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America's College Towns Go from Boom to Bust

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Re: America's College Towns Go from Boom to Bust

#31

Post by mmooss »

vineyardmike wrote: post #17
mmooss wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> why would you fork out a lot of money for a diploma that's worth little and won't even connect you with local job opportunities? To learn, to sharpen your mind, to grow and change yourself.

You can do that in many institutions, why would you pick an institution with little reputation in these depressed cities? The entire point is that reputable and well funded institutions with large campuses and thriving social and civic networks are doing fine. It’s small institutions that popped up to satisfy a once growing are being drained as demand falls. Education is great, expanding your mind is great, but there…

> The entire point is that reputable and well funded institutions with large campuses and thriving social and civic networks are doing fine.

Can everyone get into those schools?

Re: America's College Towns Go from Boom to Bust

#32

Post by mmooss »

sapphicsnail wrote: post #18
CuriouslyC wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally doable online from a beautiful beach in a much more affordable area. ChatGPT is better than a lot of professors I had and I went to a top tier university for my area of study, professors mostly were just there to do research and either weren't good teachers or didn't care to be.

I remember when Reddit blew up I started meeting people that had really specific bits of information, stuff that I would normally only see from someone with some sort of domain expertise, but were oblivious to the context in which that knowledge was produced and couldn't really do anything other than regurgitate the info. Really curious to see the sort of brain rot LLMs will bring.

Agreed, and I've also met many people who have spoken with great confidence and ignorance.

Re: America's College Towns Go from Boom to Bust

#33

Post by [deleted] »

999900000999 wrote: post #29
somenameforme wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people are, in general, in denial of what reduced fertility will bring. Consequences lag effect by decades so it's not exactly a secret what the future will hold. For instance most don't realize that Japan is still in the 'good ole days', relative to what awaits them in the future, even as places like Tokyo start to shrink today. I also think people don't realize how fast things start happening once they do…

South Korea probably already has immigration reform ready to go. They’ll just do everything else before letting people meaningfully immigrate. A “Korean” in 2100 might have Filipino, Indian, African ancestry. In fact the way things are going Africa will probably end up as the nursery of the world for a few decades. Then birth rates will collapse there too. The robots should be ready then

[deleted]

Re: America's College Towns Go from Boom to Bust

#34

Post by vineyardmike »

mmooss wrote: post #31
vineyardmike wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can do that in many institutions, why would you pick an institution with little reputation in these depressed cities? The entire point is that reputable and well funded institutions with large campuses and thriving social and civic networks are doing fine. It’s small institutions that popped up to satisfy a once growing are being drained as demand falls. Education is great, expanding your mind is great, but there…

> The entire point is that reputable and well funded institutions with large campuses and thriving social and civic networks are doing fine. Can everyone get into those schools?

> Can everyone get into those schools?

Obviously not everyone can get into every school. But overall enrollment volume across every institution is down, which means being a top X% student will get you into progressively better schools unless they cut overall class sizes. Obviously it’s the institutions at the bottom of the list which lose students first, which is the “problem” highlighted by this article.

Re: America's College Towns Go from Boom to Bust

#35

Post by Yeul »

When the Dutch government cut funding for universities they found a new cash cow: foreigners! But for Chinese students the Netherlands is exotic nobody wants to go to Missouri I guess.

(Ironically the government is now complaining that there are too many foreigners and that everyone is speaking English).

Re: America's College Towns Go from Boom to Bust

#36

Post by burnt-resistor »

Yeul wrote: post #35

When the Dutch government cut funding for universities they found a new cash cow: foreigners! But for Chinese students the Netherlands is exotic nobody wants to go to Missouri I guess. (Ironically the government is now complaining that there are too many foreigners and that everyone is speaking English).

Xenophobia is an automatic signal of ignorance/stupidity/insecurity.

I worked with a Chinese-American naturalized citizen who moved from PGP/Symantec to work at Stanford just long enough to get his kid the tuition discount (10 years still?). That's real love, dedication, and sacrifice for one's kids.

Re: America's College Towns Go from Boom to Bust

#37

Post by whatever1 »

mmooss wrote: post #11
decimalenough wrote: post #8

The title is misleading. As the article itself notes, "Large flagship universities—blessed with strong academic reputations and high-profile sports programs—continue to boost local economies". It's the second and third-tier institutions located in economically depressed areas, like the one profiled here (Western Illinois University’s Macomb campus), that are suffering. After all, why would you fork out a lot of money…

> why would you fork out a lot of money for a diploma that's worth little and won't even connect you with local job opportunities? To learn, to sharpen your mind, to grow and change yourself.

I think after industrialization we started realizing how advanced knowledge of complex topics can multiply our impact and wealth. No wonder all nations strived to educate their people and their people aspired to go to colleges and get higher specialized degrees.

The reality is that the economy cannot occupy all these specialists and still requires a ton of fungible generalists. In fact we made so many specialists that themselves became fungible. Look at the tech layoffs, they casually throw under the bus industry legends, simply because everyone has become nearly replaceable.

And even from a societal perspective you would think that with more knowledge we would become more tolerant, more rational etc etc. Well how did that work out?

Re: America's College Towns Go from Boom to Bust

#38

Post by lifestyleguru »

Yeul wrote: post #35

When the Dutch government cut funding for universities they found a new cash cow: foreigners! But for Chinese students the Netherlands is exotic nobody wants to go to Missouri I guess. (Ironically the government is now complaining that there are too many foreigners and that everyone is speaking English).

At least these students physically are in Netherlands? Over here there are many "private universities/academias" with students from outside of EU but they are permanently on "scholarship in Africa" or "yoga classes in India". It's basically a foot in the door for the EU stay permit.

Re: America's College Towns Go from Boom to Bust

#39

Post by chneu »

trilbyglens wrote: post #25
lilwobbly wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Body damage math isn’t even close. BLS puts non-fatal injuries in construction at 2.3 cases per 100 FTEs. For computer systems design it’s 0.1 – that’s a 23× gap.whole job takes a toll over time. The median age of 42 just means a lot of sore 40-somethings can’t afford to quit yet. Age alone doesn’t tell you how their knees and backs feel after 20 years of rebar. Not sure how many people you know in the industry but m…

Sitting in a chair is also pretty terrible for your health. :)

The difference is one can then workout or take breaks, stand, or a variety of things to offset the sitting/sedentary time.

The trades can really destroy your body and there isn't really a way around this besides changing the working conditions.

Re: America's College Towns Go from Boom to Bust

#40

Post by alex43578 »

keiferski wrote: post #9

Now really seems like an opportune moment for one of these third-tier colleges to rebrand itself as a trade school but aimed at students that would have otherwise gone to college (and not the traditional trade school audience.) I bet there is a ton of demand for a trades-based education but in a college experience wrapper.

I disagree. The changes a school would need to make to the school, the curriculum, and the faculty to switch from teaching accounting or gender studies to welding or HVAC would mean you'd be pasting an expensive University of Misc State logo and mascot onto a whole new enterprise, implicitly putting a premium on an educational path that's really all about ROI.
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