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America could cut college costs by a quarter by making undergrad degrees take three years instead of four.

JustSomeNobody 9y ago
Actually, we should be expanding Vo Tech education. Not everyone needs or should go to college, but we need good alternatives for those people.
- wccrawford 9y ago
  In the area I was from, VoTech was so looked down upon that I never even considered going to one of those schools. I can't help but think that attitude stops a lot of people from considering them, even if they're perfectly adequate for the career they want.
- ganoushoreilly 9y ago
  I would argue that beyond that traditional college bound paths should transition to more of a vo-tech (which is a bad term in academia) path. Look at CS curriculum or anyone learning anything with a semblance of Security. Most of the talent there is lacking hands on experience, instead students spend 4 years learning a text book methodology only to find out that in the real world the text book method isn't always possible or right. I'm seeing more and more of my peers care less about a degree and more about quantifiable experience. I'd rather have a mid talent coder that's flexible and understand the larger problem set we're solving than someone highly skilled in algorithmic design (which is something i've seen).
munificent 9y ago
We could cut costs by 100% by having no classes at all! Of course, you would also reduce learning by an equivalent amount...
- thaumasiotes 9y ago
  > you would also reduce learning by an equivalent amount... Can you justify this claim? It's easy to observe that current students who take the same classes differ in the amount of learning they do. I see no reason to believe that different students taking the same class schedule consisting of 0 classes would suddenly all learn the same amount. It seems more likely that they would continue to differ in the amount of learning they do.

Actually, we should be expanding Vo Tech education. Not everyone needs or should go to college, but we need good alternatives for those people.

wccrawford 9y ago
In the area I was from, VoTech was so looked down upon that I never even considered going to one of those schools. I can't help but think that attitude stops a lot of people from considering them, even if they're perfectly adequate for the career they want.
ganoushoreilly 9y ago
I would argue that beyond that traditional college bound paths should transition to more of a vo-tech (which is a bad term in academia) path. Look at CS curriculum or anyone learning anything with a semblance of Security. Most of the talent there is lacking hands on experience, instead students spend 4 years learning a text book methodology only to find out that in the real world the text book method isn't always possible or right. I'm seeing more and more of my peers care less about a degree and more about quantifiable experience. I'd rather have a mid talent coder that's flexible and understand the larger problem set we're solving than someone highly skilled in algorithmic design (which is something i've seen).

munificent 9y ago

We could cut costs by 100% by having no classes at all! Of course, you would also reduce learning by an equivalent amount...

thaumasiotes 9y ago
> you would also reduce learning by an equivalent amount... Can you justify this claim? It's easy to observe that current students who take the same classes differ in the amount of learning they do. I see no reason to believe that different students taking the same class schedule consisting of 0 classes would suddenly all learn the same amount. It seems more likely that they would continue to differ in the amount of learning they do.