Is College Worth It?
In “America’s Most Overrated Product: the Bachelor’s Degree,” Marty Nemko argues, “College is a wise choice for far fewer people than are currently encouraged to consider it.” Looking at my plagiarism rate from last semester and considering the number of students at George Mason University who fail the mandatory History 100 survey simply because they do not show up or turn in their work, I have to admit that he has a point. He argues that high school students in the bottom half of their class should think twice before entering a four-year college. A two-year college or non-degree program might be more appropriate. He bases this advice on the following disheartening finding: “Among high-school students who graduated in the bottom 40 percent of their classes, and whose first institutions were four-year colleges, two-thirds had not earned diplomas eight and a half years later.” And they were piling up debt.
Part of the problem, he says, relates to the quality of teaching. Class size, for example, is a problem. How much attention can I give each student in a fifty-person lecture course that sometimes meets for “small” group discussions of twenty-five students? My classroom experience, however, suggests that something else is also at work. There seems to be some kind of cultural or educational gap that has not prepared some of my students for the university classroom and university assignments. There are always a handful of students who expect every lecture to be both entertaining and amusing to every student in the classroom. Whatever happened to students just putting up with something that doesn’t interest them personally and learning about it anyway? What about basic curiosity and giving something a chance? This past semester two young men surreptitiously texted each other during a forty-five-minute excerpt from Chaplin’s hilarious “Modern Times.” Is there any hope that such students will ever be interested in anything in the classroom?
And what about those students who feel that reading assignments are an imposition, as if everything worth knowing were available on Wikipedia or a comparable website? True story: I had a student this semester who preferred to read email and texts on her smart phone instead of listening to the lecture. Usually when students do this, they try to be discrete about it, even if their facial expressions give them away. This student, however, held the phone up in front of her face so there could be no mistaking where her attention was. When I spoke to her about it another time, she said she was using the phone for the internet so she could bring something to the discussion. I told her I knew the little bit that was on the internet for our subject and that I was more interested in her own thoughts on the assigned book. She was flabbergasted.
These complaints of mine can lead to a slippery slope. I can’t forget all the hard-working, disciplined, and curious students I know. I don’t want to succumb to the cynicism that pervades Rate Your Students, a blog where some academics vent about their students and colleagues. It really is up to me to make the best I can out of a situation, even for the Sisyphean task of teaching the required one-semester survey in Western Civilization. Indeed, I think I’ve become a better teacher for these experiences. Still, Marty Nemko has a point, even if the fault does not just lie with institutions selling the dream of a four-year degree. There is clearly a gulf separating the expectations of a portion of the student body from the expectations that they encounter in the classroom. While many colleges and universities need to be more student-centered, prospective students need to consider whether a four-year college is the right choice for them. It is for many people, but not for everyone.
I absolutely agree with you. I am a senior at a four year college in new york city. I love my school, and I have always done really well in my classes. however, I know many people who only go to college because they are told they must. While I believe that a college education is essential, I think that parents need to stop pushing the 4 year system on their kids, especially when their kids have barely passed high school.
There is another problem about college. Some of the professors honestly do not care about their students. I had one professor recently, who told me that my essay on Beckett’s Malone Dies was bad because I read the book wrong. That was it. He didn’t offer me any advice as to how to do this. One of my friends was told that she was suddenly failing halfway through November after handing in good papers for the whole semester. Most professors are not like this, but I believe that this is part of the problem on college campuses. Maybe if classes were smaller professors could actually care about their students.
Also, if schools raised their admissions standards, they would be able to weed out the students that don’t belong in a 4 year school, making it easier to have a class where most of the students actually care about learning can get into the class.
Interestingly enough, my friends who have teens are no longer pushing them to get degrees. They say education is something that can take place at any time in your life and what’s needed first is skills that can garner an income and establish independent living. As so many baby boomers are leaving the trades there are many opportunities opening there and my friends are encouraging their kids to check them out first.
FWIW I have a degree (BA) and two college diplomas (paralegal & library technician). I loved college and university too and I had great marks ie. honors. However, they did not prove to be particularly useful when it came to making a living.
