Posted on 08/27/2008 6:20:40 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
As parents pack their youngsters off to college, they might ask themselves whether it's worth both the money they will spend and their children's time. Dr. Marty Nemko has researched that question in an article aptly titled "America's Most Over-rated Product: Higher Education (www.martynemko.com/articles/americas-most-overrated-product-higher-education_id1539)."
The U.S. Department of Education statistics show that 76 out of 100 students who graduate in the bottom 40 percent of their high school class do not graduate from college, even if they spend eight and a half years in college. That's even with colleges having dumbed down classes to accommodate such students. Only 23 percent of the 1.3 million students who took the ACT college entrance examinations in 2007 were prepared to do college-level study in math, English and science. Even though a majority of students are grossly under-prepared to do college-level work, each year colleges admit hundreds of thousands of such students.
While colleges have strong financial motives to admit unsuccessful students, for failing students the experience can be devastating. They often leave with their families, or themselves, having piled up thousands of dollars in debt. There is possibly trauma and poor self-esteem for having failed, and perhaps embarrassment for their families. Dr. Nemko says that worst of all is that few of these former college students, having spent thousands of dollars, wind up in a job that required a college education. It's not uncommon to find them driving a taxi, working at a restaurant or department store, performing some other job that they could have had as a high school graduate or dropout.
What about students who are prepared for college? First, only 40 percent of each year's 2 million freshmen graduate in four years; 45 percent never graduate at all. Often, having a college degree does not mean much. According to a 2006 Pew Charitable Trusts study, 50 percent of college seniors failed a test that required them to interpret a table about exercise and blood pressure, understand the arguments of newspaper editorials, and compare credit card offers. About 20 percent of college seniors did not have the quantitative skills to estimate if their car had enough gas to get to the gas station. According a recent National Assessment of Adult Literacy, the percentage of college graduates proficient in prose literacy has declined from 40 percent to 31 percent within the past decade. Employers report that many college graduates lack the basic skills of critical thinking, writing and problem-solving.
Colleges are in business. Students are a cost. Research is a profit center. When colleges boast about having this professor who has won a science award or that professor who has won the Nobel Prize, very often an undergraduate student will never be taught by that professor. It is a "bait and switch" tactic and very often your youngster will take classes not taught by a professor but taught in large classes by a graduate student. Faculty who bring in large grants are more highly valued than faculty who teach well. Teaching excellence is so often undervalued that the late Ernest Boyer, vice president for Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, quipped that, "Winning the campus teaching award is the kiss of death when it comes to tenure."
Parents and taxpayers cough up billions upon billions of dollars to the nation's colleges and universities. Colleges make money whether students learn or not, whether they graduate or not, and whether they get a good job after graduating or not. Colleges and universities engage in "bait and switch," confer fraudulent degrees and engage in other practices that would bring legal sanctions if done by any other business. There is little or no oversight of the nation's over 4,000 colleges and universities that enroll over 17 million students. There are some colleges, such as Grove City College and Hillsdale College, that do a fine job of undergraduate education. Useful information about what colleges are doing what can be found in the Delaware-based Intercollegiate Studies Institute's "Choosing the Right College" (http://isi.org/college_guide/choosing_right_college.html).
Just as a wedding is not a marriage, a college diploma is not an education.
I love Dr. Walter Williams.
I think of him often.
I hope he is coping after the lose of his wonderful wife.
feminists and socialists in the 1970’s were opposed to practical, trade school classes and did their best to eliminate these programs when they could.
in contrast, germany has a separate trade school track for non-college high school graduates that is rigorous and results in graduates that industry desires.
this is one reason that germany still has a manufacturing and export economy.
Amen to that. Much of the knowledge acquired in the process of getting a degree will become stale and dated in a few short years after graduation. College gives you a framework and an initial set of working knowledge. It's a test of tenacity and ability to complete a task. Education is a continuing process. The knowledge needs to be refreshed and updated to keep it relevant.
Is college worth it? It depends on which school and the course of study.
Liberal arts, journalism, social work, and other “soft sceinces” are a waste of time and money
Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, and other “ hard sciences... absolutely worth the cost and effort.
Choice of school(s) For the pure sciences like Physics Chemistry and Math, Ivy League is an excellent choice. Mathematics and Chemistry at the State Schools are perfectly fine too. Engineering, is more complicated. Some State Schools are excellent, others no so much, but choose the school by reputation and success of its graduates.
As an Ivy League graduate, via a state school there is a marked difference in the caliber of the Ivy League hard scince students. My contmporaries in the state school were smart but had to work for their grades like I did. The Ivy League contemporaries were significantly smarter, and didn’t work nearly as hard as I had to just to keep up with them. They seemed to grasp the more abstract concepts more easily. They got A’s pretty easily, I had to study and work constantly to keep up with them.
Excellent! Or as one other FReeper told me, a college diploma these days is really nothing more than a receipt for tuition paid.
I always thought it exceedingly strange that someone needs state certification to teach kindergarten but any grad student fresh off the boat from Elbonia could teach college courses.
If Thomas Sowell recommends that book, it’s a winner! I love that man! He’s right up there with Dr. Williams, IMHO.
What the hell happened to VocTech schools? It would seem that they at least supplied and trained young people for the actual, immediate work force. Now we have a situation where every parent thinks (erroneously) that their kids need to do four years’ time in a diploma mill in order to “earn a living.” College is wonderful if you don’t have to go into major debt in order to participate. Government will always screw you . . . no matter how noble your endeavor.
I'll have to call Walter on this one. They might not be able to crunch the numbers, but they are bright enough to get to the gas station before the car runs out of gas..
Professor Williams is asking the wrong question. He should be asking, “Is High School worth it?”
Here’s a thread I started a couple of years ago.
High School Equivalency Exam
World Wide Web Links | 1/6/05 | Kevin O’Malley
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1315730/posts
Posted on 01/06/2005 7:58:45 PM PST by Kevin OMalley
Excellent statistic for the business office. Here's advice on saving time: don't pick schools on semester systems.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.