Education is all in your Head.

CAMBRIDGE, MA- A new study released today from Dade County Community College and Harvard University asserts that the benefits of a college education may be largely psychological. The study followed 100 students from their freshman year of college through to graduation from a four year Bachelors degree program.

Fifty of the students attended an accredited university while the other fifty attended a placebo university. All students were free to select any major and course of study they wished. The placebo group attended lectures based entirely on fictional material. One required history class was "Post Cold War Ijerkistan". Ijerkistanian was also offered in the language department. The science department offered "Intro to Temporal Displacement" while the Philosophy Department enlightened young minds with the works of Namnaum and Lipnicki. The control group students were tested and assigned papers and other howework as they would in any real college.

Worth the paper they're printed on?

Upon graduation all of the study's participants were surveyed and 90% from each group reported they felt educated. More suprising is that employers of both groups of graduates gave 80% or higher approval ratings for their new hires. The employers had placed all of them in positions that required a Bachelors degree. When questioned the employers claimed a non-college graduate could not succeed in the position.

The study concludes that the benefits of an authentic college education are indistiguishable from those of a four year regime of "placebo" education. "Apparently, the psychological effect, the boost of confidence, gained from thinking you have been educated produces results that are largely identical to actually matriculating." said Dr. Connor Flatlery of Dade County Community College. Flatlery is co-author of the study with Dr. Irma O'Toole of Harvard. The two researches are already planning their next study which will determine whether an individual with below average intelligence can effectively administer the duties of the Presidency of the United States.