Are Too Many Americans Earning Four-Year Degrees? - REBECCA R. RUIZ, Inside Higher Ed

“True or false: too many kids go to college.” That was how John Donvan, an ABC News correspondent, began a debate last week about the necessity of an undergraduate degree. The debate, held by Intelligence Squared in Chicago as part of that city’s Ideas Week, featured Peter Thiel, PayPal founder and entrepreneur, and Charles Murray, a political scientist, arguing that the college market is flooded with too many students. Arguing against them were Henry S. Bienen, president emeritus of Northwestern University, and Vivek Wadhwa, a director of research at Duke University. While the larger debate on this issue carries on — unlikely to ever yield a black-and-white verdict — this particular forum’s audience (which numbered several hundred) elected a winner. By a hair — 1 percentage point — Mr. Thiel and Mr. Murray were named victors of the debate, having proved, by just over half the crowd’s estimation, that too many students go to college.