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The Worst Colleges in America

33 points by ksvs 18y ago

fallentimes 18y ago
Not very empirical but immensely entertaining. The piece on Trump University alone is worth the read.
noelchurchill 18y ago
I'm from San Diego, and somehow I knew I'd find SDSU in this list!
- etal 18y ago
  With half of College Avenue getting rich off cocaine, yeah, they had this coming. The 17% four-year graduation rate is impressive, too. I also remember Chico getting epic on Halloween, until the police cracked down on it a few years ago.
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byrneseyeview 18y ago
The quality of the quotes goes way up for Drexel and Harvey Mudd -- I wonder if some alumni on the Radar staff couldn't resist a little articulate bashing of their alma mater.
- noahlt 18y ago
  I'm not sure Harvey Mudd really deserves to be on that list, though.
  - cowmoo 18y ago
    No, Harvey Mudd (or Harvard Med if you say it really fast and jumble it) is not bad at all. It has in fact, one point, the highest national merit scholar semi-finalists by class percentage in the country. It's basically the school for Caltech rejects (which I guess, from one perspective, does make it a pretty sobering place, no pun intended).
  - byrneseyeview 18y ago
    It wouldn't show up on a list of worst schools by multiple criteria, but I think that section of the article is just about the appearance of the campus.
- dangrossman 18y ago
  Drexel doesn't belong on here either. They've obviously never actually visited these places, and just copied them from old issues of Princeton Review. That photo isn't Drexel's campus, the smoke stack isn't even near campus and is just part of an old incinerator in Philadelphia. You can't see it from campus unless you're on a high floor of a high rise dorm/building. There are hundreds of trees and grassy areas, and the "rape garden" is not even the only garden on campus. Drexel blends right in with its Ivy League neighbor, University of Pennsylvania; there's no distinction between their campuses, they just run right into eachother. Drexel is ranked among the top 100 national universities by US News & World, and in the top 10 of their most innovative list. I'm an alumni, who still lives within walking distance of campus, and this just makes me angry.
  - krschultz 18y ago
    I see your point, IT schools aren't for everyone. I visited the campus when I was looking for schools and didn't much like it, but it is a great school for engineering. My brother went to NJIT and it also is in a horrible area, but picking a college isn't about how good the gardener is.
    - teuobk 18y ago
      I agree, prospective students should be concerned with more than the skill of the gardener. However, there's nothing like some beautiful landscaping to seal the deal on a campus tour.
irinotecan 18y ago
I heard from a non-Mormon who went to BYU and said the intolerance there was so awful, that students would walk up to you and ask, "Are you a Mormon?" and if you said no, they would just walk away like you didn't even exist.
- indiejade 18y ago
  -1 This is like saying: "I heard from somebody who has never been to Tonga that Tongans are dumb." Second-hand tales ala "I heard from . . ." rarely relay facts. (creative downmodding from someone who doesn't post enough to have a downmodding arrow) p.s. how many points is it these days?
  - byrneseyeview 18y ago
    For what it's worth, I've heard the same thing from a Mormon who went there and didn't like how some of the other Mormons behaved.
    - pchristensen 18y ago
      I'm Mormon, I went there, and there were lots of people whose behavior I didn't like. There were also a lot more whose behavior I did like. Mormons make up 95% of the 30K student body, so if there's anyone there you don't like, they're probably a Mormon. Mormons are a big enough group (especially at BYU) that standard statistical rules apply - some are jerks, some are racist, some are angels, some and the nicest people in the world, and most are decent people with the usual character flaws. There are over 5 million Mormons in America and 12 million in the world, so they're too big to stereotype as individuals, any more than Americans, Mexicans, Catholics, Muslims, left handers, computer programmers, etc.
      - byrneseyeview 18y ago
        I'm not claiming that the single distinguishing feature of Mormons is that they're universally unkind to outsiders, but when you deal with an unusual group, it's the outliers who can really show you that there's something unusual going on. Just for example, it would completely blow my mind if I found out that there was an auto mechanic who had the same curiosity, panache, explanatory talent, etc. as Richard Feynman. This isn't because I think mechanics are all dumber than physicists, or that there aren't some smart mechanics or some dumb physicists (I know one person who I believe was a mechanic before becoming a physicist). But hearing about another Feynman-style physicist would not be such a big deal. Similarly, the average Mormon is probably fairly indistinguishable from the average American, or the average resident of whatever country that Mormon lives in. But when you look at the outliers -- the ones with really nasty in-group hostility, the ones who work eighty hours a week and do volunteer work on weekends, the ones to whom seven kids would be a 'good start' -- you figure Mormons might be half a standard deviation more in-group centered, industrious, and fertile. And at that point, it's just Bayesian inference: you find out someone is a Mormon, you change your estimates of the chance that they have other characteristics, too. they're too big to stereotype as individuals, any more than Americans, Mexicans, Catholics, Muslims, left handers, computer programmers, etc. I stereotype all of these groups in the same ways. It may be misguided, but it's a good way to experience your surprises in bulk and in advance. Always efficient.
Alex3917 18y ago
I don't see what the author has against the book Jews Without Money. It's one of the most important pieces of American literature.
Prrometheus 18y ago
My state of California, doing America proud.
gaius 18y ago
I'm not sure that's a fair criticism of Hamburger U. Isn't it really just a training facility for McDonald's managers? As far as I know a) it has no pretensions of being a real college and b) McDonald's is a wildly successful global corporation, they must be doing something right.
mroman 18y ago
Has anyone heard anything positive or negative about Penn Foster College?

