Last year my daughter asked me, "You're in Glorytown, aren't you mom?" Startled, I managed an "Uh, I don't know... I guess?"  Apparently in the current Athens kindergarten curriculum, arriving at "Glorytown" means having a good job that you love. That mystery cleared up, I managed a more confident, "Oh, yes, then I am in Glorytown."

Last week's WSJ reported on colleges that have begun disclosing return-on-investment figures--detailing by major averages post-graduation salaries.  I have mixed feelings. I generally think more data is better.  Yet as an English major and the daughter of an English professor, I find all this talk of ROI a tad short-sighted.

I get it, I get it. The liberal arts are so 1990s. Gone are the days when college was a highbrow finishing school reserved for the white, the wealthy, the privileged. I had an excellent student last year disparage his history major as a waste of time. What good did it do him? 

Writing clearly and thinking clearly will get you far in the world, I told him. He countered that a history minor would have been enough for that, and maybe he's right. But I can't help but feel like getting to Glorytown has more to do with grit and work ethic than school- or major-specific ROIs.

Example #1: I'm reading Stephen King's memoir-cum-meditation on writing. He's made a heck of a lot of money despite being an English major. I haven't done so shabby myself. Most of my fellow-English majors from Georgetown have done pretty well.  One of my best friends from high school played it safe by majoring in accounting, but abandoned that profession because she didn't find it fulfilling.  She's a substitute teacher now--making much less money, but much happier.

Example #2: take 4 undergraduates.

• One smart, hardworking and driven, majors in English.
• The second, not as smart, hardworking and driven majors in finance.
• The third, not as as smart, middling driven, just wants to clock in the 4 years in college and get a job, majors in accounting.
• The fourth, brilliant, not hardworking, majors in physics.

Who'll make the most money 15 years after graduation?  My money is on number one or two. Hardworking and driven, I suspect, gets you farther than anything else. Don't get me wrong, ROI is a fine metric, and with tuition where it is you'd be crazy not to think about what jobs your college degree will get you. But if you're in a job just for the salary, you probably won't be that successful--and you'll be entering a job market beset by peers attracted by that self-same salary. Obamacare has a better chance of being repealed than the law of supply and demand, my friends.

An old management truism advises that you can't manage what you don't measure.  It's equally true that if all you care about is what you can measure, you could be missing out on a whole lot.

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