Social US colleges having problems with low enrollment rates

[woodguyatl]

I got two bachelors because I noticed if you took certain specific classes as electives they counted as core classes for a bullshit liberal arts degree, which says a lot about those degrees. So for about 1500 I got a second degree, I had to take 3 other classes to get it all done. Didn’t even take any extra semesters. Same time line.

Got it, at my school they just gave one degree but a double major even if it was a BS and BA.

I don’t have the same issue with BA degrees that others have though. It got one and it has worked out well enough. Ultimately I think most undergraduate degrees are fairly useless. Nobody cares about it after your first job and advanced degrees are necessary in most high paying professions.

 

[jx820]

The most concerning thing isn't that the culture of higher education has moved away from rural living and liberal arts (though I think liberal arts majors are more functional people that their sciences counterparts).

I'm deeply concerned about foreign investment into our cultural building blocks, and particularly China investing. China is already heavily invested in film, steering the way hollywood is allowed to address about certain subjects. They are flexing their muscles in the fashion world. I'm sure they would love to control how America's youth is educated and what they can/can't be tought through expanding their investment in our educational systems.

 

[jx820]

I've mentioned a few times that I have some good friends who teach at tech schools. They're dying. Kids aren't learning trades either. They want to be taken care of.

The kids are taught from a very young age that Finance, Marketing, Engineering, and ComSci are the only future. Meanwhile plumbers are clearing 90k because noone can snake a crapper or run PEX.

 

[SleepyBoy]

Colleges need to be way more focused.

There is no reason for a software engineer to waste on second on unrelated classes. All the hiring managers i know don't care if their genius software engineers got good grades in English Literature, biology, history..etc

They only care if they can get the job done.

College is way too expensive and it takes way too long.

Other than a basic writing/communication class, there should be no general education.
Right to the core of your studies. You shouldn't be forced to waste money and time on classes that have nothing to do with your desired profession.

Employers don't care if you know a whole lot about stuff they can't leverage for more money.

 

[cincymma79]

Got it, at my school they just gave one degree but a double major even if it was a BS and BA.

I don’t have the same issue with BA degrees that others have though. It got one and it has worked out well enough. Ultimately I think most undergraduate degrees are fairly useless. Nobody cares about it after your first job and advanced degrees are necessary in most high paying professions.

Only degrees that equal jobs make sense to me, or of course if they’re required to get the next degree (law, medicine,etc...)
So a nursing degree makes you a nurse and so on.

 

[Seano]

The kids are taught from a very young age that Finance, Marketing, Engineering, and ComSci are the only future. Meanwhile plumbers are clearing 90k because noone can snake a crapper or run PEX.

Kids today don't want to work. I live in rural Maine and my friends have been on the verge of having their courses cut because of low enrollment. We're talking electricians, building construction, automotive- Kids don't have the interest anymore and parents want their kids going to a tech school even less.

 

[Long Dark Blues]

What sort of choices?

My son opened two 529 accounts with all of the money he made working through high school and recieved at graduation.

One 529 prepaid account that he dumped 75% of his cash in, which allowed him to purchase this year's sophmore credits at the rates from two years ago when he opened it. His school bumped rates up 7% for his sophmore semesters this year.

The second was a 529 savings account.

At his age, I didn't even know such things existed. Granted, at his age, I also had a toddler.

 

[panamaican]

This trend has been seeing an uptick and it's primarily because of the debt issue. The liberal arts are an integral part of any civilized society and they can often pay well but the debt to acquire them doesn't match up.

As the cost to run a university or a college increases, it's going to become harder and harder for small colleges and universities to keep the tuition reasonable. Particularly when they don't run large profit centers like business schools or law schools. These schools often lack the type of endowments that other larger schools use to handle the tough times.

I think @Falsedawn has the right of it. You're not going to see an increase in "selective" schools. You're going to see a decrease in specializing colleges for large universities or universities which can attract the most full pay students. Now, a college can always claim to be more "selective" by simply goosing the application numbers, which a number of them already do. They encourage thousands of kids with no realistic chance of getting in to apply so that they can reject them and increase their rejection rate. None of this makes them "better" than they were previously, they're just superficially more selective. If this attracts parents with the money to pay full freight...even better. But then this creates the false narrative that the selectivity is based on selecting only the best students when it's not, it's based on selecting the economically viable and convincing those students that that isn't what's going on.

Anyhoo, expect more closings. And expect more people to complain about not getting into the college of their choice because those kids who are selecting liberal arts degrees with high gpa's and test scores are just going to apply to the remaining colleges for their liberal arts degrees.

 

[tinker_190]

Good.

They can lower tuition, and cut liberal arts nonsense.

Even as someone who is well aware of the Long March Through The Institutions, this is a really bad attitude to have. Are we supposed to just abandon history, language studies, things like Shakespeare and the Classics? No, these are valid areas of intellectual pursuit and teach great modalities of thinking that have value.

 

[Happy Man]

Even as someone who is well aware of the Long March Through The Institutions, this is a really bad attitude to have. Are we supposed to just abandon history, language studies, things like Shakespeare and the Classics? No, these are valid areas of intellectual pursuit and teach great modalities of thinking that have value.

Those are great to have.

I mean the Bullshit like white oppression studies and sociology and whatnot

 

[tinker_190]

Those are great to have.

