College and Marriage

LK posting an interesting blog today that reflects on a study that notes how

highly-educated women (at least a 4-year degree) have a lower[ing] divorce rate and much lower incidence of children outside of marriage.

His post also reflects on how the study says that

Surprisingly the moderately-educated, or ‘Middle America’ (some post-secondary education but no degree) are trending worse than the poor [in their divorce rates].

LK postulates on why this could be and comments on how he's glad to be married to a degree-holding college girl (that would be me).  So here's my two cents on it.

To me it's like the conversation I had with a friend who lacked one class to graduate but instead of taking that one class (a gen ed class at that) he was applying for a job and leaving his studies, and he wanted my opinion on how his resume sounded.  I told him that personally, the fact that he lacked one class and could not list a degree on the resume even with all those hours under his belt would raise many a red flag as an employer about his ability to start and complete a task.

So, perhaps completing college is not only evident of someone who can handle delayed gratification, and not only understands that what she does today will have a lasting effect on what can then be accomplished tomorrow, and not only shows someone's ability to work with group projects (a necessity in college as well as marriage), but that it also shows a person who is able to not just start something but see it through to it's intended end.  Perhaps that is why women with a diploma on the wall fair better.

Perhaps.