You don’t need a degree to get to the top

The argument

The argument is an argument from counterexample, and the counterexamples are drawn from the top of the distribution rather than the middle. Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin, Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, and Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, each reached the pinnacle of commercial success without a college degree. Between them they built companies across three different industries and three different eras, with no degree among them. The significance proponents draw out is what this rules out. If a college education were necessary for success, there could be no cases of this kind at all; necessity admits no exceptions. The existence of even a few such cases at the very highest level of achievement shows that whatever a degree supplies, it is not a precondition. And these are not marginal successes that a degree might have improved upon. They are the outcomes the case for college is ultimately appealing to when it promises that education leads to achievement. What did the work instead, on this account, is a different set of inputs: hard work, determination, and natural intelligence. These are more than adequate substitutes for attending university because they are much of what a university credential is a proxy for. An employer reading a degree is inferring persistence, capability and the ability to complete difficult tasks — qualities the degree evidences but does not create. Someone who possesses them demonstrably, through what they have built, has supplied that evidence directly. The conclusion drawn is about value rather than about learning. College may be enjoyable, and it may be useful. What it is not, on the evidence of those who reached the top without it, is worth the cost as a condition of success — because the qualities that actually produce success can be brought to bear with or without the credential.

Context

Plenty of successful people get to where they are without a degree. If university degrees aren't essential, why pay the money?

Premises

Counter-arguments

For every Richard Branson, there are thousands that are just as capable, just as intelligent, and just as hard-working that never rose to the top because they didn’t get lucky. While university isn’t necessary for entrepreneurial or business success, it definitely helps. Going to university significantly increases the possibility of career and financial success by exposing you to a successful, diverse population allowing you to build relationships with like-minded people that will contribute to your intellectual and creative development.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P3] Universities are not essential for success, but they increase the likelihood of success.