We talked to the one of the most vocal college skeptics in a growing national debate about the value of a degree.
在日益升温的关于“学位价值何在”的全国性讨论中，我们采访了一位知名的上大学怀疑论者。
Penelope Trunk, author of Brazen Careerist and widely syndicated guru, estimates that 85% of college students are wasting their time and money on getting a degree.
佩内洛普-特兰克是《厚颜野心家》一书的作者，同时也是一位企业家，她估计，85%的大学生正在为了得到一个学位而浪费时间和金钱。
Please take this estimate with a grain of salt, as most experts will still tell most students to go to college. Trunk's reasoning is certainly provocative, however, and it may be coming into the mainstream as more students are finally deciding to pass on college.
请大家持保留意见来看待这一评估，因为绝大多数的专家依旧会建议大部分的学生去大学深造。特兰克的理论无疑非常挑衅，然而，随着越来越多的学生最终决定不去上大学，这一观点也许正在成为主流。
Trunk says you should skip college unless you're really great at school or got accepted into a top ten school. Instead "you should just go to work."
特兰克说，除非你真的学业非常好或者被排名前十的高校录取，否则你应该放弃大学学习。取而代之的是，“你应该去工作。”
In her recent article published on LinkedIn, Trunk advises young people to re-think college and focus on internships, saying that anyone can teach themselves the skills needed to be successful. She gives the example of an MIT program that gave iPads to illiterate kids in Ethiopia who then were able to teach themselves how to use it, program it and read it in English without a teacher or curriculum.
在她最近发表在社交网站Linkedin上的文章中，特兰克建议年轻人对大学学习要三思，把主要精力集中在工作实习上。她说，任何人都可以自学成功所需的技能。她例举了一个麻省理工大学做过的项目，在项目中，实验者将iPad 送给埃塞俄比亚的文盲儿童，他们就可以在没有老师或课程的指导下，自学如何使用iPad，给它编程序，阅读它的英文版。
With college costing more than ever, getting a degree may actually limit your career choices.
随着大学学费史无前例地高涨，仅为了得到一个学位可能会限制你的职业选择。
“How do you make those loan payments? There are like five career paths for you if you take out a $100,000 loan,” Trunk says, while “if you don't take out any loans, then the whole world is opened to you.”
“你怎么偿还助学贷款？如果你取出十万美元的助学贷款，你可能会有5条职业发展途径，但如果你不使用任何贷款，那全世界的所有机会都会向你敞开。”特兰克说。
And then there's the question of time.
这儿还有个时间问题。
“We’re not debating if you should be taking out loans ... we know that’s a bad idea ... we’re asking, ‘Is it worth your time?’” Trunk says.
“我们并不在争论你是否该取出你的助学贷款……我们都知道那是个糟糕的主意……我们在问你，这值得你投入时间吗？”特兰克说。
Trunk also says that college does not provide significant leadership or managerial skills development, arguing that people either have these skills or they don't.
她还说道，大学并不提供重要领导力或管理技能的发展，并认为要么学生已经拥有这些技能，要么他们不需要。
“Every Fortune 500 company will give you a Myers-Briggs personality test now to see if you're capable of becoming a leader at their company” she says.
“所有世界五百强企业都会给你一份性格测试来检测你是否具有成为公司领导者的潜能”她说。
So what should young people be doing to launch their careers if they're not going to college? Trunk says they should be working in internships at an early age, because “the best path to a good job is a bunch of great internships,” and if you get a head start in high school, you can take advantage of living with your parents while working an unpaid internship. By the time you get to “college age,” you'll have the experience to work in an industry you want — and get paid for it, but “you can’t take this route if you have no work experience when you graduate college. It’s too late.”
那么如果年轻人决定不去念大学，他们该做什么来启动职业蓝图呢？特兰克说，他们应该在年轻时开始实习工作，因为“得到好工作的最佳途径是大量优秀的实习经验”。如果你在高中就开始了实习，那时的实习大多是不带薪的，你就可以充分利用与父母居住在一起的便利条件来解决这一问题。当你到了“上大学年龄”，你就会拥有在企业工作的经验——并且得到报酬。但是“如果当你大学毕业时没有工作经验，你不会得到这个机会。太迟了。”
So should 85% of students skip college, causing the high education system to plunge into bankruptcy?
那么85%的大学生应该放弃大学，令高等教育系统陷入破产局面吗？
Let's hope schools find a way to evolve so it doesn't come to that. If our education system doesn't evolve in a way that teaches more students how to think like innovators and disruptors, would-be college grads may be better off jumping into the global workforce right away.
让我们寄希望于大学能找到发展方式以避免此种后果。如果我们的教育体系不能找到改进方法，教给更多学生去思考如何创新，如何打破城规，那大学的准毕业生们最好立刻离开校园，挤进国际劳动力市场开始工作。