The result is almost precisely the opposite. Today, paradoxically, a college diploma is considered both essential and nearly meaningless. Since employers can no longer rely n a college diploma, per se, to have much value, they rely more and more on specialized graduate-school programs to train prospective employees. Hence, the recent boom in MBAs. The problem with this is that four years to get your ticket punched before moving on to real training isn't a very efficient use of time.
Some efforts are under way to reconsider what the experience of college is all about.
S. Fredrick Starr, the president of Oberlin College in Ohio, and Gerhard Casper, the new president of California's Stanford University, have both suggested making college three years instead of four. This has drawn a hostile reaction from other university presidents, who consider the four-year plan eternally locked. In fact, it's a historical accident. Harvard took the four-year scheme from Cambridge in 1636. Soon afterward, Cambridge switched to three years.