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False Advertising for College Is Pretty Much the Norm

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Re: False Advertising for College Is Pretty Much the Norm

#81

It would be interesting for someone to perform such a study in the UK, which already has a near-perfect and near-complete data set of which schools made an offer to each student. You wouldn't even need any data from the universities themselves: - UCAS has the data for university offers and admissions (including subject studied) - HMRC (UK equivalent of IRS) knows whether you were employed and how much you earned If t…

This is a great idea.

Re: False Advertising for College Is Pretty Much the Norm

#82

It would be interesting for someone to perform such a study in the UK, which already has a near-perfect and near-complete data set of which schools made an offer to each student. You wouldn't even need any data from the universities themselves: - UCAS has the data for university offers and admissions (including subject studied) - HMRC (UK equivalent of IRS) knows whether you were employed and how much you earned If t…

I think this would be an extremely interesting data set, but the obvious and simple analysis would not address the key problem that I see as mentioned in the article.

> On job placement, the biggest deception by prestigious colleges and universities is to claim credit for the brainpower and work habits that students already had when they arrived.

I see this all the time in my workplace. Many of my colleagues went to prestigious universities, but I am fairly certain that many of them would have gotten similar jobs even if they had not. There is evidence backing this up in that we gladly interview and hire candidates with similar pre-university experience who did not later go to prestigious universities.

It just so happens that prestigious universities admit students with such pre-university experience at fairly high rates.

My personal opinion is that the pre-university experience that I have in mind is a stronger and better signal than the university that they attend.

Re: False Advertising for College Is Pretty Much the Norm

#83

The real problem with higher education is really how we finance it. Give the lenders the ability to discriminate based on major and borrowers the ability to default easier and all of a sudden you’ve got some banks seriously motivated to ensure students get economic return on their investments. Besides, it just shouldn’t take a decade or more for someone to discharge a bad debt. Student debt seems uniquely oppressive…

If you can default on education loans what are they going to take as collateral? Your knowledge? What would stop every new graduate defaulting? Do you think your idea might lead to greatly increased costs for everyone due to the risk?

People like credit. The threat of losing it is more than enough reason to avoid bankruptcy.

Re: False Advertising for College Is Pretty Much the Norm

#84
post #48
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why should a college offer therapists? that is not their job. a college should have a medic for emergencies and for all other things the student can go to a doctor's office that specializes in their issue

And why is it a college's "job" to have a medic for emergencies? Isn't that what emergency rooms are for, along with ambulances? It seems as if your opinion is that a college should have a baseline minimum for protecting students. Some think that minimum should encompass mental health, or financial education.

Are you being serious? Ambulances cannot arrive before in house medics. There are many cases where someone could have been saved if cpr or bandaging started before the ambulance arrived. I don't know of any case where someone was so suicidal that they needed to talk to someone (and wanted to) immediately or else they would commit suicide.

Psychiatry and financial education is not an emergency service that is needed immediately. That would be like offering cancer treatment at the university. If someone has cancer and they need treatment they should go to the hospital.

Re: False Advertising for College Is Pretty Much the Norm

#85
post #66
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's how you get nothing but science and engineering majors, because most other majors don't have the ROI on average. But society is probably better off with some history and art majors too. We need to find a way to finance education that isn't based on future income.

Studying things that don't make money has always been the privilege of the wealthy. Just because college was once only for the elite doesn't mean those same tedious sayings apply to our current world.

But when I went to college, in the 70's and 80's, people did exactly that. I studies math but lots of folks studied History. You didn't have to be wealthy.

What changed? Or was that time an aberration?

Re: False Advertising for College Is Pretty Much the Norm

#86
post #72
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or instead, like most other advanced societies, we could stop trying to quantify higher education in purely personal economic return on investment grounds and consider an educated populace a public good.

If education rather than credentialing was the overwhelming driver, a priority should be providing education to people without credentialing built-in, in a form factor that's a lot more flexible than a classic four-year degree. Ideally, it should be easy for people to educate themselves on their own pace, even as they are doing other things at the same time (like working). I somehow expect a system focused just on ed…

I mean, in the U.K., if you’re interested in learning at your own pace, every university has at least some form of part-time course, local FE colleges do part time courses regularly, and there’s the Open University if you want to work towards a degree part-time. This is an American problem, not one to do with the concept of being able to prove you’ve completed an education.

Re: False Advertising for College Is Pretty Much the Norm

#87

I find it funny that these numbers are not available. In our free education system (Denmark), almost all of this data is freely available, also as the government, want students to make an informed choice. So most schools its easy to get graduation rate, salary estimates and even how many from the last class are employed, and how many in relevant fields.

I work at a college and we are required by the federal government to report all kinds of numbers. I know grad rate is among them, and I am 99% sure it is broken down by major. Those reports are public.

Re: False Advertising for College Is Pretty Much the Norm

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can default on education loans what are they going to take as collateral? Your knowledge? What would stop every new graduate defaulting? Do you think your idea might lead to greatly increased costs for everyone due to the risk?

People like credit. The threat of losing it is more than enough reason to avoid bankruptcy.

My understanding of the current situation is that if you don't pay your federal student loans, they will take gradually money from your earnings or benefits instead. If you don't have earnings or benefits I guess they don't take anything?

That seems like a better situation then permanently ruining someone's credit score, which seems like it's regressive and stops people getting out of the situation because it's harder to get back on track.

This seems like a step backward not forward to me.

Re: False Advertising for College Is Pretty Much the Norm

#89
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Studying things that don't make money has always been the privilege of the wealthy. Just because college was once only for the elite doesn't mean those same tedious sayings apply to our current world.

But when I went to college, in the 70's and 80's, people did exactly that. I studies math but lots of folks studied History. You didn't have to be wealthy. What changed? Or was that time an aberration?

A lot changed. Let's look at one thing. Percentage of college students changed. In 1970 is was around 12%. In 2015 it's pushing past 60%. At that time you were truly elite by going to college, and the history or English degree was good qualification to run your dad's buisness.

Re: False Advertising for College Is Pretty Much the Norm

#90
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Studying things that don't make money has always been the privilege of the wealthy. Just because college was once only for the elite doesn't mean those same tedious sayings apply to our current world.

But when I went to college, in the 70's and 80's, people did exactly that. I studies math but lots of folks studied History. You didn't have to be wealthy. What changed? Or was that time an aberration?

1) Vastly more people enroll in college now, per capita. It used to be a powerful signal, since only the most intelligent and driven people would go. Now it is just the minimum you need.

2) Cost of college has skyrocketed, and public funding for colleges has plummetted.

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