We are becoming a very soft people.
WVU Eliminating Degree Programs-Future of Higher Ed
- Thread starter wxman1
- Start date
I never said they aren’t needed. You are stretching things quite a bit there. Do you take attendance? Think back to the Econ 101s and psych 101s (the 400-500 people lectures) halfway through, how full were the rooms? Maybe half of what started? No attendance taken and attendance was weak. Yet people figure out how to pass the class. Means that students are figuring things out for themselves. Is that good or bad?
Yeah we should all just get back in the mines and get black lung.
Speeding up the decaying of the body was never a healthy thing.
I believe those 101 classes had assignments and not just tests, if I recall. That's guided teaching.
The person with a degree will advance faster in most fields because of having the degree. That may be somewhat less true today than 20 years ago due to increased number of meaningless classes and degrees, but it still carries some weight. The degree says the person has the intelligence and discipline to complete a degree program and likely has better communication skills and problem-solving abilities than the guy without a degree. Of course, those skills will need to be combined with some practical knowledge of the particular field of endeavor.
Such an education is technically possible, but there is no way I know of to gain any credential saying what you've learned. And few people have the discipline to continue any organized program with no outside accountability.
If you are saying that telling students to go research a company and your presentation is on such and such day and I’ll see you then is considered guidance, then yes I guess college is guidance learning.
My thoughts of guidance learning is here is the Information in the lecture and you will have tests strictly on my lectures.
Not in the early 90s. All exams, like most of my 100 and 200s were. Chem stuff had labs but they were graded separately. Psych 101 was like cheM 163 where it had many sections and you show up at night to have mass exams all over campus so people could not inform others of what was on the tests.
Gotcha. Just a difference in phrase definition. Guided learning can take many forms, not just lectures and tests.
Interesting. Where did the material come from that was on the exams? Was a specific textbook required or did you just have to check out books from the library and get lucky you read the correct ones?
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
I sat in the front. I didn't look back.
You're making a weird jump from lack of attendance to figuring things out, and just declaring that to be true. There's a pretty big gap there, and then you wrap it up with a black and white question.
Survey classes I've taught have remained full the entire semester with rare exceptions. I guess that's bad, or I'm just really good.
I don't know how someone is expected to succeed if college actually costs 250k (the TCU number I saw earlier).
I did 4 years undergrad and then grad school at ISU and had 30k debt at the end. That even seemed like a lot but was probably reasonable. Of course even then that included 'scholarships'. Undergrad was supposedly costing about 78k for those 4 and that was nearly 30 years ago. That would have been way too much IMO.
I did 4 years undergrad and then grad school at ISU and had 30k debt at the end. That even seemed like a lot but was probably reasonable. Of course even then that included 'scholarships'. Undergrad was supposedly costing about 78k for those 4 and that was nearly 30 years ago. That would have been way too much IMO.
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
Pile on housing after they find a job. I don't think they're supposed to succeed.
Good luck nowadays getting in the door to any serious field with a completely unrelated degree. I’m a huge proponent of higher Ed but many of the majors people choose are not worth the cost and can very much limit their careers.
It doesn’t. TCU is a private college, almost no one is paying that full cost, they get merit scholarships just by applying. Same for most legit private universities.
Yeah I remember my parents fought over who got to include me as a dependent for tax purposes. I was the one paying the bills. They would offer to pay the difference on my tax return if I put dependent. I think I asked for help one semester for books. GI bill definitely helped. Bought a car and took 2 trips to Europe.
Agree, too much of a college is about getting that credential rather than actually learning the thing the credential claims you now know.
ISU Classes that had most impact on me in my life:
Golf (taught by a professional. Tuition was third the cost if I paid for private lessons).
Astronomy and Astrophysics (very cool. Helped me in my faith and I still get my telescope out.)
Advertising (was in my major. Every student should take a marketing class to learn how ad companies target you.)
My philosophy was don’t use college only as chore to complete to get you job, but use it to make you a well rounded person in life. My dad told me to enjoy it and take advantage of everything college offered.
It’s sad when colleges cut majors.
Golf (taught by a professional. Tuition was third the cost if I paid for private lessons).
Astronomy and Astrophysics (very cool. Helped me in my faith and I still get my telescope out.)
Advertising (was in my major. Every student should take a marketing class to learn how ad companies target you.)
My philosophy was don’t use college only as chore to complete to get you job, but use it to make you a well rounded person in life. My dad told me to enjoy it and take advantage of everything college offered.
It’s sad when colleges cut majors.
They had text books but tests were over lectures for the strict lecture/exam classes.
It can work if you have another way to make up for it, such as heavy tourism (FL) or a massive population & business base (TX).
Nevada is similar in pop to IA but Vegas brings a *ton* of revenue in.
Iowa unfortunately doesn’t check a lot of those boxes. It’s rational to want to pay lower taxes and to cut waste, but if your state can’t pay its bills you end up paying for it one way or another.
