上大学的价值是否被高估了?

People who go to college are, on average, smarter than people who don't. In an economy that increasingly rewards intelligence, you'd expect college grads to pull ahead of the pack even if their diplomas signified nothing but their smarts.

读大学的人一般比不读大学的人聪明一些。在一个日益奖赏才智的经济体制下，你总会期望大学毕业生成为同龄人中的佼佼者，即使他们的文凭除了意味着其聪明外别无其他。

College must make many students more productive workers. But at least some of the apparent value of a college degree, and maybe a lot of it, reflects the fact that employers can use it as a rough measure of job applicants' intelligence and willingness to work hard.

大学必须使许多学生成为更具生产力的工人。然而，在大学学位的表面价值中，至少有一些——甚至更多——能够反映这样一个事实：雇主们可以把它作为一个粗略标准，衡量求职者的聪明才智和积极肯干精神。

We could probably increase the number of high school seniors who are ready to go to college and likely to make it to graduation. But let's face it: college isn't for everyone, especially if it takes the form of four years of going to classes on a campus.

我们可能会增加愿意读大学的高中生人数，他们也很可能成功读到大学毕业。但我们必须直面一个问题：大学不是为所有人开设的，尤其是以在校园里上4年课这样一种形式。

To talk about college this way may sound elitist. It may even sound philistine, since the purpose of a liberal-arts education is to produce well-rounded citizens rather than productive workers.

如此谈论大学也许听上去有点精英主义的味道。它甚至显得庸俗不堪，因为文科教育的目的是造就全面发展的公民，而不是生产性的工人。