Often you will hear students say that a college degree is nothing more than a piece of paper

They argue that there are many successful people who don't go to college that are managing large corporations or otherwise have fulfilling and rewarding careers. Given that this is true does this undermine the usefulness of a college degree as a signaling device?

While it may be true that there are many capable and successful people in the world without college degrees earning one communicates a lot of important information to would-be employers about the job candidate's work effort. Many business virtues that are necessary in order to get a college degree including persistence, carrying things through to completion, patience, and meeting deadlines. While not all college students with degrees have these qualities the degree itself is an overall good signal that these traits have a high probability of being a part of the degree holder's traits.