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>Fortunate? You haven't lived if you haven't experienced the thrill of watching your program being sucked through the card reader, card by card, at lightning speed. Of course, one of the card readers had to be working...

...or had the card reader "eat" half the deck and destroy all of your hard work...or trip on your way into the computer room and scatter your deck of Hollerith cards to the four winds. Those were the good ol' days, eh?

But back to the subject. Point 1: Some of our number may have a combination of 3-4 years of college (but no degree) and many years of experience. Point 2: There are any number of reasons why people don't finish their schooling, and some of those reasons do NOT include a lack of motivation or intelligence -- family matters, lack of funds, career/work situations, etc.

I think that there has to be a "balance" when candidates for hire or promotion are evaluated. I do agree that a college degree might give some indication of capability and/or character, but I also know that there are many professionals out there who lack a degree, but their experience and on-the-job learning puts them head and shoulders above their peers when it comes to technical knowledge, practical application, business experience, etc.

The possession or lack of a degree should not be the only measure, yet I personally know of instances where that SEEMS to be the case. I have even run across cases where certain executives in certain corporations will not even consider candidates unless their degree is from the executive's own "prestigious" alma mater. I realize that these cases are extreme, but they do exist.

Enough said. To summarize: Balance evaluations with a view toward education AND experience.

Bill