What college catalogs don't reveal

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.

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.

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).

An oboe performance major it IU! Congratuations! One of my daughter's flute teachers was an IU grad. As an amatuer tuba player, I've always known IU as a low brass Mecca, but I hadn't knonw the woodwinds were so strong before I met Sara's teacher (who had some impressive placements in international competitions).

The time that goes into music training is truly astonishing, you're right. And, three hours a day of practice really is a minimum! Harvey Phillips and Bill Bell required a commitment of four hours a day, excluding lessons, rehearsals, master classes and performances.

My daughter is currently in the Prep Division at Manhattan School of Music, in the top orchestra. The level of performance is very impressive: at least as good as a mid-ranking professional orchestra. I was blown away at their performance of Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique a couple of weeks ago. I am amazed at these kids' dedication.

The better college guidebooks, and the US News survey, give you 4 and 6 year graduation rates. As my wife and I were '60s and early '70s undergraduates, we were amazed at how many schools had 4 year graduation rates under 75%. In our day, about the only reason people didn't finish in four years was the draft (for guys), pregnancy (for women) or finances (back before everyone could get cheap money).

ONe of the big reasons my son is starting at Lake Forest in the fall is the fact that 96% of students graduate in 4 years. With the generous academic scholarship he got, it's almost a wash with sending him to the U W system (Wisconsin), and saves him 2 years of his life.

Try http://www.wiredscholar.com. What a site for selecting and comparing colleges.

I agonize when I hear stories like the Columbia professor's "million Mogadishus" lecture, but, really, if your kid has self-esteem/confidence already, she will come to the "right" conclusions if she is naturally curious enough.

Intelligence and logic will prevail over indoctrination attempts by stuck-in-60's prophet wannabees because we conservatives are creating a 60's backlash that makes Hillary Clinton sob, I'm sure.

I graduated from one of the most liberal/radical colleges in the world, none the worse for it, and look where I ended up! FreeRepublic.com!

I think your son's naval service will reduce the importance of the degree from U of R vs. Cornell.

The name of your school is important before you do anything. Your son will have a track record after graduation and before the business or professional world.

When I am picking medical students, I care where they went to school only if they have no work or other relevant experience.

Your undergraduate school is a surrogate marker for what you can do-and not a very good one, at that.

Pick the one you like best, and don't worry about it.

College is a big-money scam these days. Where they used to teach core classes to prepare you for the Big World, it's now a morass of PC/multiculturalist/diversity garbage.

Sometimes, if I have a few hundred bucks to burn, I enroll in "diversity classes" just to have myself some fun raising hell with the Marxists.

I don't have a degree, but I take computer courses as I need them. I could never justify forking over scores of kilobucks for a fancy piece of parchment.

See, I run my own computer house-call business, and it's somewhat successful, so those HR f**ks who turn their noses up at anyone without a degree can kiss my hairy white butt. I'd hire a smart, self-taught kid who knows his stuff over a pompous, arrogant, PC-indoctrinated college grad any day.

applemac_g4 makes some very good points, especially the social stuff, which most people don't talk about beyond 'is it a party/frat/sorority school?' and are the dorms nice.

A large number of people do indeed meet their spouse in college, and very often the sort of people with whom you are friends in college are the sort of people you will be friends with throughout life. Class is a factor in America, though one not much discussed. If you are typically middle or upper-middle class in background, you are unlikely to be comfortable at a school in which most of the students come from working class backgrounds. Likewise, if you are a strong Catholic, you might not be comfortable at an evangelical Protestant school or a rabidly leftist or Jewish school (e.g. Brandeis), or vice versa.

The only way to get a good feel about these sorts of issues is to (1) visit when students are around, preferably for an overnight visit, and (2) if possible, see who from which schools (and prep schools) in your area is currently at XYZ college, that could be very indicative of the class orientation of the school.

Right. I'm in school right now. In fact I'm using a school computer. Above it there's a sign that says "Don't access trash such as gambling, porn, or Free Republic". JUST KIDDING! I should be able to graduate next year, but NO-O-O-O! Some of the classes I need are only offered in spring, while others in the fall. I can only take 12 credit hours per semester. They told me that the classes wouldn't fill up otherwise and they'd have to increase tuition. Well something has to give.

And, three hours a day of practice really is a minimum!

Yes, she was telling me about a senior who is about to graduate and that she is practicing 8 (!) hours per day. She is working her way up to more practice time.

As for the 5-6 years to graduate with a Bachelor's degree; due to the AP and college credit courses she took in high school, my daughter is technically finishing her sophmore year, but is rated a Junior. She figures to have enough credits to graduate after the first semester of her senior year. She is thinking of using her time after that preparing for auditions for graduate school.

Rochester is superb, too. Not quite the name of Cornell, but a complete full ride with no debt.

As a parent of a daughter who is paying out-of-state tuition, please believe me when I say --- TAKE THIS DEAL!

This is the sentence I loved:

In interviews with prospective employers, many found it useful to conceal or de-emphasize their women's studies majors.

Women's Studies Majors seem to have developed a reputation that prospective employers aren't eager to deal with.

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.

Great. This will certainly help prepare for the dissolution of Social Securiy, raise a family and pay the bills on time. Also the reason many post grad students have so much credit card debt is NOT due to splurging on crap but as we have very little disposable income for such things as groceries and car payments, we're boxed in.

Consistent with what I hear. Our younger daughter seems to be conservatory bound (trumpet) and it's scary. We're trying encourage here to do a liberal arts college with a conservatory, rather than a free-standing conservatory. Cost will be a factor, but we'll see.

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