What college catalogs don't reveal

TownHall.com ^ | Tuesday, April 1, 2003 | by Phyllis Schlafly

[JohnHuang2]

The catalogs and magazines from colleges and universities are impressive: slick paper, full color, attractive layouts and lots to read. But several items of useful information are usually missing.

Getting a bachelor's degree now takes five or six years instead of the traditional four. That drives up the already exorbitant cost another 25 percent to 50 percent more than you may have budgeted. Yet your degree isn't worth one penny more.

Only 31 percent of students at state institutions and 65 percent at private institutions graduate in four years. The primary reason for this slowdown is the easy flow of taxpayer money for grants and loans that make the extended stay pleasant for students and profitable for the institutions.

Don't count on college counselors to guide you to the courses that will

enable you to graduate in four years. The counselors are working for the college, not the students, and they know which side their bread is buttered on.

In addition to the out-of-pocket costs of tuition and housing, be sure to count the cost of lost employment for a couple of years. A University of Texas administrator estimates that each additional year in school costs students $50,000 in additional college costs and lost income.

When Pennsylvania last year promised $6 million bonuses to colleges that graduate at least 40 percent of their in-state students within four years, not a single state institution qualified. Some colleges have tried various inducements to increase their four-year graduation rate, but none can match the attraction of having tuition paid by taxpayers.

According to the General Accounting Office, 64 percent of college students graduate with student-loan debt, and the average student-loan debt is $19,400. After they join the work force, their monthly payments take at least 8 percent of their income.

This burden is even higher because more than half of student borrowers take out the more expensive unsubsidized loans. Surveys show that students often underestimate the total cost of their loans, forgetting about the interest, which over time can almost double the amount of the loan.

The use of credit cards by mostly unemployed college students is another current phenomenon. The average credit-card debt of undergraduate students is $2,748, and of graduate students is $4,776. The average student is carrying three credit cards, and 32 percent have four or more.

Some colleges give the credit-card companies access to lists of students and then get a kickback of a percentage of charges on the cards. It should come as no surprise that bankruptcy filings have reached a record high, and the fastest growing group of filers are those younger than age 25.

College publications brag about their women's studies departments, but they fail to warn students that there are few job opportunities for those with a degree or a concentration in women's studies, except at the declining feminist organizations and their nonprofit bureaucracies.

The Independent Women's Forum surveyed 89 women's studies majors and discovered that all but 18 were earning less than $30,000 per year, and 8 reported no personal income at all. In interviews with prospective employers, many found it useful to conceal or de-emphasize their women's studies majors.

Maybe women's studies majors didn't really expect to get a good job because they have been taught to approach life as a whining victim who will never get equal treatment. Women's studies courses openly teach the ideology that American women are oppressed by a male-dominated society and that the road to liberation is abortion, divorce, the rejection of marriage and motherhood, and unmarried sex of all varieties.

The career feminists, however, have achieved some successes in their agenda to punish the men whom they disdain as the oppressor class. Feminists in the Clinton administration misused Title IX to force universities to abolish 171 college wrestling teams and hundreds of other men's teams in gymnastics, swimming, golf and even football.

Another fact of campus life that college publications fail to reveal is the large number of students who are not capable of college work and are enrolled in high school-level remedial courses, although that word doesn't appear in the catalog. An astounding 29 percent of current freshmen at four-year colleges are taking at least one remedial reading, writing or math class; at two-year colleges, the figure is 41 percent.

What IS in college catalogs can be even more deceptive. Courses may have traditional titles, such as English 101, but the content of the course is better described as oppression studies.

Courses listed in college catalogs may be taught only once in 10 years. Colleges brag about their famous tenured professors, but they usually duck the large-enrollment courses, which are often taught by recent hires or graduate students.

It's time for overpriced colleges to give students some truth in labeling so they can spend their college dollars wisely. It's time to show students the option of getting a bachelor's degree in just three years (as two of my sons and I did at top-rated universities).

Phyllis Schlafly is a lawyer and conservative political analys

[steve-b]

Going over the resume and ... Hmmm, Degree in Women Studies[.] Oh, so you're a lesbian?
Mrs. Schlafly is a Christian and a conservative.

sar·casm särkzm n. 1. A cutting, often ironic remark intended to wound. 2. A form of wit that is marked by the use of sarcastic language and is intended to make its victim the butt of contempt or ridicule. 3. The use of sarcasm.

[B Knotts]

BTW, I took five years, but I also worked almost full-time. I think if I didn't have to work, I could have done it in four.

But, things might have changed in the last few years. I got in just before they started requiring all the diversity crap.

[LWalk18]

I agree about looking at a school's catalog, not only the courses but the required (core) courses for graduation. One caution about college catalogs: about 20% of the courses listed are rarely taught or have not been taught in years. I kept looking for one particular course at registration only to find out it had not been taught in five years.

[Protagoras]

I knew a guy in high school who ended up majoring in womens studies. Go figure.

All of the guys I knew in college studied women, some intimately.

[LWalk18]

When I saw my state university's four year graduation rate was 18%, I balked and went to a private, out of state school. Now I am halfway through grad school and I have friends from my high school class who still have not graduated six years later.

[FreedomPoster]

I managed it in 12 academic quarters (I did take one course once during a co-op quarter), but I'd say that no more than 50% or 60% did it that way.

Pretty cool about your roomie being a Wreck driver. That's a sought-after position.

I did pretty well on both grades and partying, but I had a roommate that was second to none. Literally a 4.0 in Physics (a *really* tough major at Tech), and could drink you under the table, crush beer cans Belushi-like into his head, that sort of thing. LOL! Ah, the memories of a mis-spent youth. ;-)

[Centurion2000]

I knew a guy in high school who ended up majoring in womens studies. Go figure.

