Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

College is ripping you off
Solon ^ | Oct 1st, 2014 | Thomas Frank

Posted on 10/01/2014 10:42:29 PM PDT by poinq

When we reach the end of high school, we approach the next life, the university life, in the manner of children writing letters to Santa. Oh, we promise to be so very good. We open our hearts to the beloved institution. We get good grades. We do our best on standardized tests. We earnestly list our first, second, third choices. We tell them what we want to be when we grow up. We confide our wishes. We stare at the stock photos of smiling students, we visit the campus, and we find, always, that it is so very beautiful.

And when that fat acceptance letter comes—oh, it is the greatest moment of personal vindication most of us have experienced. Our hard work has paid off. We have been chosen.

Then several years pass, and one day we wake up to discover there is no Santa Claus. Somehow, we have been had. We are a hundred thousand dollars in debt, and there is no clear way to escape it. We have no prospects to speak of. And if those damned dreams of ours happened to have taken a particularly fantastic turn and urged us to get a PhD, then the learning really begins.

(Excerpt) Read more at salon.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Testing
KEYWORDS: college; education; universities
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-50 last
To: DH

“Today, college is nothing more than getting your ticket to join the “college club.””

BINGO!!!


41 posted on 10/02/2014 8:54:43 PM PDT by poinq
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Amagi

“Notice that as the quality of education plummets the cost of education “necessarily skyrockets”. “

Notice that they want to fix the problem by throwing more money at it. Money is always the solution. But never solves the problem.


42 posted on 10/02/2014 8:57:55 PM PDT by poinq
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Ted Grant

“We don’t need no fancy book kearnin’!”

Not at $250 per book. Why do we need a new edition to an Algebra book. Is there a new Algebra since last year?


43 posted on 10/02/2014 9:00:17 PM PDT by poinq
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: BobL

“I sent my kids to state schools, and they commuted. Others, especially those in the Northeast that don’t have such easy options, can spend their retirement on their kids’ partying.”

How did they turn out?


44 posted on 10/02/2014 9:01:31 PM PDT by poinq
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: poinq

Didn’t learn much from it, evidently.


45 posted on 10/02/2014 9:06:32 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows ("Country Songs Don't Have Happy Endings" - http://youtu.be/W93nc95j1KY)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: poinq

Best and brightest?

Maybe the best cheaters and @$$ kissers.


46 posted on 10/02/2014 9:21:54 PM PDT by P-Marlowe (Saying that ISIL is not Islamic is like saying Obama is not an Idiot.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: poinq
international students are also exempt from fees
There are over 380 officially recognized universities throughout Germany, and they offer a total of over 15,000 study programs.

Universities in Germany

47 posted on 10/03/2014 12:42:29 AM PDT by Berlin_Freeper ('We've Got To Kill Them Like Cockroaches')
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: poinq

Doing great, thanks. All with useful degrees (technical/scientific), now working. They appreciated staying home and knew that they had to follow the (reasonable) rules in the house, both because they still lived there, and because they were getting a free ride through college. It wasn’t a bad deal for them, just a continuation of prior schooling, basically.

They’re still young, so maybe some people will look down a bit on them, eventually, but where I work (a larger company), we don’t seem to care where people get the degrees, just that they got the right ones (and the schools, of course, are accredited). Beyond that, it’s up to the individual to perform and if they do, they will climb.


48 posted on 10/03/2014 4:14:57 AM PDT by BobL (Don't forget - Today's Russians learn math WITHOUT calculators.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: poinq

Indeed!


49 posted on 10/03/2014 9:05:56 AM PDT by Ted Grant
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: Berlin_Freeper

I agree that Germany has a lot of colleges and that they are free. But I do not understand how we know if they are any good.


50 posted on 10/03/2014 3:58:40 PM PDT by poinq
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-50 last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson