Posted on 01/27/2024 5:53:46 AM PST by george76
The average college student has average intelligence, concludes a meta-analysis by Canadian researchers, writes Ross Pomeroy on Big Think. In 1939, when only 10 percent of Americans enrolled in college, the average IQ was 119. By 2022, it's down to 102, not significantly above the average of 100.
“The decline in students’ IQ is a necessary consequence of increasing educational attainment over the last 80 years,” the researchers wrote. “Today, graduating from university is more common than completing high school in the 1940s.”
The “Flynn effect” -- a steady rise in IQs from 1940 onward -- has been well established, writes Pomeroy. However, "there are signs it may have reversed in the first two decades of the 21st century."
The "college for all" movement and easy access to student loans persuaded most high school graduates to give college a try. However, only 58 percent of students complete a degree within six years, Pomeroy notes. Students with lower IQs are more likely to drop out. "One influential study showed that for white American undergraduates with an IQ only slightly above average, their chance of graduating is essentially 50-50."
The researchers called for professors to "adjust curricula and academic standards" so average students can succeed. However, they warned that “employers can no longer rely on applicants with university degrees to be more capable or smarter than those without degrees.”
Some degrees will retain their value, especially those from selective universities. But a Fuzzy Studies degree from Regional State U will be even less impressive to employers. (I believe a gender studies degree signals: "Don't hire this person.")
In 2017, Education Testing Service "experts" estimated that physics (133), math (130), philosophy (129) and materials science (129) majors have the highest IQs. (I assume they're extrapolating from SAT scores.) I was an English major (120). Education majors average 110.
"A degree has become increasingly meaningless as more people attain it," writes Pomeroy.
"Last year, for the first time, the Wall Street Journal-NORC poll showed that 56% of Americans think attending college is not worth the cost," a significant change in 10 years. "Skepticism is strongest" among people of college age.
Someone with courage needs to publish the average IQ of black college students.
As I read the article to me it seems to indicate that intelligence is inborn and does not involve outside stimulous.
An IQ test is supposed to gauge how well someone can use information and logic to answer questions or make predictions. So an IQ evaluation has to be based on two things, the ability of the testee to use the facts that have been taught and/or the display of the failure to teach them or even apply the proper teaching. So if the facts required to determine logical answers are not there, then the IQ would have no direction but down unless very lucky as it is multiple choice. But it doesn’t happen that way so who do you blame for the drop in average IQ on the tests? Do you blame the lack of intelligence, or the failure of the education system to provide the students with the tools to display a greater intelligence?
So which is worse, the inability of a lesser capable person to use the facts taught or the genious that was never taught those facts. And an even greater problem is that while they are not getting it done, people (students and young people entering the workforce) are paying the price for other peoples’ failures. And that isn’t intelligent. Remember, Einstein flunked high school math.
wy69
“It’s as if that was the point development stopped for them. “
Why are they most of your friends?
Ahh, the nature vs nurture debate. There used to be an educational institution that had an ad running constantly that said, “Everyone is born with equal abilities but not with equal opportunities.” To what degree do you buy into that statement?
Imho IQ is both genetic and environmental—probably 50-50 or something close to that.
Obviously the genetic component has not changed—so the lower IQ is the fault of the educational system, mass media, the cell phone hypnotism brainwashing etc.
“Remember, Einstein flunked high school math.”
TOTALLY FALSE! He was studying calculus even BEFORE HS.
“Why are they most of your friends?”
Long story around how I got with those guys. My coworkers were all engineering types. Basically, I became friends with the guy my wife reported to at her work. They kept me in the divorce. I don’t get out too much, and am oddly shy at meeting new people. Three of us formed a band and played rock & roll for years.
Yeah, that’s a myth about Eistein that simply won’t go away!
Every Monday night, we watched the Voice of Firestone, a program sponsored by the Firestone tire company that featured classical music with an emphasis on vocal performances. We also watched Hopalong Cassidy, a horse opera, and Time for Beany, a puppet show.