Every guy that gets married starts this curriculum when they put on the ring ...

[LWalk18]

Also high school students should take as many Advanced Placement class and the related exams as possible. You can come in a semester or even an entire year ahead, giving you a little breathing room.

[Tribune7]

I have a sophmore in high school.

Consider community colleges. If planned right, most credits taken in a local, inexpensive two-year school will transfer to just about any four-year school including the Ivies.

And the professors work a lot harder.

[July 4th]

I thought this was required of all UW students! The campus was so big, you couldn't make your next class in four years nevermind graduate!

Good one! Not too far from the truth though. Class times in undergrad were 15 minutes apart, but some lecture halls on campus were definitely spaced far enough apart that they couldn't be walked to in that amount of time.

My apartment was near the far east edge of the campus - the last lecture hall on the west end was probably a half-hour's walk away. You definitely had to check the rooms on the timetable to make sure you could make class.

[carton253]

I did the same thing. When I applied, I sat down with the counselor. I had all my classes picked out. He reviewed them... said great... and sent me on my way.

I hope to graduate in three years... the tough part is getting the classes. Two have been cancelled on me due to lack of interest. And, most classes I need are all on Tuesday at the same time.

[applemac_g4]

V's wife,

I'll give you a little background on myself, and then share the conclusions I've reached. I was admitted to Notre Dame and went there straight out of high school turning down a full ride at an in-state university figuring that the name of a well known school on the resume would be worth something. I did graduate in four years with a double major in the early 90's, but I had to finish some credits in the summer to pull it off. After working for a while, I'm back at school (this time at a small local private college with around 2000 students) a few miles down the road from where I live to pick up some credits before applying to grad school. If I had to do it all over again, I would have come here to earn my bachelors and skipped Notre Dame altogether.

Speaking as someone who has done it, I would strongly advise against turning down a full ride at one school to go to another school where I had to pay tuition. Four-year degrees are simply too numerous these days to have much value without going to grad school, and while brand name universities make a lot of grandiose claims, they are awfully hard to quantify. I suppose that if I was interested in a career in politics, law, or finance in the northeast corridor, I'd try and go to Harvard or Yale...but that would be more for the contacts that I could develop while there. There's nothing about the educational experience at those schools that makes them worth choosing. Also, grade inflation in the nonsciences is known to be widespread at the undergraduate level and so GPA has become a sort of absolute measure of performance that exists apart from the name on your sheepskin.

My advice would be to pick a smaller, rural university at the division II or III level. For the most part, high profile and very large universities should be avoided for undergraduate work. Classes at smaller schools are taught by real professors speaking English, not foreign grad assistants who don't have a handle on the language. If you need questions answered outside of class, finding the professor during office hours isn't a problem. The administrations of most small schools are much better at customer service than those at large universities, and classes aren't difficult to get into.

When it comes to evaluating the political leanings of schools, there's a college guide out that helps quite a bit. I don't recall it's name, but I believe that Bill Bennett is the author. I'd find it and read it. When I refer to small vs. large schools here, consider an arbitrary cutoff of around 5,000 students as the number i use to differntiate the two.

Finally, there are other things to consider: which school is going to have better housing facilities? Since your son is going to be in NROTC, which program's officers does he seem to get along with better? Which school is closer to home? Since it's likely that he is going to meet the woman he ends up marrying during his college years, what is the male/female ratio at the school? What sorts of kids go there (working class, spoiled brats, etc)? How big a role do fraternities and sororities play in campus life (for instance, at Duke, they dominate campus social life...one of my reasons for turning down that school...)?

Good luck as you make your decision.

[kidd]

Consider community colleges

Not a bad idea at all really.

[newgeezer]

If I neglected to jump to an irrational conclusion based on nonexistent evidence -- no emoticon or other indication was presented (e.g. I always end mine with "</sarcasm>") -- I forgive myself.

[G L Tirebiter]

I wonder if the 8 womyn's studies grads that reported no personal income were, heaven forbid, married stay-at-home wives?

[PBRSTREETGANG]

So at the University of Wisconsin you don't really have to interact with black students? You just photoshop them into your pictures once you graduate?

[LibertarianLiz]

A tough choice is when kids are serious about music and an academic major, e.g. BM Music Performance/BA Mathematics or even English or History. It's almost impossible to do that in four years.

My daughter is at IU Bloomington studying Music Performance (oboe), and it is tough to do almost anything else when you are majoring in Music Performance.

She is expected to be doing 3 hours of practice per day, and that is the minimum. This is done outside your regular class time. Then there are the rehearsals for the orchestra/band you are playing with, additional rehearsals for ensembles, time needed for reed making, the Master Classes (which are also at night). Then, you get to do your regular classes. I never realized how much time and effort goes into training as a classical musician; but, it is your life with little time left for anything else.

She had thought about a double major, but nixed that idea when she learned about all the other time-consuming activities were involved in this course of study. She is getting a French minor. Something that helped a lot, though, was taking AP and college credit courses in H.S.

[ventana]

Well, since you're mac based, I am going to have to seriously consider your suggestions!:) You make good points about the housing and kind of kids. I am unclear about what you mean about the ROTC officers? V's wife.

[Incorrigible]

 

Bucky's a racist badger!

[PeterPrinciple]

College publications brag about their women's studies departments, but they fail to warn students that there are few job opportunities for those with a degree or a concentration in women's studies, except at the declining feminist organizations and their nonprofit bureaucracies.

Don't you just love capitalism..........the market place at work.