The Real Reason College Grads Get Hired (It’s Not What You Think)
What’s the real lesson of college? Obey, endure, repeat.
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Picture a student labeled a “free thinker.” He knocks out secondary studies like a heavyweight, finishing at the top of his class. But he gripes about the regimented drills and rote memorization, then flames out on his college entrance exams requiring an extra year of instruction before he passes.
At University his grades are solid but not earth-shattering. Nobody was looking at him to be the next LeBron James of anything in particular.
Would you admit this malcontent to Princeton? Or hire him at Goldman Sachs?
This was Albert Einstein.
How would he have fared in today’s universities? With a middling GPA or a mouthy presence on X? Not to mention being white and male, dare I bring up his religion? Today’s top universities would probably reject him. And so would many employers.
Why? Because higher education, as economist Bryan Caplan argues, isn’t focused on fostering renegade genius that doesn’t immediately tick the right boxes. It’s about signaling conformity.
Caplan’s Case: College, The Four Year Personality Test
In The Case Against Education, Bryan Caplan contends that not only are universities failing at teaching students anything useful, that is the point. Students who can make it through the gauntlet of high-level math, foreign languages, social sciences, or ethnic studies classes most will never use, have managed to demonstrate that they are smart enough to get good grades, conscientious, and most importantly conforming.
And it is those personality traits that the labor market rewards.
It’s easy to see the appeal for employers. Most businesses mark the cost of labor as their highest expense, but it’s also the trickiest to navigate if you need to cut costs. Even when an employee has earned their termination, pulling the trigger can leave the remaining workers demoralized and fearful. Wouldn’t you prefer a Cum Laude grad if it meant fewer HR nightmares?
Caplan’s data is substantial. He backs up his argument with a wide range of studies that make it hard to ignore. I highly recommend his provocative book.
But let’s assume Caplan’s right. What happens if the conformers continue to be rewarded and promoted at the expense of more creative but problematic thinkers?
Conformity: A Trap From Stability to Groupthink
No doubt, conformity has its uses. Law, engineering, medicine, governance, or any work that requires adherence to standards to ensure safety, stability, and consistent outcomes would benefit from employees who would reliably stick to the orthodoxy. Especially anywhere threats of litigation were common.
But over time, it makes sense that a preference for conformity would become self-reinforcing. Arguably, you see this in many parts of Asia. Note the common Japanese saying, “The nail that sticks out gets hammered down.”
Conforming graduates succeed, hire in their image, and reinforce the cycle. The circle tightens.
Without the people who would question underlying assumptions and the status quo, innovation would slow.
Soon groupthink would set in. Dissenters would avoid higher ed or they’d be weeded out. This would result in a sterile consensus that might look successful on the surface but would be brittle to real challenges. If some studies on conformity are to be believed, you’d see fewer men too.
While it would be hard to find an obvious fault, that doesn’t mean things would really be functional. Take the story of Vioxx for example. It was FDA-approved after meeting their “rigorous” standard, only to be pulled in 2004 after causing 140,000 heart attacks.
Or the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. Hailed as a breakthrough, it was later met with questions about efficacy and side effects. Yet even mild concerns were often met with scorn—proof, perhaps, of how allergic we’ve become to nonconformity.
Continue rewarding conformity, and eventually, you’ll see a ratchet effect. Where more degrees, taking more time, thus earning bigger rewards, would select for a two-tiered system where those willing to tolerate the most tedium would come to populate our centers of learning and prime positions across government and industry.
Breaking Free: Dissenters Unite
The Milgram experiment clearly showed how vulnerable humanity is to even very small factors that enforce conformity, and how far perfect strangers are willing to go on that account.
The lesson to be learned is that conformity comes at a cost. Employers interested in the long-term success of their businesses would be well served to hire outside the box, and even consider rewarding people with a nontraditional educational path. Lest they end up with no one willing to point out glaring errors in their business plan for fear of stepping outside the line.
Some already are.
An old friend of mine is an executive at a Fortune 500 company. He didn’t finish high school. The same can be said for David Karp–Tumblr founder, Richard Branson–CEO of Virgin, and Quentin Tarantino–Oscar-winning writer and director. There are quite a few others in those ranks as well.
