Top Three Flawed Arguments of the Anti-College Crowd

The anti-college movement has been the subject of increasing media coverage over the past few years. Worry about rising debt loads, soaring default rates, and high unemployment rates among recent college grads — combined with the high-profile success stories of a few dropouts-turned-billionaires — has generated a cottage industry of books, t-shirts, websites, Twitter feeds, Ted talks, seminars, camps, and media tours, all pitching the idea that college is no longer worth it for anyone who isn’t focused on a specific career that absolutely requires an academic credential. The title of Dale Stephens’ upcoming book pretty neatly sums up the high concept: Hacking Your Education: Ditch the Lectures, Save Tens of Thousands, and Learn More Than Your Peers Ever Will. Now, this merry band of anti-college stumpers has finally generated enough press to merit its own trend piece in the Style section of the Sunday New York Times, which uncritically allows a handful of the movement’s luminaries ...

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