When college admissions de-emphasize IQ (roughly approximated by SAT and ACT scores and prior academic performance), to favor sports or arbitrary social/demographic factors, lower average IQ mong the students is a near certainty. Since college/university experience is not likely to increase IQ scores, lower group IQ averages over time are a matter of who applies and who is admitted to the institutions.
Student loans probably bring in a great many lower IQ students who previously would have lacked the means to attend college. Lowering admissions requirements benefits some individuals, but will drag down the quality of the schools overall. Odd that the huge post-WWII influx of GI Bill students didn’t seem to lower average IQ scores...
Nature versus nurture. Rather difficult to winnow out the impact of either, as there are no means to provide a reasonably accurate measure of the contribution of each to the whole. And that is why human beings end up being individually unique, even identical twins. Now, if there a way to produce, say, twenty or fifty identical clones, it may be possible the refine the impact of either nature or nurture.
Still subject to a lot of subjectivity and random error.
And what about the special instance of Asperger’s syndrome? Once thought to be a kind of mental retardation, the individuals subject to this condition have been found to have an IQ level off the charts, but have very limited social skills, and some kind of rigidity of thinking much like obsessive-compulsive disorder. Does it need to be “cured”? Perhaps not, but it takes some very special guidance, not available to many if not most of these individuals.
You can't fire those guys if they are needed to comply with state and federal rules. I retired from a state u. I've never seen a building torn down unless it was some crap shack to make room for a bigger building. The older historical campus buildings are rehabbed with people in them or gutted to the walls. Somebody that graduated 20 years ago wouldn't recognize the town and campus near the campus core..
“Some degrees will retain their value, especially those from selective universities.”
Nope. Selective degrees or any degrees from the Poison Ivy League lost their luster.
If you do not select for merit, you get lower results. Affirmative action programs always, always depress competence.
Don’t think too much about it.
It was a major life change for them and their first time somewhat on their own, so they feel like that part of their lives was significant.
Think of it like a group of retired military guys. I worked as a non-military experience civilian at a military base). I was not a part of their ‘fraternity’ and knew it. It was their growing up/coming out experiences.
Now I’m living in the South with retirees, many from NYC area. I’m from the rural Midwest. They never fail to reference some NYC restaurant or neighborhood that means nothing to me. Sometimes I just want to throw out, “I lived at the intersection of state highway XX and YY. Did you ever go to blah blah blah.” Just so they know how little their inside convos don’t interest me. But I don’t because they are enjoying themselves.
I worked with one in the IT field. Walking down the hallway I would say HI while passing him and just got a blank stare. When I knocked on his door to ask him a question he was like totally normal.
We didn’t watch TV together. My parents got the TV for the kids. The only show I remember from those days was Hotel De Paree.
College Students Can't Name One Country
Students at a college campus are shown a map of the world with the names of the countries omitted and then asked to locate a given country--or, for that matter, any country. They are unable to do so.
MIND BLOWING--Our Youth Know Nothing
Do you know what country the Queen of England is from? Canada.
In what country is the Great Wall of China? Japanese?
What country did we gain our independence from? Spain.
What is fifteen percent of 100? Seventy-five?
How many inches are in two feet? Five?
What country is the Panama Canal in? Europe. How many weeks in the year? 24
How many moons does the earth have? Thirty?
What is 33 divided by three? I don't know.
From the top, SC, all the way down to the counties.
It is interesting that you bring up Asperger’s syndrome. It runs in my family, and yes those who “suffer” from it tend to have high IQs but poor social skills. It is a “spectrum disorder” meaning that there basically are unlimited combinations of “symptoms” with varying severity.
One of my “work study jobs” long ago was assisting students with learning disabilities. This was a valuable experience for me because I learned that people often have completely different ways of thinking which sometimes makes it difficult to help them. Before that I had assumed that our minds all worked basically the same.
Often the true innovators look at the world in a completely different way.
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.