Comments (9)

1. I completely agree that the number of people going to college is absurd.

   I think many students go to college not because they want to, but rather because of parents expectations, their friends are going and they don’t want to be left behind, or they don’t know what else to do.

   I hated those first year “weeder” courses. You know, the ones at 8am, 4 days a week in an auditorium with 5000+ students. What are you going to learn listening to a professor up on a stage droning on with little regard for the students? We weren’t even allowed to ask questions (you know, to keep the class on time out of respect for the other students). While I found the weeder courses a valuable tool to get those out who were not serious about their education, it was also frustrating for others for which the course, although required as part of the curriculum, was not relevant to their degree.

   Or, how about those idiotic classes, not with a professor, but with a foreign teaching assistant that may speak english, but you can’t undestand a word of it.

   Both of these situations are a result of schools admitting too many students to the point that they need to cull the lower performing students or bring in TA’s to teach the classes becasue the full-time professors can no longer handle the number of students. What a joke!

   I had the benefit of going to both a large university and a small business college. There were certainly people who should not have been attending at both, but my education was much better at the smaller school thanks to the increased and more thoughtful dialogue in the classroom, small class sizes (the largest class I had at the small school was 40 people), and one-on-one interaction with the professers who knew all the students by name.

   posted by It's good to be the King on 12-3-2007 at 8:50 am

2. King, that reminds me… Due to credit limits in my major, I found myself in a freshman biology class as a senior. I sat in the front row and raised discussion questions with the prof, as I was used to doing in my other (small) classes. The 200-or-so freshmen sitting behind me were aghast!

   posted by Miss Cellania on 12-3-2007 at 9:08 am

3. I’ll agree that the college campus is largely a social scene, and many students aren’t serious about their studies. But I’m a bit disheartened that someone would think the problem is the number of students enrolled. There are many factors involved, and just limiting admissions won’t solve the issue. How would you determine who would be admitted and who wouldn’t? What if you weren’t admitted, even if you were qualified?

   I think you should also consider the author of this article. Mr. Sowell is a fellow of the Hoover Institution. You know, the ones who gave Rumsfeld a job once he slunk away from Washington. Sowell is known to be against affirmative action, and has been quoted as saying, “Each new generation born is in effect an invasion of civilization by little barbarians, who must be civilized before it is too late.”

   posted by Think For Yourself For A Change on 12-3-2007 at 11:22 am

4. I had the same ’senior in a freshman seminar course’ experience, but just as amusing wasthe ‘graduate student in an undergrad course.’

   I agree it isn’t the quantity, but the quality of the students enrolled. Reducing the number of enrolled students is not going to affect the overall ratio of ‘good’ students to ‘bad’ students, all it does is give fewer ‘good’ students the opportunity to enroll.

   posted by Katherine on 12-3-2007 at 11:44 am

5. If there were more attractive alternatives to college, there could be more self-selection. I think many students go just because their parents expect it, not because they really want to. And the parents give kids that expectation because college admission is the best incentive they can think of to encourage their children to put out an effort in high school.

   posted by Miss Cellania on 12-3-2007 at 12:00 pm

6. One thing not mentioned by anyone yet is that there are not enough jobs to go around for all the college grads.

   As to preparation, I taught at an inner-city high school, and many of the brighter students had to take remedial classes in college because they had not been offered a true college-prep curriculum. When challenged, as in my class, they rose to the occasion–they all passed the Spanish AP test. Only one or two passed any other AP test, because the courses themselves were defective.

   I think there are no easy answers, but it’s definitely worth discussing.

   posted by Barbara on 12-3-2007 at 11:04 pm

7. I think there are too many students in college. I’ve been at a well-respected community college, a large university, a medium college, and a small college. The latter three were all liberal arts schools. At every school, there have been a large number of students who don’t belong… They don’t want to be there, or they’re not academically prepared, or they aren’t suited for the liberal arts curriculum. Whatever the reason, they significantly impact the quality and enjoyment of the courses for those of us who do belong in college and want to be in college. Professors with doctoral degrees have to dumb down 200 and 300 level courses so that they don’t have to fail 75% of the students enrolled in the courses. The students who do belong are left unchallenged and receive too easy a pass through their courses.

   posted by Andréa on 12-3-2007 at 11:52 pm

8. so that first link, the lunchbox passing thing, there’s a way better version of it at a museum i forget the name of that’s located in the palace of fine arts in san francisco. it totally blew my mind the first time i saw it.

   about college, i don’t think there are too many kids in college. i actually think it is dangerous how pricey college is becoming, soon it will be a luxury item to get ahead that only rich kids can afford. i think anybody who wants to enrich their education and boost their work skills and knowledge should be able to go to college, and i think that means that just about every kid should go to college, although clearly some wealthier kids need to wait until they care enough to get involved in their education. i guarantee the poor kids working 2 jobs to pay for their own classes without parental aid are not the ones skimping off on homework and failing classes.

   posted by tami on 12-4-2007 at 8:40 am

9. I have to say I agree that there are too many people in college, but I don’t think it’s up to admissions to change it. I think society in general places way too much emphasis on getting that four year degree. Like you can’t survive without one, at least that’s the impression I got in high school.

   So I went, without really knowing what I wanted to do..5 years later and $20,000 in debt I was more disillusioned than ever. Thankfully I found a good job anyways, but live with the stigma of being a dropout (haha) and the monthly student loans bend-over. LOL

   Not that I’m pointing fingers, but I think ‘the pressure’ has everything to do with putting people in college who don’t belong there. There are many other options. If I had the time and money I’d be a much better student today.

   posted by mrs.djs on 12-4-2007 at 10:22 am

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