nowadays free dinner is becoming the american way. what is the US becoming? _________ "freedinner Registered: Sep 2004 Posts: 15 12-28-11 11:02 AM Let's not let our brokers off the hook this time! We need a 100 percent secure brokerage industry, and it's time we customers demand it!" demand not as in supply and demand but it is our inalienable right to have everything for free.
Seems some people don't understand the free market. if student loans can be discharged, lenders will lend less, thus there will be less students, forcing the universities to lower tuition costs, when costs are lower, people can work during study instead of choosing to be a debt slave. government does less lending, less wasteful allocation of taxes etc etc. if student loans can be discharged in bankruptcy, the free market will soon eliminate the insane tuition costs that now exists for sociology courses.
Your parents and then you are supposed to do that. College just sells degrees which depending on what you choose to do will enhance your opportunities to live in a better world.
If "well-rounded" meant that you were required to take a serious class on classic literature, formal logic, etc. I might agree. However, most humanities classes these days are watered-down, uber-PC garbage. Unfortunately, though, this "everyone needs and deserves a college degree (regardless of how useless)" line still sells to the masses. I wouldn't be surprised if Obama goes back to it (along with other "freebies for everyone") when he hits the campaign trail. The early posters were absolutely right. The Federal gov't needs to get completely out of the student loan business and disengage from education as much as possible.
I gave up teaching Computer Science in night school about 12 years ago. It was an interesting experience when it finally ended in the last 3 years. After having taught for 14 years I was asked one night to see the new dean of the computer department two weeks after a semester ended. The new dean was pleasant enough but told me she was not pleased that I was grading on the curve in programming 101. She stated to me â ⦠in order to pay for the higher fees of the time sharing charges that use that fancy new computer this department needs to make changes⦠.â It seems that I had to pass more students to ââ¦fill the pipeline to pay those computer chargesâ¦â I made my objections such as â⦠I am an IT manager during the day. There is no way I would hire half of those kids as programmersâ¦â and the response was ââ¦that may be true but we need those kids in this program to subsidize those who will make it as programmersâ¦â Hearing this blew my mind. I taught another 2 years because I enjoyed the synergy these kids had that re-energized me. During that time I noticed how the school had increased enrollment with the new dean. When I brought up to the dean that it was â⦠becoming increasing difficult to teach basic programming because fewer students had the aptitude for itâ¦â the response came back â⦠give those students a chance. Pass them through to the next course. They will eventually catch upâ¦â When I left that department it was 40% bigger from the new deanâs efforts. I estimate that 60% to 70% or more of these new students would never be able to handle a job as a commercial programmer. It was disgusting to see a good program become commercialized and to see studentâs heads filled with false dreams of a high paying job.
thanks for sharing your story. I think it's a good summation of the problems with the current economy. There are jobs out there, but in fields which not many people can do. Software engineering is a hard field that few can master, yet there's huge demand. The problem is that not a lot of people can competently do these jobs. So whenever I hear people say there's tons of jobs but people are not trained for them, I laugh. If more people could mentally handle those jobs, they'd do them.
As a condition of being granted a degree, those who have completed the course work should be required to pass a GRE.
General testing of IT grads is really not the answer. Specialized testing is the answer. Let me explain. A new grad today must adapt their limited knowledge of computer systems learned in school to business IT processing. Many of these new IT grads are not able to make the leap. For those IT grads that do get passing grades they must take the next step â certification. Certification is the computer industries answer for the onslaught of under qualified personnel. For just about every type of IT slot there are industry accepted certification tests. Once an IT grad puts the minimum time in their job and passes certifications they can be considered a marketable IT person.
Just what I was talking about when I suggested "a" GRE rather than "the" GRE. My buddy's son graduated from Colorado University with a degree in Aerospace Engineering. What good would he be to an employer if he "couldn't do the math"?