(no subject)

One thing that's being brought to the front by the "occupy" movement in the US is the escalating cost of college/university level education. My parents pretty much paid their own way through school with part-time jobs. Considering the times they couldn't have gone any other way. When I was in school most kids had jobs and got some assistance from their parents with some having to borrow a modest amount to make up the difference. These days part-time jobs aren't going to go very far in paying for school. Tuition and fees have just gone up too steeply, too fast. The escalating average debt coming out of college is beginning put the value of a college education into question. As I was starting college there was a huge boom in enrollment over the decade earlier. With things as they are now, I expect that there will be a dramatic drop in college enrollment within the next decade. How the larger US universities react may determine the future availability of college for many years to come.

Traditionally large universities have cut programs with smaller enrollments first in times of economic troubles. This time I think it would be a mistake. Large departments in large universities don't tend to do the best for the average student. Great students? It doesn't matter where they go. They'll do fine. Average students are better off in smaller departments. For majors like Psychology, English and History the average student is better off in a small college. If the larger universities cut diverse programs to save jobs in what I think are bloated popular departments small colleges are going to suffer and in the end so is the average student. I don't think it's going to happen, but what the larger universities should do is improve the standards for enrolling in some of those popular majors that don't lead directly to any particular job or profession. If you had to have a B average in the lower level classes to enroll in upper level Psychology classes a lot of kids who plod through with a largely pointless degree waiting at the end are going to have to look in different directions, whether it be to other programs in the university or to small colleges where their needs can be addressed more readily. College degrees shouldn't be like a glorified high school diploma; it shouldn't be about I put in my time and now I deserve a job. It should be about I found something that really interests me, I worked at it, I ended up doing well at it and now, I'm ready to put in the same kind of effort to earn a living.

Changing gears ( Sport politics: a possible hoax about West Virginia? )