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The cost which bothers me the most about the current university landscape is the amount of potential we as a society waste. So much of our population goes stra

by jmathai 13y ago

The cost which bothers me the most about the current university landscape is the amount of potential we as a society waste. So much of our population goes straight from high school to a 4 year college program. That's while they're between the ages of 18 and 22. Unless you're studying to be a doctor, lawyer, nurse, engineer, etc. then that's 4 years of lost productivity. I think most professions could be trained for in under a year + on the job training. Even if the argument is that college is largely social growth for the student it's insanely expensive if we need 4 years to do it.

BadassFractal 13y ago
Exactly. 4 years for a psych degree and then spending the next 10 years as a receptionist is not exactly the right kind of training for it.
ma2rten 13y ago
If you are interested in an alternative model: in Germany you go primary school age 6-10, then you go to secondary school which comes in 3 flavors: Hauptschule (general school, total 9 years), Realschule (total 10 years) or Gymnasium (total 12 years). Which one you will go usually depends on your academic performance. If you go to Hauptschule/Realschule you can do an so called Apprenticeship, which is involves working at a company and going to school for 1 day per week (or so) for 2 or 3 years. If you go to Gymnasium, you choose to do the same apprenticeship or go university where students will usually study for both a Bachelor and Masters degree (3+2 years). Students have to choose their major when they enroll. Schools and universities are normally government run and as such free or at least heavily subsidized. Germans believe that education should be accessible to everyone (not sure about foreign nationals) regardless of economical background. I don't know which model is better, but I think I favor the American one, if it wasn't so darn costly. In theory at least 3 years of collage should never be wasted time.
- mercer 13y ago
  I don't really understand the rationale behind making kids choose a master right from the start. My experience at university and that of many others is that not only do we often end up choosing a master's that we wouldn't have thought of initially, we often even switch bachelor's early on, or change direction midway.
rayiner 13y ago
Another way to look at it is that we're so rich as a society that we can afford for most of our young people to take a four year vacation where they sex it up and dabble in underwater basket weaving. Yet another way is to look at as the result of a shrinking job market and job pipeline clogged by boomers who won't retire. If there is no work, and there isn't, reducing eveyone's working life by 4 years isn't unreasonable.
- tompagenet2 13y ago
  This is the lump of labour fallacy. It's largely regarded as fallacious now; there's a decent Wikipedia article on the topic if you're interested.
- VLM 13y ago
  "reducing eveyone's working life by 4 years isn't unreasonable." Unless you're simultaneously raising the retirement age.. My full retirement age per SS is 67, along with most of the people here on HN. You have to be quite old (no offense intended) to have a full benefits age of 65.
- pessimizer 13y ago
  >boomers who can't retire.

by jmathai 13y ago

BadassFractal 13y ago

Exactly. 4 years for a psych degree and then spending the next 10 years as a receptionist is not exactly the right kind of training for it.

ma2rten 13y ago

If you are interested in an alternative model: in Germany you go primary school age 6-10, then you go to secondary school which comes in 3 flavors: Hauptschule (general school, total 9 years), Realschule (total 10 years) or Gymnasium (total 12 years). Which one you will go usually depends on your academic performance. If you go to Hauptschule/Realschule you can do an so called Apprenticeship, which is involves working at a company and going to school for 1 day per week (or so) for 2 or 3 years. If you go to Gymnasium, you choose to do the same apprenticeship or go university where students will usually study for both a Bachelor and Masters degree (3+2 years). Students have to choose their major when they enroll. Schools and universities are normally government run and as such free or at least heavily subsidized. Germans believe that education should be accessible to everyone (not sure about foreign nationals) regardless of economical background. I don't know which model is better, but I think I favor the American one, if it wasn't so darn costly. In theory at least 3 years of collage should never be wasted time.

mercer 13y ago
I don't really understand the rationale behind making kids choose a master right from the start. My experience at university and that of many others is that not only do we often end up choosing a master's that we wouldn't have thought of initially, we often even switch bachelor's early on, or change direction midway.

rayiner 13y ago

Another way to look at it is that we're so rich as a society that we can afford for most of our young people to take a four year vacation where they sex it up and dabble in underwater basket weaving. Yet another way is to look at as the result of a shrinking job market and job pipeline clogged by boomers who won't retire. If there is no work, and there isn't, reducing eveyone's working life by 4 years isn't unreasonable.

tompagenet2 13y ago
This is the lump of labour fallacy. It's largely regarded as fallacious now; there's a decent Wikipedia article on the topic if you're interested.
VLM 13y ago
"reducing eveyone's working life by 4 years isn't unreasonable." Unless you're simultaneously raising the retirement age.. My full retirement age per SS is 67, along with most of the people here on HN. You have to be quite old (no offense intended) to have a full benefits age of 65.
pessimizer 13y ago
>boomers who can't retire.