--- title: Five Best: A College Degree May Be Outdated description: Is the college degree outdated, DNA testing can discover the perfect diet for you and more. canonical: https://time.com/4763120/a-college-degree-may-be-outdated/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-02T16:00:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:58:53.412Z article:section: Ideas og:title: A College Degree May Be Outdated og:description: And four more of today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4763120/a-college-degree-may-be-outdated/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A College Degree May Be Outdated twitter:description: And four more of today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # A College Degree May Be Outdated by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute May 2, 2017 4:00 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute May 2, 2017 4:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**Is the college degree outdated?**](http://hechingerreport.org/college-degree-outdated/) By Laura Pappano in the _Hechinger Report_ **2\.** [**Forget learning about your ancestry. DNA testing can discover the perfect diet for you.**](https://backchannel.com/these-dna-diet-apps-want-to-rule-your-health-96199f6efb1) By Alexandra Ossola in _Backchannel_ **3\.** [**This is how message-board culture took over American politics.**](http://nymag.com/selectall/2017/04/the-whole-world-is-now-a-message-board.html) By Max Read in _Select All_ **4\.** [**Can America afford to scare away immigrant talent?**](https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/05/01/immigrant-talent-pushed-away-from-us-column/100955662/) By Rajshree Agarwal in _USA Today_ **5\.** [**Combining quality preschool with career training could end multi-generational poverty.**](http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/04/28/525733959/a-path-out-of-poverty-career-training-quality-pre-k) By Eric Westervelt at _NPR Ed_  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4763120/a-college-degree-may-be-outdated/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4763120/a-college-degree-may-be-outdated/"},"headline":"A College Degree May Be Outdated","datePublished":"2017-05-02T16:00:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:58:53.412Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4763120/a-college-degree-may-be-outdated/","keywords":["Five Best Ideas","Innovation","politics","Education","College","DNA","Immigration"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/five-best-ideas/","name":"Five Best Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4763120/a-college-degree-may-be-outdated/","name":"A College Degree May Be Outdated"}}]}] ```