In the Basement of the Ivory Tower (Mine: Why College Isn't For Everyone)

Atlantic Monthly ^ | June 2008 | Professor X

[Zack Nguyen]

...I work at colleges of last resort. For many of my students, college was not a goal they spent years preparing for, but a place they landed in. Those I teach don’t come up in the debates about adolescent overachievers and cutthroat college admissions. Mine are the students whose applications show indifferent grades and have blank spaces where the extracurricular activities would go. They chose their college based not on the U.S. News & World Report rankings but on MapQuest; in their ideal academic geometry, college is located at a convenient spot between work and home. I can relate, for it was exactly this line of thinking that dictated where I sent my teaching résumé.

...A few weeks into the semester, the students must start actually writing papers, and I must start grading them. Despite my enthusiasm, despite their thoughtful nods of agreement and what I have interpreted as moments of clarity, it turns out that in many cases it has all come to naught.

Remarkably few of my students can do well in these classes. Students routinely fail; some fail multiple times, and some will never pass, because they cannot write a coherent sentence.

In each of my courses, we discuss thesis statements and topic sentences, the need for precision in vocabulary, why economy of language is desirable, what constitutes a compelling subject. I explain, I give examples, I cheerlead, I cajole, but each evening, when the class is over and I come down from my teaching high, I inevitably lose faith in the task, as I’m sure my students do. I envision the lot of us driving home, solitary scholars in our cars, growing sadder by the mile.

[Zack Nguyen]

I think one of the failures of the modern corporate world is the demand that job applicants possess college degrees. In many cases the performance of these jobs do not require a college degree, yet I suppose employers look on them as "evidence" of a student's intelligence and motivation. Thus everyone believes they must have a college degree, even those that shouldn't, and gradually a degree is cheapened and standards lowered.

[Zack Nguyen]

I recall that George W. Bush and John Kerry both graudated from Yale with C averages. Today in graduate school a C is roughly the academic equivalent of being slapped in public. It is rarely done and quite serious when it happens. It is not that students are any better today (indeed the opposite is likely true), rather grades have been inflated.

[LetsRok]

I picked my college based on how close it was to home and price. A degree from one is the same as any other. Employers do not care where you graduated as long as you did and interview well.

[meyer]

Students routinely fail; some fail multiple times, and some will never pass, because they cannot write a coherent sentence.

Such students should never have been given a high school diploma.

[whitedog57]

There are many fine universities where this doesn’t happen. I taught at University of Chicago for 8 years and this is not the case.

Go to second-tier state schools (e.g., CSU Fullerton, Univ of Toledo, Colorado State, etc) and the students generally are terrible (not all, but in general). Most of the faculty at these schools are substandard.

Yale, Stanford and some other schools are known to let students at the bottom skate through. At someone said at Stanford (my alma matter), “You have to die to flunk out of Stanford. And that’s if they discover your body.” Meaning that you can miss all your classes and exams and STILL get a “C.”

Think of it this way. Colleges are for The Elite and The Mob. The precious middle class gets into Elite schools by scholarship (and then socially ignored) or go to the Mob schools.

[Past Your Eyes]

I work with a man with a Master’s Degree in business. I give him great credit for putting his shoulder to the wheel and making that degree happen. He works hard. He got where he is through sheer determination because he was one of those people like the students you write of.
But he just doesn’t “get it”. I’ve never worked with anybody who “got it” less than he does. We have the same job covering different territories of our company’s operations. He is about to be terminated but has no idea it is coming. I hope he finds something else soon. He is ill-suited for what he’s doing now. I feel bad for him.

[slowhandluke]

I picked my college based on how close it was to home and price. A degree from one is the same as any other. Employers do not care where you graduated as long as you did and interview well.

There are employers of last resort, as well as colleges of last resort. A PhD from Podunk U isn't going to get you a job at Google. Google does rank some schools as more reliable developers of talent than others.

Of course, if you got a degree in Lit Crit, maybe things are different.

[donna]

...her research paper. She was a woman in her 40s...

I don't see the benefit to such a person of taking this class or writing a research paper.

