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Same thing happened when someone noticed a correlation between successful kids and kids who have books at home. Someone ordered that every household should have books at home while failing to realize that correlation != causation…
Same thing with home ownership.
I think that most people shouldn't aspire to go to college. They should learn a trade instead in order to become a plumber, carpenter, electrician, or car mechanic. There are lots of occupations that don't require a college degree, yet provide a solid paycheck without the crushing mass of student debt accrued in the pursuit of a useless degree. Michael Bloomberg himself said it best: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2…
I also think more jobs should be trades. Data analyst (not machine learning, but running SQL queries, etc), marketing, bookkeeping, sales, etc, dont need 4 year degrees. 1 year bootcamp could get people reliable jobs.
The old "college is about being well rounded/learning how to learn" narratives made sense 50-100 years ago, when people were going to university as more a "cultural elite" thing. The rich 20-generation legacy who attends to build his social network, mixing with the top-5%-of-his-class scholarship student and social-climbers powering their way through school, had a different set of needs. Yeah, let them study Latin and great thinkers so they can schmooze in the corridors of power. It was fine when only a few percent of the population went on to university, and the actual degree content was less important than that you got a degree.
However, the kids signing up today-- especially in well-known high-revenue programs (CS, EE, etc) are in it because they either 1) love the subject matter or 2) are bootstrapping their careers. These kids have neither use nor interest in becoming cultured or well-rounded. They'll go further referencing Dennis Ritchie than William Blake.
There might be a case for a writing course or two, but all those 100-level survey humanities or "fun sciences" classes you're taking to hit general studies requirements? I doubt it. Or the requirement some programs have of "at least NNN total credit-hours" even if you can technically hit all the content requirements on fewer.
I'm surprised you aren't seeing legitimate universities responding to the market and producing a 2-3 year BSc program, stripped of almost all general-studies courses. You want to fight tuition increases? Get kids out in 2.5 years!
I assume the endgame of this would be that a lot of literature and philosophy professors will be out of work, but this surely leads into some sort of punchline about them working at Starbucks..
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I had a financial counselor at my college suggest I a put the last semester on a credit card. Fuck that woman, she is terrible person for even suggesting that. I dropped out in my final semester and quite frankly it hasn't mattered. College is insanely expensive, and at the end of the day for some careers is a waste of time.
A degree vs no degree for 1 semester's tuition? Yeah I'd advise most people to put it on a credit card too if that was the only option. Over your lifetime, it will matter to the vast majority of people. For 1 semester's tuition, it's worth it just to get past HR filters.
And seriously, trying to convince a college student to drop 30k on a credit card is awful.
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I had a financial counselor at my college suggest I a put the last semester on a credit card. Fuck that woman, she is terrible person for even suggesting that. I dropped out in my final semester and quite frankly it hasn't mattered. College is insanely expensive, and at the end of the day for some careers is a waste of time.
Why is that a bad idea? You can get rid of credit card debt by filing bankruptcy, you can't get rid of student loan debt.
The "prestige" of the degree. Meh
I taught college for about a dozen years (part time on the side), and may get dragged back into again soon. I can say emphatically, the quality of the schooling only helps people who would succeed anyways. Those that won't or can't, no school can help them. There are just too many lazy, unmotivated or simple defeatist students out there. To not be too harsh, there are many students over their head in life (debts, rel…
Higher education most often helps poor students or students of limited means and without any family connections to land coveted jobs, which is life changing not only for them but for their family. Education (and to some degree small time entrepreneurship) is the only way for them to come out of their circumstances that were not of their choosing.
These people would not have succeeded anyways.
Besides, it just shouldn’t take a decade or more for someone to discharge a bad debt. Student debt seems uniquely oppressive within the American system, and it really needs to look more like other forms of personal debt.
I think that most people shouldn't aspire to go to college. They should learn a trade instead in order to become a plumber, carpenter, electrician, or car mechanic. There are lots of occupations that don't require a college degree, yet provide a solid paycheck without the crushing mass of student debt accrued in the pursuit of a useless degree. Michael Bloomberg himself said it best: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2…
It's always a little off-putting when I see people suggest that higher education is just for a job, and discount the importance of the above. Education that teaches you how to work but not how to think is part of how you get people believing things like vaccines are bad.
Trade schools are awesome, not arguing that, but so is critical thinking.
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A degree vs no degree for 1 semester's tuition? Yeah I'd advise most people to put it on a credit card too if that was the only option. Over your lifetime, it will matter to the vast majority of people. For 1 semester's tuition, it's worth it just to get past HR filters.
Life happens and honestly I didn't give a shit about finishing up at 36 years old. The shiny degree wouldn't have made a difference in my life. And after helping in the hiring process and reading countless resumes I don't even skim the education section. I am not going to be impressed by the diploma. I will be impressed by relevant factors related to working with you. And seriously, trying to convince a college stude…
My entire two degrees was maybe 25k CAD. Why would anyone ever in the right mind even try to go to school if it costs that much?
Surely you meant 3k. You can't possibly get a credit limit for 30... Good God I hope not... Can you?
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I don't agree 100% with the OP, but there are some students that are indeed just net negatives on the class and in general. My state used to pay 100% of your state college tuition if you maintained a 3.0 GPA. A lot of students in my freshman dorm stayed until the 30 hour re-evaluation period and then disappeared forever. They partied, never went to class, never studied, and withdrew from most of their classes. They'd…
> As a teacher, how do you handle these students? Many people don't believe in working hard today for having a better life tomorrow. They think they might as well get stuck by lightening and die. Should we blame them for this kind of thinking? This why the idea of a weflare state seems to saddle the ones who work with more work at the expense of those who are not willing to do anything. Today, the ones who get most b…
The ones that benefit the most from the welfare state are the ones that (theoretically) pay the most for it: the wealthy. Imagine if Gates/Jobs/Page/Bezos et al had to invest in 18 years of education and healthcare for every potential hire? They'd never get the employees they needed to strike gold.