Did you know that there was a time when the Society believed in attending college? Yep, there was. Note some interesting excerpts from Consolation, Volume XXIV, Number 613, March 17, 1943, pages 3-16.
New World College is Dedicated
A NEW WORLD of righteousness is at hand. As one of the visible evidences of its imminence a college of the highest learning was dedicated the first day of February, this year. The opening of this college in the midst of a world engaged in total war resulting in destruction of many institutions of higher learning and the closing down of others is quite in the opposite direction from the course of the old world....
The new college is dedicated to the work of educating the people in these matters affecting their eternal destinies. Hence the establishment of the college is not an indication that the battle of Armageddon is farther off then has been believed hitherto by students of Bible prophecy and the times, but is a strong indication that the time till that battle is short.
The New World College is not a religious affair, but is Christian, and hence meets the people's greatest need of the hours.
It is plain, then, that the establishment of the New World college is not by men, but is the provision of Almighty God at His due time and according to His infinite mercy to mankind.
Its Name and Location
Why this institution ranks as a college, and why it has been so named, we leave to the president thereof to explain, as follows:
The word "college" appears in the Bible record at 2 Kings 22:14 and 2 Chronicles 34:22, in connection with the typical Theocracy over the Israelites. It was at the capital city, Jerusalem. The word "college" is here translated from the Hebrew word mishneh, which means literally "doubling or repeating". If the word here means an institution of learning, where the prophetess Huldah dwelt, then it marks a "college" as a place where instruction on special subjects is repeated but in an advanced and more intensified way so as to increase one's familiarity, capacity and efficiency therein, and thus doubling one's ability. It is a secondary institution, and hence farther advanced than a primary one. Such, indeed, is the Watchtower Bible College of Gilead. It is so called because it is operated and maintained by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Inc., of New York, and the college faculty of instructors are ordained ministers who are representatives of the Society. Though listed according to the law of the land as a "religious institution", it is in fact a Christian college for Bible training.
This is a college of the highest learning, Theocratic learning concerning the Most High God, Jehovah, and His capital organization under Christ, and the operations of its visible part now on the earth. Hence it is not a college of so-called "higher learning" according to the standards of this world.
Registration
Early in January the Watchtower office at Brooklyn began sending out detailed questionnaires to all full-time ministers, pioneers, in the United States whose record showed they met the minimum requirements for qualification as students. One requirement is that they must have been full-time Kingdom publishers preaching the gospel from house to house for at least two years.
The President's Speech
The thoughts of all in attendance were fixed upon Jehovah God and His King, Christ Jesus, who are the Founders of this college and to whose glory and service this college is now to be dedicated....It is NOT the purpose of this college to equip you to be ordained ministers. You are ministers already and have been active in the ministry for years....The course of study at the college is for the exclusive purpose of preparing you to be more able ministers in the territories to which you go....
Watchtower Directors Speak
[The Vice President] pressed home the point that Jehovah does not do things such as establish a school through His earthy organization in vain; and that His purpose could now be clearly seen in acquiring the property and constructing the building where the college is operated.
Another of the Watchtower Society directors was asked to speak. "The Watchtower Bible College of Gilead is no experiment," he began; "Jehovah God does not indulge in experiements." Quoting Acts 5:38, 39, he emphasized that this work was not of man, but of God....[I]t was the Lord's due time for the Watchtower Bible College to be established now, after A.D. 1938.
Study Classes Open
Then [President Knorr] dismissed the assembly by offering a fervent prayer to the Most High God, the supreme, invisible Director of this Bible college.
Student Reactions
[T]he students effervesced with joy and appreciation over their privileges of study, and the method of instruction, and the comprehensive course of study ahead of them. "Attending college is just wonderful!" exclaimed one young lady. Quite a number enrolled at Gilead are also graduates of worldly universities and colleges, and several of these remarked upon the superiority of the training and education they were beginning to receive here at Gilead.
The Watchtower Bible College of Gilead is now a reality, a going concern. It is in verity a New World college...This college is no mere accident; it is a divine provision.
It is to be expected that the influence of the college, under God's blessing, protection and guidance, will make itself felt to the ends of the earth through the sending forth of its graduates.
And there you have a few excerpts from the above-referenced magazine.
--Inkie