I’m always deeply skeptical of this insistence that college offers “little benefit”. But I’ll happily concede that it functions as a bureaucratic hurdle, designed to favor the historically wealthy and socially entrenched over the impoverished and recently arrived.
The costs aren’t really what’s changed. It’s who bares the costs. Teaching a student today isn’t materially more expensive than it was 30 years ago. We’ve just shifted the demand for school revenues from state budgets to family pocketbooks as the number of students entering college has swelled.
The poors can still get in if they are willing to become indebted wage slaves with a 6 figure debit for the next 20-30 years.
They can’t. Those schools are all scams. That’s the real ugliness. Private universities charging six figures also have some of the worst placement rates and poorest post-collegate incomes.
Just, don’t expect to get in to a social connection generator for nepo babies
Right. Because the degree is a social gatekeeper first and foremost.
In my experience I see a large part of the college degree is showing you can reliably show up and be in a state to use your brain. The knowledge you get is mostly not in classes but in the labs, most people don’t regularly do tests in work, the build things design things analyze things etc. Yes you learn some stuff in class but when you try to do it, fail, struggle, then figure out what’s wrong, correct it, and it works… That you will remember. It’s like watching a YouTube tutorial vs actually doing a task.
Four years, tens of thousands of dollars, and charades about studying math, literature and history, to get a certified as “able to show up to work sober.”
If that’s your idea of education, you’re part of the problem.
No, that’s not education. My point is from a job perspective that’s what’s most important. Most jobs won’t require anything you learn in calculus III or classical literature.
Let’s say you are getting a EE degree. In a lab while learning about ac circuits, learn to play with an oscilloscope and learn how to really use it. That’s most of the value. That’s something you will likely use in your job.
I’m always deeply skeptical of this insistence that college offers “little benefit”. But I’ll happily concede that it functions as a bureaucratic hurdle, designed to favor the historically wealthy and socially entrenched over the impoverished and recently arrived.
No, the added costs have little benefit.
College itself is great. The added costs have not added to the experience.
The costs aren’t really what’s changed. It’s who bares the costs. Teaching a student today isn’t materially more expensive than it was 30 years ago. We’ve just shifted the demand for school revenues from state budgets to family pocketbooks as the number of students entering college has swelled.
The poors can still get in if they are willing to become indebted wage slaves with a 6 figure debit for the next 20-30 years. Seems fair enough.
Just, don’t expect to get in to a social connection generator for nepo babies, you get a state school with institutionalized alcoholism.
They can’t. Those schools are all scams. That’s the real ugliness. Private universities charging six figures also have some of the worst placement rates and poorest post-collegate incomes.
Right. Because the degree is a social gatekeeper first and foremost.
In my experience I see a large part of the college degree is showing you can reliably show up and be in a state to use your brain. The knowledge you get is mostly not in classes but in the labs, most people don’t regularly do tests in work, the build things design things analyze things etc. Yes you learn some stuff in class but when you try to do it, fail, struggle, then figure out what’s wrong, correct it, and it works… That you will remember. It’s like watching a YouTube tutorial vs actually doing a task.
Four years, tens of thousands of dollars, and charades about studying math, literature and history, to get a certified as “able to show up to work sober.”
If that’s your idea of education, you’re part of the problem.
No, that’s not education. My point is from a job perspective that’s what’s most important. Most jobs won’t require anything you learn in calculus III or classical literature.
Let’s say you are getting a EE degree. In a lab while learning about ac circuits, learn to play with an oscilloscope and learn how to really use it. That’s most of the value. That’s something you will likely use in your job.
Wild counter point: education shouldn’t be purely vocation driven.
Sounds like a luxury for the rich. The poors need a job and not a mountain of debit for “balanced education” and social connection.