Also, I live in a community full of people with Masters and PHD’s who are making their living in occupations that have nothing whatsoever to do with their credentials. They tell me they never divulge their degrees on job applications because when they did they were considered to be “over qualified”. Here those who have trades tickets (journeymen and master trades) are the ones who can secure jobs easily and make good money.
My girlfriend who has a PHD and who could not find a teaching job chose to take a 4 month women in the trades program at a local college. She now drives a forklift and does other warehouse work. She has great medical and dental benefits, sick leave, a disability plan, a pension plan, an education fund for her 2 kids, and every weekend off, as well as, 4 weeks paid vacation leave every year.
A very well-thought-out post. I’ve been a student in classes that were about as bad as the ones you describe – in terms of having people who really didn’t belong taking up space.
I hope that the ‘everybody’s gotta go to college’ idea is changing.
As far as I’m concerned, there’s no problem with going to college and getting a degree, as long as the student learns to think in the process. There are even some benefits.
But thinking that everyone should go to college makes about as much sense, in my opinion, as thinking that everyone should go to trade school or join the Marines. I’d hate to have some of the liberal arts majors I’ve known trying to fix my vehicle.
One of the best discussions of the value of different skill sets came from a surgeon (sorry – I’ve no recollection where I ran into this). He said that he was useful in the operating room, but that he was only one of the people with useful skills who worked there. The people who cleaned the place before an operation were a critical part of the team.
This surgeon said, I think accurately, that if he tried to clean the operating room he’d probably be responsible for the death of a patient. Not because he’s stupid or useless: but because he doesn’t have the talents and training it takes to be a good operating room cleaner.
I am an advocate that people should NOT be allowed to go to college until after they have been out of high school for at least four years.
During that four years they should be doing grunt work, learning about the workplace and maybe business.
The problem with things today is that “kids” go straight from high school to college and they are too immature to handle the learning experience that colleges and universities have to offer. Their immaturity also causes them to not take serious the education being offered.
In classes I teach, since the students are future lawyers, if I see them texting or checking e-mails I confiscate the phone. Same goes for if the phone rings in class, it gets confiscated, the same as a judge would do in a courtroom.
It’s a crackup how students think they have some sort of constitutional right to arrive late to class, surf the net, check Blackberries, eat snacks, drink beverages, and split early when they have other things to do.
I am lucky though. I run my classes like a courtroom so the students behave. I even make them stand up when speaking. :)
Back to the problem: IMHO most students treat college as a continuation of their high school years, which means parties, flexible scheduling, focusing on passing tests and just trying to make it through the process. In other words, students think college is a big hassle. Few treat college as a meaningful, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Instead, college should be a wonderful time during which one can learn from history, the sciences, business and even classes based on society. From what I have gone through and observed, one can benefit most from these courses ONLY after having spent some time in the real world, working in the trenches.
Only after spending time in the field can students apply their real life experiences to what is being taught in the classroom.
The way things are now, students just plod along in college, doing things by rote, almost, and college is more a continuation of their high school years.
I find the majority of college graduates are mental slobs who have a meaningless piece of paper to hang on the wall.
For what it’s worth, I went straight to college after high school and ended up leaving during my sophomore year for a long break. My four-year stint in the field artillery gave me much more appreciation for opportunities presented by college.
But each student is different. Also, different institutions handle student life in different ways. My alma mater has certainly become better in this area. In my day the only social life was in the basements of the houses on frat row.
It’s the same here in the UK… the general lowering of educational standards has increased the number of young adults with suitable grades for university when they would be better suited to study elsewhere. In fact, the sheer number of A grade students has caused some of the leading universities to instigate their own entrance exams because the state exams are not a reliable means of testing true intelligence. In addition, many universities have introduced “Foundation” courses for mathematics and literacy because students are not competant in these areas. What a farce!
The education system in the UK drives me mad… everyone must be seen to be doing well…but the only way to do this is by actually lowering the standards. Our students are now all genuises who can’t spell or use grammar! I despair sometimes when I look at my children’s work and look at the marking… teachers are advised not discourage children by correcting too much of their work… and then I see the teacher will correct a work spelt wrong like “Zombie” and not the incorrect use of a homophone!
