Charles Murray's Down With The Four-Year College Degree

In Charles Murray’s article, “Down With the Four-Year College Degree”, he discusses how he believes the four year degree is ruining college education. Murray exemplifies the ludicrousness of the four year degree when he says:
Imagine that you have been made a member of a task force to design America’s post-secondary education system from scratch. One of your colleagues submits this proposal: First, we will set up a single goal to represent educational success, which will take four years to achieve no matter what is being taught. We will attach an economic reward to it that often has nothing to do with what has been learned. We will urge large numbers of people who do not possess adequate ability to try to achieve the goal, wait until they have spent a lot of time and money, and then deny it to them. We will stigmatize everyone who doesn’t meet the goal. We will call the goal a “BA.” (Murray 1).

Murray is not arguing that the four year degree is completely useless for everyone, instead he insists that the four year degree works for people who want to get a liberal arts education. He claims that students who want a liberal arts education are the minority. Murray asserts that the best way to prove a worker is competent for a job is by “treating post-secondary education as apprenticeships for everyone” (Murray 8). My goal in my life is to become a clinical geneticist. In order to become a clinical geneticist, I will have to obtain my four year degree in a biological science, attend medical school for four years, and then finish a six year residency. If I did not have to take classes that were not directly associated with my major, I could finish my degree in two years. However, I firmly believe that a liberal arts education is important, thus why I am attending a liberal arts