Jameson said:
I think that Bill Gates is a great example where genius combined with perfect timing in history. On top of being brilliant he had access to technology that almost no one his age had at the time and was able to use his talent for programming to make the most of the situation. I'm not saying that his story isn't incredible but I do think that his genius needed a certain environment to flourish and like I wrote in my previous post I wonder about the brilliant minds who live among us that don't find something that focuses their gifts in a productive way.
The lesson from Gates and college isn't that college is a waste of time or that the way to be successful is to not go to one, but that going to college "just because" is not the point. Education is never a bad thing to have, but I think a lot of 18-year-olds can be tricked into paying a lot of money to study something that might not be very useful after graduating. I'm so happy I made it through my undergrad studies with no debt.
What do you all think about the quality of college educations in general where you live? What is the main reason people decide to study at college or in a university there?
[Begin Rant] I think that the quality of education is too low for the amount of money a college makes from every student. They charge you as much as they can get away with but they give you as less services as they think they can get away with and whenever a course offers a bit more than
1) A room
2) A professor
3) The opportunity to compete with your 'peers'
There is an extra charge. 3) Is particularly annoying to me because your 'peer' becomes anyone of your classmates, as long as they pay the bill.
You have to pay for your books (extremely expensive) , lab manuals , writing materials, cafeteria food (usually nasty and overpriced) etc.
Really annoying to me is... When you are ready to graduate and be 'awarded' your degree, after they have fleeced you as much as possible, you still have to pay for your gown and cap.
Consider a student attending a public 2 year college with 3000 U.S. tuition per year. That's not all the money the college is making from that student as regards to tuition. They get about 7500 more from the federal government and about 3000 more from the state government. Every year you (sucker) are worth about 13000 income to them so the ideal situation for 'them' is for you to stay there as long as possible. They will never admit this because it's dishonest and unethical but I don't know anyone who got a 2 year degree in exactly 2 years, it happens but it's rare rather than the norm and they present it as a two year commitment on your part when in fact in most cases it will require more than 2 years devotion on your part. Most people have to repeat courses along the way and this inflates the total cost of their education. That means they are making more money from each customer, they want to keep you there as much as possible, a willing doner with 'them' erched on top of you like vultures. [End Rant]
To summarise my opinions...
1) The average student thinks they are paying x amount of dollars for the education received. That's incorrect, they actually pay closer to 4x. If this was well known among the general public I'm sure there would be considerable outrage when comparing total fees with services rendered. To add injury to insult, colleges are always crying for more money and incease tuition whenever they can.
2) The colleges are run more like a business instead of altruistic institutions of learning... it should be the other way around.
3) Hundreds of students enroll in remedial math classes each semester at most community colleges. About half of them repeat remediation, paying more tuition and further delaying the completion of the '2 year' degree. A significant percentage of students repeat remediatin more than once. The professors have a joke about that, they call it
'THE COTTAGE INDUSTRY'
I worked at a 2 year college for 9 years so I've seen these things from the inside. I'm guessing the situation is not too different across the U.S.
IMHO when you take any college course, if you are NOT already an expert in the material you will get a low grade if you pass, there is a good chance you will not pass at all or will be given an unsatisfactory grade like D not satisfying the next prerequisite. The amount of material you have to learn in 1 semester is insane compared to the time you have available to learn it. They've got this 'fleecing' thing figured out 1000 ways because they've been at it a long time.
:)