Posted on 11/25/2005 6:02:35 AM PST by billorites
The main benefit is that a prospective employer has some indication that the job applicant can actually finish a project, or at least did so once.
High schools should go away for the same reasons.
They already are that.
This is because HR and corporations are dinosaurs too.
Look at how resistant the average corporation is to telecommuting, which is perfectly doable for a large number of jobs today and which would have tremendous savings for the corporation.
This will change. The force of technology will make it so eventually.
The company needs individuals who will have stick-to-itiveness in the face of adversities toward problem solving. We view an academic degree (accomplished within a reasonable length of time) as a measure of such stick-to-itiveness, as well as evidence of exposure to the salient parts of many problems we face.
If there were some measure shown to be more highly correlated to success than an academic degree in fields of interest to us, we would gladly use it.
It is often difficult in our areas of interest for applicants to convey succinctly comparable success, though I'm sure Bill Gates could do it even though he dropped out of college.
Sheepskin is reasonably tangible currency in areas such as ours. If a virtual university could construct some form of certification, such as a P.E. or G.R.E. score, it seems we could be well on the way to breaking the back of liberal indoctrination on college campi.
I've come to understand how inefficient dollars spent in government are. I used to think they were predictably some of the least economically efficient dollars spent anyhwere. But no, I think perhaps university education is perhaps worse. Not only do students typically pay exorbitant amounts for it, but benevolent grads and friends of such universities have typically over decades, given tens of millions, if not more, in fellowships, professorial chairs and so forth.
Cleaning up such indoctrination, economic inefficiencies and productivity slippage by getting rid of these rat's nest influences will redound to the good more than reducing big government in drips and drabs.
This activity needs to be a very high priority, especially the finding of traction with alternate avenues for solid certifications.
HF
Except many, many kids don't transition at all!
They continue to drive home once a month with piles of laundry for mom to do, etc.
Then when they graduate college, they move back in to their old room in their parents' home and continue their--ahem---transition to adulthood.
There are better ways to transition to adulthood then spending $40K+ a year to have your kid wake up in his dorm room to find his roommate having sex in plain view.
As Oscar Wilde said, "Anything worth learning can't be taught."
This is why distance and alternative learning should be even more valued! The legitimate programs are quite rigorous. An employer should say, wow, this kid had the discipline to do college online and work!
Yeah... well every Bell Curve has its losers, I suppose....
but it would be incorrect to assume that these underachievers represent the norm.
http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html
All the money spent on getting the degree could be better invested into starting ones own company. The $20-$40K/yr would go a long way to funding a startup company with the right idea.
We can only hope.
But look around. There sure are a lot of 'em.
Look at Fox News. Once a viable alternative was presented to CNN, CNN practically vanished. Why? Because most people who would watch a 24 hour Cable News network tend to be conservative.
I would be interested in your thoughts (Your book was great by the way).
It has full on-line programs.
ping
George Gilder has argued that college degrees are a form of "credentialism" that insulate and protect corporations from discrimination claims---that they essentially discriminate against older (hard-working) men in favor of women and those minorities who get a degree. Also, he maintains, degrees "raise the bar" as to having to do do careful review of work histories (something that is often not permitted by modern workplace rules); and moreover that employers are afraid to give bad reviews to people they "let go" out of concerns for lawsuits. So it becomes more difficult to get "real world intelligence" on personnel.
There are several "conservative" universities: Hillsdale, Garden City College, a couple of others. The problems are often of perception: parents and students want to be viewed as "valuable" to a college, and one symbol of that "value" is "how much will they give me to come here?" So any university that doesn't use federal money is going to be at a big disadvantage; and any university that is honest and says, "We are only going to give SOME support to those who financially absolutely need it" is not going to have any "incentives" to attract students, even if their costs are half what other universities are.
It's a con game of "offering" student aid with one hand, which makes the students feel desired, and then jacking up the prices so that the student aid is really meaningless on the other.
To my knowledge, NO major university has, across the board, drastically cut student aid and simultaneously cut tuitions. A few years ago, Rochester U. dramatically cut in-state tuitions. But this harms your recruiting because you have no "goodies" to promise. I don't think there is an answer, unless perhaps you begin by ending all federal support for university students. Try getting that one to fly!
I went to a Catholic school for 12 years, then into the Marines and off to Vietnam. When I got out I went to college, but dropped out after two years. I just felt that I was wasting my time. Most of what I was being taught I had already learned. 30 years later, I am doing just fine and consider myself a success. My son went into the Marines directly after high school. When he got out, he skipped college, and went to work for a large corporation as a truck driver. 13 years later he's making $150,000 a year as a regional manager. He's also a prolific reader, and is, in my opinion, a very well educated and successful young man.
Yes it is possible but that is not largely true.
Look at the resumes of most Fortune 500 heads or Forbes 400 folks or accomplished writers or scientists or researchers
Far and away most got degrees...many post graduate and more often than not from a decent school.
what you are calling "largely" are in fact a notable minority.
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