Ben Shapiro Says College Is Mostly a Pricey Test Score Stamp for Employers
Ben Shapiro predicts employers will stop relying on pedigree as a stand-in for ability.
Uncommon Knowledge · Ben Shapiro and The Battle For The Soul of Conservatism | Peter Robinson | Hoover InstitutionBen Shapiro argues a college degree is mainly an expensive signal that a young worker once tested well and can stick with the routine. The conservative commentator and co-founder of the Daily Wire offered that assessment while discussing whether elite campuses have really changed and why the changed perception of their veracity will not go back.
He put it this way: "An enormous amount of higher education is just a credentialing system, which is a substitute for an IQ test."
What Shapiro meant is that tuition buys proof for a future boss. As he put it, people will spend "a hundred thousand dollars" "to prove to an employer that they could sit in a room for a sustained period of time," and to show they did well on their SATs. A Harvard diploma then reads as higher caliber than a degree from an ordinary state college.
Shapiro predicts that shortcut is losing force as information becomes widely accessible. He thinks employers do not have to use pedigree as a proxy the way they once did, and that a complete collapse in the old system is coming because knowledge is now easy to find elsewhere. The lasting shift, in his view, is how Americans broadly view these universities. As an anecdote for that shift, he said families in his Florida Jewish community who once aimed for Harvard now aim for the University of Florida and other Southern schools.
He predicts students will increasingly ask whether to go straight into the work force at 18 or 19, try a new school like the University of Austin in Texas, or get the credential online.
Questions people ask
Are employers actually moving away from requiring college degrees?
Yes, in part. Since 2020, many large employers, including Walmart, IBM, and Accenture, have removed degree requirements for many middle-skill and office jobs and shifted toward skills-based hiring. College pedigree still matters in law, medicine, finance, and consulting, but it carries less weight in tech, sales, and customer operations.
What is the University of Austin?
The University of Austin, usually called UATX, is a new private university in Austin, Texas, founded in 2021 by academics and writers who said existing universities discouraged open debate. It admitted its first undergraduate class in 2024 and emphasizes classical texts, free inquiry, and entrepreneurship. It is positioning itself as an alternative to established elite schools.
Does going to Harvard still pay off financially?
On average, yes. Graduates of highly selective schools still earn more over a lifetime than graduates of less selective schools, partly because of networks, recruiting access, and selection effects. Researchers debate how much is the school itself versus the talent and connections students already had when admitted.