We cant help that we live in a society that makes it incredibly difficult to thrive fiscally without at least an undergraduate degree. But we can help feeling that we are somehow better or worse as people because of marks we achieve. Were supposed to be the future leaders of the world: how are we supposed to make it a better place if we judge our own worth upon an essay mark or a degree ranking?
Just like we are each more than our ethnicities or our genders, we are each more than our personal academic records. I dont think this should be taken as an out for waiting until the night before your dissertation is due to start reading. I do think that the next time catastrophic thoughts begin spiralling through our heads about the futures dependence on those 2 hours in the exam hall we can stop and take a breath. Regardless of how the words we scribble down in the last 5 minutes are judged by an anonymous marker who has read through 200 essays before ours, we each are valued individuals, more than a number on a piece of paper and our success in life does not depend solely on any of these marks.
