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To: stormer
Fifteen years ago, a fiend of mine was working on a double PhD in physics and chemistry at Northern Illinois University. He was working as a graduate assistant prof doing physics labs. [It should be understood that the hard sciences, medicine, engineering, IT, and math were the only areas of academia that had not not been corrupted by the PC cancer and group think that infects the majority of U.S. colleges and universities at the time.]

When I'd see him, the one thing that absolutely set him off was the quality of the students being sent to the school. On average the so-called “best” students had to do a semester to one and a half semesters of remedial work in their areas of study to be ready for the level of education they were doing. He swore on a stack of Bibles that each year's group of incoming students was actually dumber than the previous group.

The skills, abilities, and education level needed was not there among incoming students; instead they'd been indoctrinated to think they were the best of the best. They could not think and could not do the work expected of them. He said they were “affirmative action” students, in the sense they were accepted because of the money they paid the school, and not on ability.

He told me the graduates only worth their degrees came from these hard sciences, medicine, engineering, IT, and math because they actually knew something and could apply that knowledge. The liberal arts people didn't know squat and their degrees were useless.

That was 15 years ago. He went on to get his double PhD in both physics and chemistry. The quality of the students in colleges and universities has continued to decline since he graduated. Now, 85% of these newly minted grads cannot find jobs, have huge loans incurred for worthless degrees, and they are living in their parent's basement.

19 posted on 04/09/2013 4:49:25 PM PDT by MasterGunner01
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To: MasterGunner01
I have an advanced degree in a hard science and have spent the better part of the last 15 years in an academic setting as a researcher and as a consultant. The 20 years prior to that I worked as a manager/planner in an industrial environment. In my view the students entering college today are just as smart, prepared, and motivated as they were when I was an undergrad back in the 70s. What has changed is the skill set that is second nature to today's kids - computing has so radically changed the structure of society, education, and work that most of the stuff old timers like you and me struggled to learn simply doesn't have any applications. Why memorize something when you've got the sum of civilization's knowledge literally at your fingertips? You are far better off learning how to access information as you need it and learning some critical thinking skills to interpret what you've found.

Granted, because of my field the students I encounter are science types to begin with, so my experience is limited in that regard - but I know some pretty sharp young people and I'm comfortable thinking that someday they'll be in leadership and decision-making positions.

20 posted on 04/09/2013 5:54:20 PM PDT by stormer
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