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What happens to college towns after peak 18-year-old?

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Re: What happens to college towns after peak 18-year-old?

#41

Post by Imnimo »

hakfoo wrote: post #33
Imnimo wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my book a great school would likely have a low-ish acceptance rate. And so they could (even though they may not be happy about it) absorb some amount of declining applications by adjusting their acceptance bar. WKU's acceptance rate is like 95%. They're already taking ~everyone who applies. I question whether school quality truly plays no role at an institution which struggles to find a student they wouldn't admit…

A high acceptance rate isn't a problem. It represents distinct operational choices. We've decided that a four-year degree is today's high-school diploma, so that means that you need to produce a lot of them. But you don't need a top tier research university to produce a stream of reasonably competent first-year teachers, engineers, feeders into medical and law programs, etc. That can still be an excellent school. It…

If the mark of a great school were producing a lot of degrees, what would WKU's ~50% graduation rate mean?

Re: What happens to college towns after peak 18-year-old?

#42

Post by tayo42 »

beachtaxidriver wrote: post #34
cheschire wrote: post #27

So... off to the trades then?

Maybe. But last I checked the trades pay horrible and destroy your body by 40. Every story of the trades pay well is just "be a trades business owner" well okay, but basically every alternative "be a X business owner" pays better.

Plumbers charge like 200/hr if you get to the point where you work for yourself that seems pretty good?

Re: What happens to college towns after peak 18-year-old?

#43

Post by fzeroracer »

cheschire wrote: post #27

So... off to the trades then?

There's a lot of trades that won't hire someone without a basic degree. This is because the hollowing of our educational systems isn't just at a college level, people graduating out of highschool are increasingly illiterate and trade jobs require a basic degree of literacy to function.

We're really badly setup for the future from multiple aspects.

Re: What happens to college towns after peak 18-year-old?

#44

Post by dhosek »

wrp wrote: post #3
toomuchtodo wrote: post #2

> But here’s the most telling data point from the school’s National Student Clearinghouse data: Over 60% of WKU-admitted applicants who don’t attend WKY don’t enroll anywhere. Not at a competitor, not at a community college — nowhere. Colleges are still competing with one another, but increasingly, they’re competing with the labor market itself. Labor shortages are leading to college credentials not being needed. Thi…

They won't close. They will just rely more heavily on foreign students. The primary focus of academia is to remain employed, not to serve the needs of the domestic student population.

The current administration is directly and indirectly eliminating the foreign student pipeline. Even if we somehow get out of this morass in the next few years, which is far from guaranteed, the long-term damage will take decades to repair if ever.

The foreign student population, incidentally, had been a big subsidizer of the domestic student population. They pay full tuition and get no domestic financial aid. But that flow is getting shut off, and between the domestic cliff and this self-inflicted international cliff, they will close. A lot of smaller liberal arts colleges have shut down in the last decades and we’re busily working to send the destruction up the food chain.

Re: What happens to college towns after peak 18-year-old?

#45

Post by burnt-resistor »

tayo42 wrote: post #42
beachtaxidriver wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe. But last I checked the trades pay horrible and destroy your body by 40. Every story of the trades pay well is just "be a trades business owner" well okay, but basically every alternative "be a X business owner" pays better.

Plumbers charge like 200/hr if you get to the point where you work for yourself that seems pretty good?

Until you slip a disc around C6, or your back or knees give out.

While "dirty hands == clean money", the problem is that it often ends in sacrifice in health and/or body that leads to involuntary early retirement.

My dad had an A/C and electrical automotive specialty shop until 1985 when that took him out in his mid 30's. He also had Agent Orange exposure in the military and exposure to various carcinogens with a culture of PPE avoidance in the automotive industry of the 70's and 80's.

Re: What happens to college towns after peak 18-year-old?

#46

Post by highpost »

Imnimo wrote: post #6

[flagged]

I think we're dealing with garden variety snobbery here. A great school, like a great teacher, is a school that makes a difference in people's lives. If it takes people who could have worked in a factory and gives them a leg up to a better living, then we should celebrate that kind of school. The point of the article is that circumstances have changed in a way that undermines the ability of school like WKU to deliver this kind of possibility.

Re: What happens to college towns after peak 18-year-old?

#47

Post by measurablefunc »

highpost wrote: post #46
Imnimo wrote: post #6

[flagged]

I think we're dealing with garden variety snobbery here. A great school, like a great teacher, is a school that makes a difference in people's lives. If it takes people who could have worked in a factory and gives them a leg up to a better living, then we should celebrate that kind of school. The point of the article is that circumstances have changed in a way that undermines the ability of school like WKU to deliver…

I agree & the same is true for local colleges but most people are more concerned w/ the perception of prestige that their degree will grant them than the quality of the books in the university/college library that can expand their intellectual horizon.

Re: What happens to college towns after peak 18-year-old?

#48

Post by measurablefunc »

Imnimo wrote: post #40
onionisafruit wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people, when encountering a queue, will take the position at the end of the queue. They trust there wouldn’t be a queue if the reward weren’t worth the wait. Why is rejecting prospective students something you expect a great school to do?

I would expect a great school to be appealing to potential students, and therefore attract a lot of them. I would also expect a great school to have high academic standards that not all applicants meet.

It's a good thing you told us all that otherwise we wouldn't know which schools were "good" & which ones were "bad".

Re: What happens to college towns after peak 18-year-old?

#49

Post by pirates »

rckt wrote: post #26

Seems like all the developed countries face the same issue - people there feel insecure and are scared to make important decisions, like they choose to have a dog instead of a family/child. What puzzles me is why all these countries actively do nothing about it.

Deciding whether or not to have children IS the important decision, it’s not a given that everybody wants children. We’re not “afraid”, fucking lol

Re: What happens to college towns after peak 18-year-old?

#50

Post by Imnimo »

highpost wrote: post #46
Imnimo wrote: post #6

[flagged]

I think we're dealing with garden variety snobbery here. A great school, like a great teacher, is a school that makes a difference in people's lives. If it takes people who could have worked in a factory and gives them a leg up to a better living, then we should celebrate that kind of school. The point of the article is that circumstances have changed in a way that undermines the ability of school like WKU to deliver…

Suppose that a school takes those people and fails to get half of them to graduation? Have they been given a leg up? Is that a "great" outcome?
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