Should a 4-year degree be a requirement for selection to E-9?

I have met so many people with 4yr degrees that I would not trust to watch my imaginary pet stick. I think by the time most enlisted personal hit E-8 they usually have the experience and knowledge necessary to competently handle the job. So no, there are uneducated and educated morons that and will continue to reach the upper echelons, hell look at our Kenyan comander and chief

Yes, a four year degree states that you care about your career and want to be a leader in the best sense. if you want to be a manager education and job performance should be part of it. It is that way in the Business world and should be that way in the military. We need to Lead by example. Getting a degree is the best way to be a leader.

Although a degree is a great thing, I would say no. I have met many people that have a degree that are horrible leaders and met people that have no degree that are outstanding leaders. A degree shows commitment to bettering yourself and does make you smarter in that field of study but I don't think it teaches you to be a leader any more than time as a leader would teach you.

Some of the most common sense people I have served with didn't have a 4 year degree. So I would say no

A degree doesn't teach you Tactics, Techniques or Procedures.

In the future, definitely a yes. There are so many programs available for active duty to attend college, and it shows initiative if members have a degree. I also believe military schools should all be included as part of that education, and the branches should all be accredited to issue college degrees based on those schools and college courses members have taken. Most of our courses are already evaluated by ACE and assigned recommended credits, why not carry this forward to a logical end and give degrees.

Whether folks like it or not, the possession of a degree has become a differentiator already. The Bachelors degree long ago replaced what a high school diploma was to the previous generation. I agree with some of the comments on here, that I served with people who had degrees and were terrible leaders. That is no argument, however, not to educate yourself. In the modern world, what you earn is what you learn. You can't even get a reliable job today without at least a Masters degree. My opportunities were hurt by my pursuing a doctorate, but by then I had already reached the CXX-level so it was less of an issue. My advice is ... don't listen to those who advise you not to get an education. They will be filling the unemployment lines outside the military. Get as much education as you can, and do not stop. Get at least a Masters degree if you can. Your family will thank you later.

This is a really tough question because there are so many variables. Let's look at the reason versus the outcome. There is research which proves individuals with college educations overall, not specifically, have advantages others do not have. One significant advantage is the ability to experience situations with new knowledge gained through education and the possibility of proven practices they can use to solve the problem, not be the problem. There is no way we can prove that everyone who has a college education can implement the learning they have since having a college education does not prove how well you learned the information you were presented. Remember, there is no GPA on the diploma and you might have been a C student but you earned a degree.
In this complex time of having to integrate time, resources, people, money and information, a college degree can absolutely provide the strategies to use each of these effectively but it is still up to the person to implement and use them properly based on their learning and the change in the values they should have had when they earned the degree. It is a shame that a person would not want to earn a college degree and learn how to implement proven strategies and only rely on military knowledge so I would say the top rank as an enlisted should obtain a college degree since they have several years to do so. I have four masters degrees and while I was in the military, I was able to see things my peers who did not have degrees never saw and use the information I learned in class to implement military operations in a much more streamlined way. Just going to school to go to school is not the answer, you must go to school too learn, not fill a block. One justification is to be an officer you must have a degree, there is a reason for that, Charles E-7 MSGT

MSG, While I believe that a college degree is important, but I dont think it should be a major requirement. Some of the smartest people I knew, both military and civilian, never even graduated high school, let alone attend college. I think the knowledge you attained while serving in the military (vaious jobs that you held) should be sufficient

...a requirement for selection? Never!