“There’s no safer investment than a home” : Real Estate Bubble :: “These days you really need a college education to be successful” : The Current College Bubble
I happen to be fresh out of UMass Amherst, and there are a few things about higher education these days that really scare me. No longer are students my age (23) interested in learning anything, instead they are interested in getting that “piece of paper”. Degrees no longer mean competence. I was an accounting tutor for a few years, and sometimes I wondered how some students were accepted into the University, never mind the business school.
A commenter mentioned students that were bored in class. I would consider myself one of those students in the years I spent at UMass as an accounting major, but probably not for the same reason. The learning pace of the average student in any given university bores me. When the professor slows things down to go over the finer points of lease accounting for the fifth time because the slower 1% – 75% can’t keep up, a few problems arise. The more gifted students feel bored, and the students without gifts feel overwhelmed. The sad fact is that the more gifted a student is, the less that student needs to rely on his/her professor. I was able to go over the same material in my spare time in a fraction of the time required in class, and minus the agonizing boredom. One size fits all fits very few perfectly. The rest find things either too large or too small. Don’t assume a student is bored because they aren’t interested, because there are students that are bored because they aren’t being stimulated.
The sad fact is that colleges have acted as the Moody’s of higher education over the last decade in more ways than one. Degrees have been inflated because Universities have an incentive to pump out as many students as possible, with no regard to quality. Therefore, they make degrees easier to attain, and accept as many students as possible provided they have the room on campus, and of course the students pass the heart beat test.
An example from personal experience.
A given professor might calculate his/her students’ final grades like this:
Exam 1 – (20%)
Exam 2 – (20%)
Final Exam – (30%)
Attendance – (10%)
Homework – (20%)
Giving points out for homework and attendance means that a student who gets a 60 on each of the three exams, would receive a final grade of 72, which is a C.
Another student, who gets a 100 on each of the three exams, but does not complete any of the homework, or attend class, would receive a 70, which is also a C.
Which student would you want as your future surgeon, lawyer, accountant, etc.? The student whose accomplishment’s were subsidized, or the student that knew his subject intimately.
If grades are meant to reflect a student’s competence, then that is what they should do. Attendance and homework should not be included in a student’s final grade. A business does not give its employees daily bonuses for showing up, it is expected.
A Bachelor Degree loses its value when everyone has one. There is no longer an advantage, only 4 years of accrued debt.
A few things that could fix the situation
-Introduce competition to education. Right now we have the stadium (Universities), and we have the athletes (Students), but there is no objective way to decide who wins. Whose cracker jack prize of an A ranks higher? If I take Physics 100 with Einstein, and we both receive an A, does that mean I belong in a class with Einstein?
-Remove the rigid structure. Why do I need to take 4 years of high school/college? Why can’t I learn at my own pace? Why can’t a gifted student complete it in 2 years, or even 2 months? Why can’t I complete Finance 100 over the weekend if I am able? Why does the slower student need to take Micro Bio in a semester? Why can’t that student take Micro Bio over the course of a year?
-The gifted students should be encouraged to move at their own pace. If a teacher realizes that she has the next Stephen Hawking on her hands, do something about it before he learns to associate school with boredom.
-Drop the “everyone needs a college education” bull****. Everyone needs an education in something, yes, but encouraging the future Eric Clapton’s of the world to put down the guitar and go study would be asinine.
-People need to realize that colleges are not the gatekeepers of knowledge. Now more than ever knowledge is available to all that seek it. These days the internet would allow a 5th grader to brush up on some calculus before he/she reaches high school.
I’ll leave on this note. If I were to write a paper and have 3 different professors at prestigious schools give it the grade that they felt it deserved, wouldn’t I likely receive 3 different grades?
I think some of the problems you mention near the end of your comments could be resolved by (1) making sure students and colleges are a good match and (2) making sure student advising and curriculum options are up to standard. I suppose it depends on the subject matter, but for history and writing there is no substitute for classroom experience, if that time is spent in an intimate enough setting to foster critical thought and a fruitful dialog. This is about inculcating habits of thought, not just presenting knowledge to be absorbed. Large lecture courses are more challenging for the instructor in this respect, because the opportunities for exercises in critical thinking are fewer. Many schools already have individual learning options in fields in which students are more advanced: tutorials for subjects not covered in any seminars.