As of 2025, Apple, Nike, Amazon, GM, Delta, and Deloitte have all relaxed their degree requirements and are moving to skill-based hiring practices. This is great news, especially for the low-income students who may be more harmed by college loans than ‘helped’ by being injected into a system that doesn’t suit their current academic performance level.
Einstein’s genius wasn’t obvious. He failed exams, broke molds, and challenged the status quo. In today’s system, he might never have made it past the gatekeepers. If we want to avoid a future where the brightest minds are benched by bureaucracy, it’s time to reward vision over virtue signaling—and reinstate unorthodoxy as a virtue.
Housekeeping
It has been a week of welcome call backs. I heard from several people who I’ve either met with or discussed issues over email mail, only to later wonder when or if I’d hear back. Well it’s been like my phone is on fire.
I can’t express how much that has released the pressure of worry that all my work would come to naught. Perserverance has paid off, at least in terms of keeping the ball in play. Lets not go counting those chickens still in their shells.
That said right now I’m excited to see where things go from here. I’ll keep you posted.
I made an appearance yesterday on Ryan Roger’s podcast with Leslie Boyce, Gabrielle Turner, and Katie Kernodle of The Kids Are Not Alright. You can watch it right here:
Check out these recent appearances where we talk about accreditation, counseling and the crazy world we find ourselves in.
Ideological Oasis with Karen King,
The Radical Center with Leslie Boyce,
Ryan Rogers’—author of The Woke Mind—channel,
Outliers in Exile with Gen X Jeff, and have scheduled two recordings on the horizon. Thank you all!
These are prior podcast appearances that flesh out more details from my time in grad school.
Critical Therapy Antidote—An hour-long podcast that goes deep into the gaslighting and projection I experienced.
Genspect—Leslie Elliot Boyce and I share our stories with Sally Satel, Andrew Hartz, and Carrie Mendoza.
With Lauren Holt on the Radical Center—All three of us share our experiences with radicalized counselor training programs.
With Aaron Kindsvatter on the Radical Center—We discuss the toxic environment in counselor training.
I also have my own YouTube channel with videos I made fully detailing counselor training hell. I have considered making more videos to automate some of the process. Let me know if that would be of interest in the comments.
On the Bookshelf
I have done some great reading this week. Some of it was slow, highlighting things I may later want to quote. A lot of it was listening at 1.5 to 1.75 speed to cover as much ground as possible. I’m not ready to strike anything off my list yet, but I have gotten through a couple of them at least once.
Accreditation on the Edge: Challenging Quality Assurance in Higher Education by Susan D. Phillips
The Case Against Education by Bryan Caplan
The Licensing Racket: How We Decide Who Is Allowed to Work, and Why It Goes Wrong by Rebecca Haw Allensworth
Moral Calculations: Game Theory, Logic and Human Frailty by Laszlo Mero
The New Know-nothings: The Political Foes of the Scientific Study of Human Nature by Morton Hunt
The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha: New Revised Standard by Marc Brettler, Carol Newsom, Pheme Perkins
Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard Feynman
We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of the New Elite by Musa al-Gharbi
“Whatever It Is, I’m Against It”: Resistance to Change in Higher Education by Brian Rosenberg
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About
Diogenes in Exile began after I returned to grad school to pursue a Clinical Mental Health Counseling master’s degree at the University of Tennessee. What I encountered, however, was a program deeply entrenched in Critical Theories ideology. During my time there, I experienced significant resistance, particularly for my Buddhist practice, which was labeled as invalidating to other identities. After careful reflection, I chose to leave the program, believing the curriculum being taught would ultimately harm clients and lead to unethical practices in the field.
Since then, I’ve dedicated myself to investigating, writing, and speaking out about the troubling direction of psychology, higher education, and other institutions that seem to have lost their way. When I’m not working on these issues, you’ll find me in the garden, creating art, walking my dog, or guiding my kids toward adulthood.
You can also find my work at Minding the Campus