The Value of University

Courtesy U.S. Department of Education

ATLANTA –– Not Worth It? Editor's Notebook, April 2026, Railway Track and Structures

I am the first to admit that a college education is not for everyone. While I don’t have any statistics or analyses handy, it’s safe to say that more people enroll in college than should. Many of the important needs in the modern world require a different kind of training. For example, auto repair, plumbing, electrical work, law enforcement, culinary arts, photography, farming, and many jobs on the railroad do not require a college degree to be successful. Vocational schools, “junior” colleges (never have liked that term), trade schools, and simply specialized training are needed and require hard work, laser focus, and dedication, just as college work does. Unless artificial intelligence can do things down the road that we can’t see right now, it’s hard for me to imagine how any of these professions can be replaced by it. Good salaries and job security should be available in most of these areas for the coming decades.

At the same time, however, I grow weary of those who say (and who often have college degrees themselves) that college is not worth the time, effort, and money, it’s only for wealthy and privileged, it’s a rip off, a bill of goods, and offers little, if any, return on investment. That is balderdash. Yet, I agree that, for most, obtaining and paying for a four-year degree is much more difficult today than it was when I was in school, and finding a job is more challenging and more difficult to keep with corporations thinking little of laying off thousands of workers to achieve their “financial goals,” or to cover up slip-shod management. Moreover, the amount of debt college graduates can be left with is astronomical. As I’ve written before, in the “old days,” (pick your decade) there were four distinct stakeholders in publicly-owned corporations: customers, employees, the community, and shareholders. Not so today. Although companies often pay lip service to the other three, shareholder value is the driving force. And this promotes the feeling among college graduates that their degrees are not as valuable as they might otherwise be.

Fortunately, everyone who participated in our “Engineers Under 40” honors does not feel their college degree has no value. Each nominee holds either bachelor’s or bachelor’s and master’s degrees, mostly in civil engineering.

Nevertheless, railroads have numerous jobs on their engineering teams that do not require a college degree, which takes us back to the discussion of the value of vocational and trade school education.  Regardless of one’s level of education or training, opportunities can be difficult to find. They can be found, though, and the principles of discipline, dedication, and hard work apply to all.

One final note from this year’s “Engineers Under 40” honors event is the amount of enthusiasm demonstrated for the nominee by their nominator. The profiles of all our honorees were thoughtfully written, detailed, and praiseworthy. Those who are honored this year should tip their hats to those who supported them. It’s a trait not always seen in today’s world.