I take your point about the weighting of exams and papers. I would certainly have a problem setting up a student to pass with a C- or better when they never did better than a D on an exam. Of course, it depends on how those exams are written and what actual know-how a 60 or 65 represents. In my classes that would be very little, but some classes in other fields are different. I do think, however, that students who score low on the homework and attendance still deserve a lower grade. Not doing the homework means they have less measurable experience than the other students. Looking at my own experience as an undergraduate, my As in chemistry exams only netted me a B or B+ on my report card, because of late labs and lab reports. That was fair, because those reports have everything to do with actual work in chemistry.
More importantly, there is a lot to be said for the discipline of showing up and doing the work. That’s what a lot of everyday working life is about, so training in that direction is never a bad thing. Hopefully, though, there is more to be gained from that homework and attendance. I’ve had students who don’t see a link between attendance, learning, and the grades they earn, so I’ll probably have to make the connection clearer via exams, which I dislike giving.
Point taken about students who do the work being bored, though I find that in history that need not be the case, since there is always more material to read, ponder, and discuss. A class that accommodates student input should be able to include such students, though they can feel bored if they focus on the minimum requirements necessary for a grade.
The same paper getting three different grades from three different professors? I suppose that is possible, especially if it were submitted (against most honor codes) for three different classes, since each class will have a different purpose, knowledge base, and set of expectations. If we are talking about the same class at comparable institutions, then the grading is less subjective than you would think. Working as a TA with other professors and as a professor with TAs, I know that we see the same kinds of issues. A small amount of calibration was necessary, but usually only a half grade, that is, 2.5 points. Still, I’m sure the process appears more mysterious to many students than it should. I know, for example, that students sometimes earn different grades from me than they do in other subjects, where other skills are being cultivated.
I understand your point about completing homework, and attending class. However, the University is not my place of employment. They do not pay me, and if they did, I would be happy to complete 40 hours of busy work weekly. I pay them for my education, and I would like to earn it as efficiently as possible. The purpose of homework in my eyes is to make sure that the student is capable of completing the material, and if they are not, to work on problems until they are. When I have learned material, I want to move on to more challenging material instead of doing busy work while the rest catch up. Homework has marginal value if it is not adding anything to the situation. Also, I consider Labs and Lab reports to be different than everyday homework. As you said, they are relevant to your field.
Colleges are expensive because they are not efficient. Students are required to take classes that have absolutely no connection to their future profession. After all, the colleges make more money when students pay four years of tuition instead of two years. Students at my school often had no real interest in learning anything about their chosen profession that wasn’t presented to them in class, and wasn’t necessary material to receive a grade. That, I find disheartening.
I have learned more in my spare time than I ever have in the classroom. I would imagine this is because I actually enjoy learning, and I could care less about the piece of paper. When the average person decides they need a new PC, they head to Best Buy (bad decision in itself). When I needed a new PC, I searched out information on how to build my own.
I agree that history can be a very interesting class. However, I think history classes need to focus on more relevant material to the students’ lives. We can discuss what Plato meant by philosopher kings, but we really should discuss the reckless monetary policy of our own country, and how many parallels there are to the Roman Empire, before its fall. That information could actually lead citizens to vote more responsibly at the minimum. We should teach students the history of the middle east, and how the United States has put dictators in power for its own ends. That is education.
“I’ve had students who don’t see a link between attendance, learning, and the grades they earn, so I’ll probably have to make the connection clearer via exams, which I dislike giving.”
Attendance matters more for some than for others. Attendance was not necessary for Calculus in my case, but it was essential to others. I don’t argue that. It should not be the professor’s job to measure your ability to attend class. I skipped every Calculus class, received an A, tutored Calculus, and I happen to arrive to work early every time. Correlation does not mean causation. Of course most students that skip class do poorly. However, I think it might be because poor or disinterested students tend to skip class, not because skipping class makes you a poor or disinterested student. In my case, it was a conscious calculation of the opportunity cost. By punishing students when they skip class, and rewarding students who attend class, you are effectively inflating the grades of the poor students who consistently attend class.
Colleges are not the only road to an education, and I think people have forgotten that. They now expect to be taught, instead of trying to teach themselves. The library is still free as far as I know.