She probably didn't either and that's why she failed. Boredom!

[Borges]

They used to say that about high school diplomas.

[Mrs. Don-o]

for later

[Borges]

“Of course, if you got a degree in Lit Crit, maybe things are different.”

Whaddya mean by that?

[philomath]

The author has the unenviable position of being the devolved-to rub-out guy, insightful to why his students fail, and compassionate to their situations.

Nice article.

Thanks for sharing.

[Congressman Billybob]

I went to law school four years at night. I paid my debt to the professors who taught me at night, by becoming s professor in night school myself. So I understand what this man is writing about.

But there is an air of snobbery in his writing. He pretends to have empathy. But he seems to revel too much in his gate-keeping function. I think the editors of the Atlantic decided that he was "one of us," not merely and really a night-school person.

Congressman Billybob

Latest article, "Come Back to 1600, Johnny Dean, Johnny Dean"

The Declaration, the Constitution, parts of the Federalist, and America's Owner's Manual, here.

[iowamark]

I encourage all to read the entire article. It is about a professor struggling to teach basic research and writing skills.

[Redbob]

"Employers do not care where you graduated as long as you did and interview well."

This isn't at all true: I know from having hired numerous people, and from having interviewed many many more, that some colleges simply do not do an adequate job of preparing their graduates for the more demanding positions.

Tennessee State Univ. in Nashville, for example, does such a woeful job of educating its so-called "engineering" graduates that most companies simply won't interview them.

Univ. of North Texas is another such; they may do a fine job with their Music majors, but their engineers are typically only suited for factory jobs where the principal requirement is a body temperature of 98.6...

There are many other such schools around the country, to many to list here.

Of course, you think you can dazzle 'em with your iinterviewing skills, but that only works *IF* you can get an interview...

[AnalogReigns]

“Today in graduate school a C is roughly the academic equivalent of being slapped in public. It is rarely done and quite serious when it happens.”

I attend a conservative Presbyterian seminary, which, though considered graduate school, most definitely does NOT have that policy.

Several of my professors will normally give a ‘C’, and if a student is bright and hard working, they may get a ‘B.’ An ‘A’ earned from 96% to 100% is only given to exceptional students.

Though young, the school has pretty excellent reputation... However, their tough grading policy—since it contrasts markedly from typical schools—makes it very difficult for smart students to go on and get accepted at other institutions to work on a PhD.

[angkor]

So little is actually taught in our public high schools that college has become High School, Part II.

I actually despised high school, it was an impossible environment for learning.

But I loved college.

[SoftballMominVA]

Depending on what your post-grad plans are, the choice of college can make or break you. We have a friend whose son went to Roanoke College in Virginia - a good school, but not at all on the level academically as the big name public schools here. He majored in bio on a pre-med track with about a 3.2 GPA and average MCATS. He has tried for 2 straight years to get into med school and cannot. He is told over and over that his academic resume is just too thin.

My own daughter has been warned that since she is not attending a top-tier university (and is also a pre-med major) that she will need a higher GPA and MCATS than someone from an ivy league university. The expectation is that someone from Harvard with the identical GPA and MCATS is more qualified and will be given the nod before her.

Forewarned is forearmed....she currently has a 3.975 GPA

[RochesterFan]

She probably didn't either and that's why she failed. Boredom!

It would help to have actually read the entire article. Ms. L failed miserably because she did not have the core skills to succeed in the class. She had no idea how to do research. She could not follow simple, explicit instructions. Her paper lacked the key elements required to pass: a clear thesis statement and well-written paragraphs that supported it.

Professor X had apparently struggled with the futility of the situation and attempted to treat her with all the dignity possible. The big joke in "Ph.D. Comics" is that one should staple employment applications for Taco Bell to such papers. I doubt Professor X did did anything snide like this.

[LetsRok]

"Tennessee State Univ. in Nashville, for example, does such a woeful job of educating its so-called "engineering" graduates that most companies simply won't interview them."

Regardless of where you got your engineering degree, as long as you pass the EIT test, you are a qualified engineer.