Answers to another question can help clarify the importance of college. One answer is that we bring to our jobs more than the necessary technical knowledge. College changes people in ways that make them more effective doctors or lawyers, accountants or executives. Studies show that college graduates rely less on outside authority. Education increases the ability to see relationships among ideas and experiences.
College graduates are better learners in later life.
They have gained general attitudes and competencies which enable them to do a better job, whatever that job may be. With work and patience and commitment, these statistical descriptions of the average college graduate and abstract ideas about the benefits of a good undergraduate education will become personal experiences.