Date: June 6, 1931
Location: Northampton, Massachusetts
(Original document available here)
This month will turn out into the world many thousands of young men and young women with college diplomas. On the whole they are probably better equipped to meet the problems of life than they were their predecessors. They have been required to do a large amount of intellectual work. The courses of study pursued in order to secure a degree are a little more difficult and exacting than those of former years. They could not have been graduated without subjecting themselves to a great deal of severe mental discipline.
While they will have a little better chance in the world than others, they will not have the only chance. They will not be judged by their diplomas but by what they produce. As the years pass some of them will discover that they put too much emphasis in their student days on how to get a living and not enough on how to live. Even if they do not appear so successful in the competition for gain, those who have a background of liberal culture have a satisfaction that wealth cannot buy. One of the great benefit of a college education is a better appreciation of the real values of life.
Citation: Calvin Coolidge Says: Dispatches Written by Former-President Coolidge and Syndicated to Newspapers in 1930-1931 (Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation)
The Coolidge Foundation gratefully acknowledges the volunteer efforts of Caleb Oh who prepared this document for digital publication.