33 points by ksvs 18y ago

fallentimes 18y ago

Not very empirical but immensely entertaining. The piece on Trump University alone is worth the read.

noelchurchill 18y ago

I'm from San Diego, and somehow I knew I'd find SDSU in this list!

etal 18y ago
With half of College Avenue getting rich off cocaine, yeah, they had this coming. The 17% four-year graduation rate is impressive, too. I also remember Chico getting epic on Halloween, until the police cracked down on it a few years ago.

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byrneseyeview 18y ago

The quality of the quotes goes way up for Drexel and Harvey Mudd -- I wonder if some alumni on the Radar staff couldn't resist a little articulate bashing of their alma mater.

noahlt 18y ago
I'm not sure Harvey Mudd really deserves to be on that list, though.
- cowmoo 18y ago
  No, Harvey Mudd (or Harvard Med if you say it really fast and jumble it) is not bad at all. It has in fact, one point, the highest national merit scholar semi-finalists by class percentage in the country. It's basically the school for Caltech rejects (which I guess, from one perspective, does make it a pretty sobering place, no pun intended).
- byrneseyeview 18y ago
  It wouldn't show up on a list of worst schools by multiple criteria, but I think that section of the article is just about the appearance of the campus.
dangrossman 18y ago
Drexel doesn't belong on here either. They've obviously never actually visited these places, and just copied them from old issues of Princeton Review. That photo isn't Drexel's campus, the smoke stack isn't even near campus and is just part of an old incinerator in Philadelphia. You can't see it from campus unless you're on a high floor of a high rise dorm/building. There are hundreds of trees and grassy areas, and the "rape garden" is not even the only garden on campus. Drexel blends right in with its Ivy League neighbor, University of Pennsylvania; there's no distinction between their campuses, they just run right into eachother. Drexel is ranked among the top 100 national universities by US News & World, and in the top 10 of their most innovative list. I'm an alumni, who still lives within walking distance of campus, and this just makes me angry.
- krschultz 18y ago
  I see your point, IT schools aren't for everyone. I visited the campus when I was looking for schools and didn't much like it, but it is a great school for engineering. My brother went to NJIT and it also is in a horrible area, but picking a college isn't about how good the gardener is.
  - teuobk 18y ago
    I agree, prospective students should be concerned with more than the skill of the gardener. However, there's nothing like some beautiful landscaping to seal the deal on a campus tour.

irinotecan 18y ago

I heard from a non-Mormon who went to BYU and said the intolerance there was so awful, that students would walk up to you and ask, "Are you a Mormon?" and if you said no, they would just walk away like you didn't even exist.

indiejade 18y ago
-1 This is like saying: "I heard from somebody who has never been to Tonga that Tongans are dumb." Second-hand tales ala "I heard from . . ." rarely relay facts. (creative downmodding from someone who doesn't post enough to have a downmodding arrow) p.s. how many points is it these days?
- byrneseyeview 18y ago
  For what it's worth, I've heard the same thing from a Mormon who went there and didn't like how some of the other Mormons behaved.
  - pchristensen 18y ago
    I'm Mormon, I went there, and there were lots of people whose behavior I didn't like. There were also a lot more whose behavior I did like. Mormons make up 95% of the 30K student body, so if there's anyone there you don't like, they're probably a Mormon. Mormons are a big enough group (especially at BYU) that standard statistical rules apply - some are jerks, some are racist, some are angels, some and the nicest people in the world, and most are decent people with the usual character flaws. There are over 5 million Mormons in America and 12 million in the world, so they're too big to stereotype as individuals, any more than Americans, Mexicans, Catholics, Muslims, left handers, computer programmers, etc.
    - byrneseyeview 18y ago
      I'm not claiming that the single distinguishing feature of Mormons is that they're universally unkind to outsiders, but when you deal with an unusual group, it's the outliers who can really show you that there's something unusual going on. Just for example, it would completely blow my mind if I found out that there was an auto mechanic who had the same curiosity, panache, explanatory talent, etc. as Richard Feynman. This isn't because I think mechanics are all dumber than physicists, or that there aren't some smart mechanics or some dumb physicists (I know one person who I believe was a mechanic before becoming a physicist). But hearing about another Feynman-style physicist would not be such a big deal. Similarly, the average Mormon is probably fairly indistinguishable from the average American, or the average resident of whatever country that Mormon lives in. But when you look at the outliers -- the ones with really nasty in-group hostility, the ones who work eighty hours a week and do volunteer work on weekends, the ones to whom seven kids would be a 'good start' -- you figure Mormons might be half a standard deviation more in-group centered, industrious, and fertile. And at that point, it's just Bayesian inference: you find out someone is a Mormon, you change your estimates of the chance that they have other characteristics, too. they're too big to stereotype as individuals, any more than Americans, Mexicans, Catholics, Muslims, left handers, computer programmers, etc. I stereotype all of these groups in the same ways. It may be misguided, but it's a good way to experience your surprises in bulk and in advance. Always efficient.

Alex3917 18y ago

I don't see what the author has against the book Jews Without Money. It's one of the most important pieces of American literature.

Prrometheus 18y ago

My state of California, doing America proud.

gaius 18y ago

I'm not sure that's a fair criticism of Hamburger U. Isn't it really just a training facility for McDonald's managers? As far as I know a) it has no pretensions of being a real college and b) McDonald's is a wildly successful global corporation, they must be doing something right.

mroman 18y ago

Has anyone heard anything positive or negative about Penn Foster College?