[JohnHuang2]

Tuesday, April 1, 2003

Quote of the Day by WellsFargo94

[CatoRenasci]

Good article. We've just been through the college admissions process with our oldest daughter, and all of the points Schafley makes are good ones.

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).

We have noticed over the past decade the increasing number of kid who take double majors, and the colleges differ greatly on how difficult that is to do in four years, and it also differs depending on how closely related the two majors are. Obviously a BA Classics/BS Engineering would be a very tough double major, and a BA History/BA American Studies would be easier. 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.

The remedial classes number is stunning. In my day, there were only two remedials offered at most real colleges: what was called "bonehead English" for those who couldn't pass simple exam given at the start of freshman year and "bonehead math" for those who hadn't taken trigonometry and analytic geometry in high school (not uncommon 35 years ago).

[glorgau]

Going over the resume and ...

Hmmm, Degree in Women Studies

Oh, so you're a lesbian?

[ventana]

We are now working with our son to determine where he will go to school. He has been offered several scholarships to top schools paying half or full tuition. He is also an NROTC sholarship winner and two of the schools he was accepted to will match the NROTC scholarship with room and board meaning a totally free ride (well, he will be in service after). He wants a career in medicine in research or clinical work and has been accepted at Carnegie Mellon, Univesity of Rochester, and Cornell among eight schools total. He is now deciding between U of R and Cornell. Cornell is liberal, but the Ivy League which is a major factor in its favor. Additionally, it has excellent scientific research. University of Rochester is superb, too. Not quite the name of Cornell, but a complete full ride with no debt. Freepers, any points pro or con you care to make will be appreciated! V's wife.

[kidd]

Thanks for posting this. I have a sophmore in high school. I wasn't aware of any of this.

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

This was true even in my day. Cornell bragged that Carl Sagan taught astronomy there. I never saw the man in the 4 years that I was there (79-83). He was too busy filming "Cosmos" and book writting and with speaking engagements.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Go to a technical or junior college, it's cheaper and the education is just as good or better because it's hands-on experience taught by someone who understands the real world and not some loony-liberal professor sucking on a pipe blaming America for everything.

[Gefreiter]

Good article, and accurate. I took a BA and an MA, through GI Bill, federal loans, and working several jobs. Got an admin job at a different college where, believe me, I prefer to keep my politics largely to myself.

2 of my MA classmates now work as secretaries at Harvard. No joke...it helps to have a Master's to land an entry level job there.

As I recall, as an undergrad I had a "diversity requirement", which meant I had to take a clutch of courses that described the evils of white men. Did read some good books, but usually the experience left me annoyed and on the defensive.

In the grad program, scores of people were starting on careers in bulls--t, who through rigorous and thorough analysis all conclude that America is to blame for all things. Gets old fast.

[leadpencil1]

bump

[jriemer]

Colleges and univesities are only required to report crimes that occur on their immediate property to a Federal crime database and this information is incredibly difficult to obtain as a prospective student or their family. Off-campus crime statistics involving college students on non-campus property is nearly impossible to differentiate from non-student involved crime.

This type of information can be quite important for students and their families thinking of attending large and urban colleges and universities.

[YourAdHere]

The line about English 101 being oppression studies really hit home. My first day in 101 at the University of Maryland, my female professor walked in, introduced herself, welcomed us to her class, then proceeded to tell us that she had been artifically inseminated so that she and her lesbian lover could be parents. I'm not joking, it was that fast, all in the same sentence.

[B Knotts]

A thread about college catalogs, and no one has mentioned this?

Black Guy Photoshopped In

You guys are falling down on the job...

[Hatteras]

The Boy Scout motto? Always be prepared? That is why we gave our kids 3 and 4 letter names. If all else fails, they can always fit their names comfortably into that little oval patch on their work Dickies...

[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]

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.

[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.

[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?

[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.

[FierceDraka]

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.

[graycamel]

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.

[KantianBurke]

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.

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.

[Hobsonphile]

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