Yikes. My friends and I were all the college bound kids, most of us smashed our ACTs so well that we received scholarships. None of us studied that much. To be fair, a number of us were found in the computer lab for many hours, but we did not study that much. We may have averaged an hour a day then we graduated from HS in `83.
When I applied to college out of high school you actually had to have some kick ass grades to get accepted into a decent school and even then our counselors warned us that we may still not get in because there is always more applicants than there were open seats. Demand was fairly high, supply was tight and prices were fairly stable, which defies economic logic at first thought but there are always exceptions to those economic "theories." Nowadays, you can skate through high school, fill out a college app and get into almost any state school of your choice. Naturally the major U's of your state want solid ACT or SAT scores along with a GPA but any school under that level and you're as good as in if you have a diploma. A couple years ago I go back to my local junior college to get a prerequisite I needed to apply to a school to get a 2nd master's degree (that I'm currently working on) and the general motto among campus was, "C's get degrees." "C's get degrees." That's what our universities are turning out these days.
Ha! You're a couple years older than me but this describes me perfectly except I spent a little more time on homework than you. I remember taking the 6pm bus home because I spent so many hours in the computer lab writing code on those old Digital computers than ran off a tape drive in the back room that took up the entire wall -- all 25 feet of it! The language was Basic and it was nothing like Basic is today. It was a DOS based Basic and you actually had to type out every command, not like today's languages. My final project was to write a horse racing program that was based on odds and wagering and was based on a relationship between those two and a random number generation equation. To boot, the finishing touches on the program were the horses running across the screen -- they were little blocks put together to look like a horse with a number in the center. You remember Pong, right? That's about what my horses looked like but with a few more blocks. The entire program was about 40 pages long. Back in those days the flow of code ran from North to South and that was it. Once you got to a certain point in that line it wasn't like you could send the result back to the top of the page like you can now. Now you see why I was taking the 6pm bus home. BTW, I got a 32 on the ACT and a 35 on the math. Missed a perfect score by one friggin point. English was my worst. Got something like a 27 on it. Always hated English.
The real problem is that only 10% of the population has the inborn aptitude to do genuine college level material, yet today we have more than 50% going to college. This is the real issue that the PC mafia never wants discuss because it might hurt peoples feelings. Anyone interested in this topic needs to read "real education" by Charles Murray. The curriculum had to be dumbed down and the standards set low enough so that the students who are unfit for college are able to pass. There is a HUGE disservice done to the truly able students, as the rampant GRADE INFLATION makes it impossible for employers to tell who really earned the A, and who (the majority who actually get the grade) really got a genhasuine B- but where bumped up to A do to grade inflation.
We need those colleges to keep the youth of the streets until their hormones stabilized and if we can scam their parents out of some money in the process even better. If we need educated slave labor we can just tap the endless pool of highly educated, motivated and cheap chindians. It all good for the bottom line. FREEDOM! Whooo Hoo!
I don't know what you guys are talking about...My degree is printed with raised text on linen paper...I paid the price... ElectricAbout500BucksGetsYouADegreeAnd AGoodPayingJobGoogleItSavant
Look back through history on University and who attended. The idea that "Everyone" should go to college is the same mentality that everyone should own a house. The basic fact, 90% of Colleges do not educated but push a social agenda. PERIOD! State Universities are nothing but brain washing manufacturing lines pumping out idiots all day long for the most part. I was one who did attend University and spent near 100k (Still paying that back). I was lucky enough to attend a private University where "Education" was the primary mode of operation and not brain washing. However, other than the benefit of "Educating" my soul and teaching me to think outside the Norm, it served Zero direct purpose for my "Career". The experience taught me how to think and swim on my own. How to walk away from Failure, not beaten down but to try another venture. To continue to strive and never give up. It took me 10 years after college and a failed attempt to make millions as a trader, twice failing at that goal only forcing me to start my own company. The value of education is not in the W2 statement you get if you work for someone. It is the "power" it gives you to in the form of "Tools" to learn, to educated your self even further and make your own way and never depend on someone else for your wealth. This type of education is no longer valued as Universities have become nothing more than big business. Bottom line, this new economy will force many to become their own captain, create their own vision,make their way via their own company, create their own venture rather than fall back on w2s and mindless work. Many will have to do this without formal education as in Universities and Colleges. Many retail traders will be forced into such a life change as the markets merge globally, more HFTs enter the markets and more regulation and capital requirement prevent access to the "average joe".
Nail on the head. Everyone in a sport gets a trophy whether they win or not. When I played little league it was 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. There was no trophy for 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th place. And people wonder why we have developed into an entitlement society. I've been coaching little league for a while and gave out game balls to one kid after each game until I realized a number of kids were crying foul because they didn't get the game ball. I gave the ball to the kid who tried the hardest or made the best play that day. I had to quit doing it because I couldn't stand the crying and whining. Nowadays I tell the kids we win and lose as a team and winning isn't everything; getting on the field and playing like you <b>want</b> to win is everything. If you lose the game but leave your heart of the field you're a winner. Kids have to learn what it means to fail. How can you possibly know how to be a winner unless you have failed?
Funny because that sounds exactly like my college experience. I felt sorry for the science, engineering, and math guys because they were working almost continuously on problem sets and the like - but these folks absolutely hated and feared anything that forced them to write. 20-40 pages a quarter (we were on the quarter system) per class was the norm for soft majors, often with a multiple-essay final in addition. The longest paper I ever wrote was something like 45 pages (for a bachelor's). But I graduated in 2008, not 1978 - so I guess things haven't changed all that much, at least at some schools. Of course college isn't so much about actually learning anything as it is getting that piece of paper. Quals inflation is all the rage and these days a bachelor's is just the price of admission. I'm sure you can coast by at most schools by majoring in something like communications, doing the minimum, and deliberately picking the very easiest classes. I haven't the faintest idea whether this is different than forty years ago, though it's without question different than a hundred years ago.