I mean the Bullshit like white oppression studies and sociology and whatnot

I get what you are saying. A lot of areas have had this Frankfurt school/Critical Theory injection that has made it very easy to sit back and criticize the culture/history/trajectory of the West. However, I don't think throwing the baby out with the bathwater is the solution. I think the real solution is a new generation of academics who can substantiate new theories to combat a lot of the Marxist-derivative elements within the universities. The ideas need to be engaged on their own battlefield.

Unless, of course, some type of totally new institution of learning comes around to challenge the university system completely. Which is possible.

 

[panamaican]

The average student was paying $12k a year at that school. I’m not sure how somebody could take 20 years to pay off $48k.

Because of the interest.

There are some frightful stories out there about people who made their regular monthly payments for years only to find out that they owed more than they started. I'm sure that's because of deferrals and forebearances but still - to make regular payments and see your debt rise has got to be extremely depressing.

 

[TheLastSpartan]

University really isn't for everyone and once we as a society start to push to the youth that its several legitimate routes to acquire the skills in efforts to climb the economic ladder, the better. Trade and tech schools being one valid example.

 

[cincymma79]

This trend has been seeing an uptick and it's primarily because of the debt issue. The liberal arts are an integral part of any civilized society and they can often pay well but the debt to acquire them doesn't match up.

As the cost to run a university or a college increases, it's going to become harder and harder for small colleges and universities to keep the tuition reasonable. Particularly when they don't run large profit centers like business schools or law schools. These schools often lack the type of endowments that other larger schools use to handle the tough times.

I think @Falsedawn has the right of it. You're not going to see an increase in "selective" schools. You're going to see a decrease in specializing colleges for large universities or universities which can attract the most full pay students. Now, a college can always claim to be more "selective" by simply goosing the application numbers, which a number of them already do. They encourage thousands of kids with no realistic chance of getting in to apply so that they can reject them and increase their rejection rate. None of this makes them "better" than they were previously, they're just superficially more selective. If this attracts parents with the money to pay full freight...even better. But then this creates the false narrative that the selectivity is based on selecting only the best students when it's not, it's based on selecting the economically viable and convincing those students that that isn't what's going on.

Anyhoo, expect more closings. And expect more people to complain about not getting into the college of their choice because those kids who are selecting liberal arts degrees with high gpa's and test scores are just going to apply to the remaining colleges for their liberal arts degrees.

So the government created a bubble with loan and now it’s popping

 

[drstrangelov]

In New England, we’re seeing a lot of small, expensive, private regional colleges fail. They have small classes, high tuition and aren’t selective in admission, so you get some rich idiots and a lot of people who paid too much for school. As prices increase at private schools, the public schools become more attractive, get better applicants, gain prestige relative to these private schools and either acquire them or push them out of business.

The more prestigious liberal arts colleges will be fine, they can survive indefinitely off endowment and contributions from rich alumni, but that’s a small group. For every Williams or Amherst that continues to educate influential people, there’s a Mt Ida or Wheelock that’s more valuable as real estate.

 

[franklinstower]

Good.

They can lower tuition, and cut liberal arts nonsense.

My life has been profoundly and positively effected by the liberal arts. As a christian especially I must be especially thankful to the liberal arts as philosophy has always had a profound impact on Christian theology and does to this day. Where would we be without Paul- who was educated in philosophy and Dyonisius for writing the divine darkness which has has a profound impact on Christian spirituality?

 

[panamaican]

So the government created a bubble with loan and now it’s popping

No, that's not at all what I said.

The recent research shows that the student loans are not a large factor in why the cost of college has increased. It factors in for private, for profit colleges, but not for the type of schools we're discussing here.

The government loans didn't create the employment market. Student loans aren't why wages have failed to keep up with costs for 30 years. They're not why we had a recent recession that reduced employment opportunities for an entire generation and made the next generation more wary.

Most importantly, federal student loans are not the reason that states have cut funding to their colleges, shifting more and more of the cost to a school's ability to fund via tuition.

 

[My Spot]

It's very sad that this school has been around for nearly 200 years and it's closing

Maybe people are starting to realize that getting a worthless liberal arts degree (like Art History ) from a private school isn't worth the squeeze.

 

[cincymma79]

No, that's not at all what I said.

The recent research shows that the student loans are not a large factor in why the cost of college has increased. It factors in for private, for profit colleges, but not for the type of schools we're discussing here.

The government loans didn't create the employment market. Student loans aren't why wages have failed to keep up with costs for 30 years. They're not why we had a recent recession that reduced employment opportunities for an entire generation and made the next generation more wary.

Most importantly, federal student loans are not the reason that states have cut funding to their colleges, shifting more and more of the cost to a school's ability to fund via tuition.

So government giving/backing loans that led to all these colleges popping up has nothing to do with the explosion in people going and driving up costs

 

[D3thr0n3d K1ng]

lol, weren't you just mocking my education a day or so ago? i've got no problem with real educations

Mocking education? Isnt that what youre doing with your 'everyone is a libruhl arts degree barista'? I mocked you in the environmental thread because you said that your engineering degree made you an expert on environmental studies.

Its your right-wing morans who mock education by claiming everyone who goes to school is going for a libruhl arts degree except for, of course, the studly right-wingers who are all rocket scientists. Nice fantasy you have going there.

Also, theres a lot of recent reports saying the latest college graduates are lacking in the 'soft skills' librul arts degrees refine. So you guys mocking those degrees makes you look more like morans.