College and the Cost of Reputation

katiuska · 04-27-2010, 04:39 AM

That Old College Lie.

The basic idea of the article is that American colleges and universities are increasingly unaffordable because the quality of education you get at an institution is unknown, and colleges are encouraged to take and spend as much money as they can on specious reputation-building. The solution, then, is public knowledge about how well students are learning at each school, because schools would be forced to focus more on tangible output. I'm not sure if I agree that it would fix everything, but the argument makes intuitive sense to the extent that something genuinely seems to be wrong here. It's no secret that college textbooks are a huge racket, and I've suspected this might apply just as well to the college themselves, because you've got a population of people who have no choice but to pay whatever you charge them if they want to progress their careers. I was lucky enough to have the benefit of scholarships and middle class parents, but a lot of people don't, and it still makes me question whether post-secondary education is worth what it costs, given the disturbingly large number of people who drop out or end up in jobs that have jack all to do with their degree.

04-27-2010, 04:39 AM	#1
katiuska Unlicensed Practitioner Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 801	College and the Cost of Reputation That Old College Lie. The basic idea of the article is that American colleges and universities are increasingly unaffordable because the quality of education you get at an institution is unknown, and colleges are encouraged to take and spend as much money as they can on specious reputation-building. The solution, then, is public knowledge about how well students are learning at each school, because schools would be forced to focus more on tangible output. I'm not sure if I agree that it would fix everything, but the argument makes intuitive sense to the extent that something genuinely seems to be wrong here. It's no secret that college textbooks are a huge racket, and I've suspected this might apply just as well to the college themselves, because you've got a population of people who have no choice but to pay whatever you charge them if they want to progress their careers. I was lucky enough to have the benefit of scholarships and middle class parents, but a lot of people don't, and it still makes me question whether post-secondary education is worth what it costs, given the disturbingly large number of people who drop out or end up in jobs that have jack all to do with their degree. __________________ If I try too hard my brain explodes, so don't expect me to be witty on purpose.