Manners 101

Would you know how to behave at a formal dinner?

Some colleges are now teaching the basics of etiquette, as CBS News correspondent Jim Axelrod reports.

They are some of the nation's brightest, but Cornell University's engineering students still have a thing or two to learn about etiquette.

After hearing from prospective employers that today's graduates are about as familiar with table manners as typewriters, Cornell — like a lot of schools these days brought in an expert. His name is Robert Shutt.

"Kids today haven't had as much education as some previous generations," Shutt says.

Do today's young people have lousy manners?

"Well, I hate to use the word 'lousy.' They're just uninformed often," Shutt says.

Of course, it's not just table manners. It's everything from what to wear to what you say. Meet Julie Fraser.

"I have these dirty a** flip flops on," she says.

Fraser had only been talking for five minutes and she already had to be bleeped. Does she think there's something she needs to learn about etiquette?

"I know, probably!" she says

But bad manners have meant good business for people like Shutt.

"Research says that 85 percent of an individual's success in getting a job, keeping a job and getting promoted on a job is based on their inter-personal skills and manners are part of your inter-personal skills," he says.

Aemish Shah, a student at Cornell, is impressed.

"Eighty-five percent? That's huge," Shah says. "I mean, if you spent 40 grand, 20 grand a year on a college education, 120 grand and it comes down to you picking up your cup wrong or something."

Shah just started his first college internship. While he hasn't exactly been picking up linen napkins, he did pick up a notion during that etiquette dinner that he's brought with him to the business world.

He says he has the confidence, the poise, and the etiquette to interact with superiors.

So, even with an ivy league education, manners still matter.