Interest surges in top colleges, while struggling ones scrape for applicants

Post by conistonwater » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 7:53 PM UTC

dbspin wrote: post #146

cldellow wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it's worth, the things you call out don't seem to be the case in the Canadian public university that I attended, the University of Waterloo. > why are all degrees four years? UW offers three-year degrees. A four-year degree typically gets you an Honours Bachelor degree, whereas a three-year degree is a General Bachelor. On a resume it'd still be written as "B.A.", and the reviewer would have to know to inqui…

Wow. As a European I had no idea that Canadian education was so expensive. Was under the mistaken impression that it was largely free, like health care. Obviously much cheaper than the US - which is life destroyingly expensive. But the figures you cite are still pricey enough to exclude enormous numbers of people from higher education.

Post by ClumsyPilot » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 7:58 PM UTC

minitoar wrote: post #66

Jtsummers wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And, worse, many office jobs that were satisfied with high school diplomas or 2-year degrees in 1980 were requiring a bachelors by 2000. Even when the degree was irrelevant. Seriously, data entry does not require a history degree. At one place I worked nearly every one in the data entry positions had a history degree, and all had 4-year degrees of some kind. (NB: Talking about in the US)

Requiring a 4 year degree for a job even if the major isn’t relevant doesn’t seem wrong to me. Maybe data entry is taking it too far? Maybe the data was really sensitive and complicated.

Post by ClumsyPilot » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 7:59 PM UTC

minitoar wrote: post #101

Jtsummers wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It causes inflation of job requirements, delays entry into careers, produces vast amounts of unnecessary debt and spending, promotes substandard graduate programs so people can be differentiated from the other history majors, and all because a high school diploma is considered worthless by most companies for their non-technical entry level positions.

Maybe the value of differentiating potential employees is worth it overall.

Post by neonological » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 8:00 PM UTC

gonehome wrote: post #17

awillen wrote: post #7

I think this is generally a good thing. I believe there are really two positive things that can come out of going to college - either you get a name-brand degree that opens doors and gets your resume looked at, or you get useful skills that enable you to go down a particular career path (e.g. CS degree). Obviously in some cases it'll be both. The reality is it's really tough to make any case that a humanities degree…

There is so much broken with modern universities and incentives around pricing - why are all degrees four years? Why does a classics degree cost the same as a CS degree when the market value of a classics degree is basically zero? I wrote a little about it in the context of Lambda School, but it mostly applies: https://zalberico.com/essay/2019/04/08/lambda-school.html “The current university system in the US is a mes…

Post by brighton36 » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 8:04 PM UTC

smm2000 wrote: post #117

brighton36 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That probably has more to do with 'greatness' as a product of the publishing system. (Meaning: it's great because it's published in a prestigious medium, not because the content is inherently superior) The next plato will likely be completely uncelebrated in these mediums, and will publish on an uncelebrated website or publisher.

To be fair, first Plato was born in aristocratic family and got best education possible at the time with private tutors. He definitely did not go to equivalent of 3rd tier university.