

Ask HN: Why do employers prefer traditional college education over online ones? - lickabanana


======
danieltillett
Employers don’t care either way - what they care about is getting high quality
employees.

Candidates want to be able to signal to an employer that they are a high
quality employee. The way this is done is by using the college admissions
process as the means of signalling (the harder to get in the better the
graduates must be).

Any new college faces the problem of attracting high quality students since
they are not able to provide the needed signalling that their graduates want.
The historical way this has been overcome is by paying big dollars for star
teachers and researchers. This will draw in some good students who care more
about quality than the signalling, these good students will raise the entry
requirements which will then bring in more good students creating a virtuous
circle.

I hope you see why online colleges are worthless if what you want is employer
signalling - they may of course still provide a good education, but they are
not going to help you get a job.

