Is college simply a place where you learn to learn?

While in search for a major i have had a chance to talk to a lot people from the engineering profession, most of them are currently working on many different projects for companies both here in America and also in PAK.

So i asked them that how do they prepare for each different project? Was it something that they had learnt in college? and the answer to the 2nd part was always NO! In one case the person told me in no uncertain terms that an average person could perform his job even if he/she had never entered a college class room...all that person would need is mere 5 to 6 months of training and he/she will be able to work equally well as some one who had spent 4 or 5 years in college plus a couple of months of training.

So if that's true then why do you think that employers are willing to pay thousands more to person A who has a slightly higher education level than person B?

For me it turned out to be basically a place to learn how to learn plus the paper (degree). But learning and the attitude towards learning is not a simple thing. When I started working most of the stuff was all new to me, but I was able to spend hours on it (not 9-5). There was help available at work but I went for help after I had spend sometime trying to solve the problem and asked questions (still learning).

College teaches you things or grooms you to be able to handle certain things at work. And I have worked with couple of very smart people who didn't go to college and I have also worked with couple of PHDs who I questioned why they got hired or what they did in school. It depends on the person I guess

Thats exactly right for 90% of "professional" jobs. The fact of the matter is that organization/companies cannot depend on talent alone. Since talent is not constant or dependable. Organisations have to produce constant measureable results. So they develop systems that need minimal supervision and can be looked upon by people of average intelligence. In this way companies are not dependant upon talent.
Variation in pay scale has more to do with the needs of the organisation and the employment market instead of your degree. The fact of the matter is that apart from a handfull of institutions a BS from any University is the same as the othet University.

very interesting topic.....I think college is where as a person u shows your skills and than get skills written on paper.. the problem with college is that many talented people doesnt use the talent in the college.infact whatever u learn in college isnt always important for the job u get in later part of the life.

Traditional universities and colleges would teach theories and how to do researches. Universities like Webster or Phoenix would try to focus on hands on. They back their courses with simulations, case studies, working with teams, discussing real life experiences from the faculty. This prepares the students (mostly adult learners who are already in the work force) give a wider range of understanding.

So the answer is, depends on which college you are attending.

may i ask what you do for living?

Even though I am just a week into college as a college freshman, I have heard from some of my cousins who are already working and from a very reknowned employer himself that they pay more for college graduates because they have proven that they CAN learn. It's this ABILITY to learn that is valued. With college graduates the person they higher is more likely be able to :

1. Learn his job quicker and better, thus being more efficient and cost-effective for the employer.

Ofcourse the knowledge you learn is valuable, but not as valuable as your ability to pick your duties quickly while on the job.

Does this mean people who dont attend college can't be successful? No it simply means that it is more likely that a college graduate will be more successful than a high school graduate, that's it.

College gives you the neccessary background/platform to rise. College gives you knowledge and applying it is your job and that is a personal effort, college doesnt teach you that, we have to learn that ourselves.

PP, the thing is that you dont have to use EVERYTHING that you learn in college, at ur job. Plus, college education can only teach u so much, whereas you will encounter so many diff situations when u r working and you have to figure out on ur won how to handle them.

A veyr simple example, my final thesis was related to Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Algorithms, but i have never used any of the concepts from that thesis at my actual job.

yes you can