“You are probably not that good a rapper. Maybe you are the next Lil Wayne, but probably not, in which case you need to stay in school,” said President Obama in an unusually pedestrian manner to a crowd of youngsters.

Stay in school. One of those unquestioned pearls of wisdom instilled in our psyche by our parents, teachers and presidents rivaling other equally, and unquestionable aphorisms such as “don’t do drugs.”

But in times of hardship, when the economy is slumping and students with college degrees are no longer guaranteed jobs upon graduation, staying in school, especially college, may seem to some a frivolous waste of money.

Why send your kids to college for four (probably more) years and spend tens of thousands of dollars when they can get a job or start a business right out of high school?

The answer isn’t easy, and it’s less a tangible asset than it is an intangible one. (Some studies found that if you invest the money that would have otherwise been spent on college the lifetime earnings gap between college graduates and high school graduates virtually disappears – more a hypothetical situation than one based in reality.)

So, for all you parents out there roaming around campus this summer with your eager-eyed kids, doubting the point of spending your life savings on four plus years of parties, booze, drugs and unprotected sex for your presumably innocent children is only natural. But don’t fret; chances are they’ve already done those things anyway (kidding of course), and there are reasons that go beyond the stereotype of college as an extended stay at a hedonistic resort for 18- to 22-year-olds.

But first, let’s address this “start your own business” idea. Expecting your 18-year-old to start a successful business of their own after high school is almost up there with believing in alien abductions. Sure, they both may happen and lessons could be learned, but does anyone know someone who was, or did?

This isn’t the first half of the 20th century anymore. Kids, now mostly deprived of true world-altering hardships (like the Great Depression and world wars), not to mention victims of coddling parents, take longer to grow up, and simply don’t have the capacity to progress beyond service-industry or unskilled labor jobs on their own. Sure, there are exceptions, but this is our opinion; we were there, now we are here, and we are smarter, wiser and grateful that we went from there to here.

Though there are many alternatives to college, and the cost of education is simply ridiculous in a democratic society that thrives on educated citizens, there are things you learn here that can’t be learned by reading books.

College is important, and next week we will go into the reasons why (for one you learn how to be concise … maybe we slept through that class), but for now, enjoy our campus.