College and the Cost of Reputation

[katiuska]

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.

[Toast]

definitely agree that college costs are out of control. Especially since there are no guarantees that you'll get a job in your field, or a job at all the way things are going.

this article here talks about not getting jobs after graduation and the trends that are happening.

[Osterbaum]

Free education. Yup, it's pretty great.

[katiuska]

Silly socialists. Don't you know it's a basic human right to be screwed over by every institution whose goals have nothing to do with common good?

Capitalism!

[Hanuman]

Mmm, Studies show that col. is a waste of money on average which doesn't include what you learn there or how it changes you as a person, it just a calculation of the earning potential increases on average of all classes.

Personally, I'm in favor of higher education and am trying to get into the Justice Institute (civil servant training) for fire rescue, the course outline can't really be learned any other way... it's not as much reputation as much as it is education so I think there's something to be said, huh.

[Magic_Marker]

What we need is reparation of our trade school system combined with properly funded Community College that transfers credits over the the public universities in State.

After, or during that, we can perform tests to see which colleges are any good. From there we go after the textbook industry and just shoot the publishers in the head, because, eh, why not?

[Seil]

I'm going to bring this up again. And this.

Since I'm upgrading, and my textbooks transfer from one semester to the other or are incredibly cheap compared to everything else, ($20) I really can't complain until November. I'm hoping to get into the PN course, and it'll take $7500 to get there.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

All I have to say is who the shit buys textbooks? For the one time they are needed you can just get them out of the library.
You save yourself a lot of money by not getting them.

But on the original article I totally agree. But universities as a whole are becoming more and more business and profit orientated and about short term goals. At my university we have more admin staff than teaching/research staff which is absolutely absurd.

[Nique]

So does College for most people, if they work outside of whatever field they went to school for, become just this weird social game that we all pretend is relevant to our lives? You went to college for 4 years so it looks better on your resume than doing something that might be more enriching/ beneficial to your actual field of work?

[Professor Smarmiarty]

It's pretty important assuming your life is not simply where you work.