Businesses that suck in a shrinking market, are going to close. Education is a business in the USA, not a public good.
I knew people who went to these schools… they were often indebted for poor quality educations in basic liberal arts fields and spent their 20s doing service jobs because nobody wants to hire someone from a fourth rate no name college who reads/writes at a 10th grade level. A lot of my peers who went to these schools got scammed, and frankly had no business going to college in the first place.
Good riddance. Students and governments are better off expanding their flagship and 1st tier institutions and making those more accessible by expanding their seats and their aid packages. Kids who get C averages in high school shouldn’t be going to college anyway. They should be going to trades or other labor training.
I agree with nearly all of your sentiment here, other than “people with C’s shouldn’t go to college”.
I like Scott Galloway’s take: colleges and universities are the opportunity to take the unremarkable and give them a chance at being remarkable.
Of course there needs to be a cut off here, but I’d say curriculum is a better indicator than average letter grade. Often, I’d rather work with someone who has really struggled to earn mediocre grades, but knuckled down and made it through because they wanted it that badly. Because that’s most of life after school. Most of my friends that struggled after school were the ones that never had to try when we were in school. Then they graduated and life hit them in the face for the first time.
My undergrad degree is in Computer Science and I really struggled because I didn’t have a quality maths foundation. That said, I worked my ass off and graduated with a 3.8 in my major, and now am the Sr. Solutions Architect at my city’s largest employer, soon to clinch a director position. College enabled me to do that and fostered a life long curiosity of all things.
My partner is another good example. She barely earned C’s in high school, worked at a grocery store, and decided she wanted something better. She went to community college when she was ready, and now owns two extremely successful businesses. She would have not done well in trades.
Having access to higher education at the “right” time for people is critical. And as you said, also having options for those who aren’t motivated to continue in higher education but still want to make a fair wage, like trade school.
Yeah, because they suck.
Businesses that suck in a shrinking market, are going to close. Education is a business in the USA, not a public good.
I knew people who went to these schools… they were often indebted for poor quality educations in basic liberal arts fields and spent their 20s doing service jobs because nobody wants to hire someone from a fourth rate no name college who reads/writes at a 10th grade level. A lot of my peers who went to these schools got scammed, and frankly had no business going to college in the first place.
Good riddance. Students and governments are better off expanding their flagship and 1st tier institutions and making those more accessible by expanding their seats and their aid packages. Kids who get C averages in high school shouldn’t be going to college anyway. They should be going to trades or other labor training.
I agree with nearly all of your sentiment here, other than “people with C’s shouldn’t go to college”.
I like Scott Galloway’s take: colleges and universities are the opportunity to take the unremarkable and give them a chance at being remarkable.
Of course there needs to be a cut off here, but I’d say curriculum is a better indicator than average letter grade. Often, I’d rather work with someone who has really struggled to earn mediocre grades, but knuckled down and made it through because they wanted it that badly. Because that’s most of life after school. Most of my friends that struggled after school were the ones that never had to try when we were in school. Then they graduated and life hit them in the face for the first time.
My undergrad degree is in Computer Science and I really struggled because I didn’t have a quality maths foundation. That said, I worked my ass off and graduated with a 3.8 in my major, and now am the Sr. Solutions Architect at my city’s largest employer, soon to clinch a director position. College enabled me to do that and fostered a life long curiosity of all things.
My partner is another good example. She barely earned C’s in high school, worked at a grocery store, and decided she wanted something better. She went to community college when she was ready, and now owns two extremely successful businesses. She would have not done well in trades.
Having access to higher education at the “right” time for people is critical. And as you said, also having options for those who aren’t motivated to continue in higher education but still want to make a fair wage, like trade school.