All three companies were founded and led by college dropouts. That’s right; Michael Dell, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs all dropped out of college to become three of the most successful businessmen of all time.

These are definitely three great American success stories. However, their successes are being used by some to argue that the need for a college education is overblown.

This argument typically comes in response to the movement to prepare all students for college and the workplace. Lately, it’s been heard again because the Obama administration, along with many others (including the Dell and Gates Foundations!), have been pushing hard to prepare more students for college and the workplace. The argument usually goes this way:

• Not all students are meant to go to college
• A college degree doesn’t guarantee a job
• A college degree doesn’t guarantee a well-paying job right after college
• Many jobs being done by college graduates don’t require a college degree
• And of course: Bill Gates dropped out of college and is one of the richest men in the world

What makes this argument so dangerous is that it ignores the fact that many students don’t have the option of going onto college simply because they aren’t prepared to do so by their high school.

Yes, people can be quite successful in life without obtaining a college degree. Dell, Gates, and Jobs certainly are testaments to that argument. But keep in mind they didn’t drop out of college because they weren’t prepared; they dropped out to start businesses in an industry that really didn’t exist yet. It is quite possible that if they hadn’t had access to the high-caliber math, science and other courses they took in high school, they wouldn’t have had the knowledge and skills needed to start those companies.

So instead of using them as models of why college isn’t important, we should cite them as models of the importance of being prepared for college.

Sadly, today the students who are the least likely to be prepared to go on to college are poor and minority students. As an upcoming Center report will show, white students are nearly three times more likely than their minority classmates to earn the academic credentials in high school they need to have a decent chance of getting admitted into a selective four-year college.

Yes, college isn’t for every student. But that choice should be theirs, not something forced on them because they didn’t have the right preparation in high school.

Furthermore, a college-preparatory high school education is remarkably similar to the one needed to find a good, non-degree job. For example, the Center’s recent report on 21^st Century skills shows that high school students who wish to become electricians or auto machanics would be better served by taking the same kind of higher-level math and science courses as colleges look for in their applicants.

For students to have the best chance of success after high school, they need the same high-quality preparation, whether they plan on entering the dorm room or the board room.  – Jim Hull