Student loans and wine tasting

Well, I, for one, am certainly glad to have heard the D students' thoughts on higher education reform.

 

Want to hear a washout preps hack's thoughts on journalism ethics? A 5-foot-6 chess nerd's thoughts on the psychology of athletics? Stick around, I'm good for a lot.

 

This may sound harsh, but if I were running the college you both would have been kicked out and had a five-year wait before applying again.

Student loans aren't the problem. Students who waste everyone's time because they don't want to be there and study are a large chunk of the problem. When schools have to build more dorms, bigger cafeterias and workout centers, or have to hire more faculty and staff, it's one more excuse to raise the rates.

 

And now I put in my annual plug for community colleges.

Won't solve all your financial issues, but will cut them in half.

 

I bounced back and got into grad school with a respectable GPA, so thanks for the lecture instead of contributing to the thread.

 

I didn't get a respectable GPA until grad school. Once I calculated my GPA cumulatively, i.e., from undergrad to MBA pre-reqs to MBA through PhD ... and still didn't have a 3.0!

 

Doesn't sound harsh at all. I was literally one GPA point away from being academically suspended and unable to enroll for a year. The only thing that saved me was a Comp 1 professor who said that I was too talented a writer to fail, despite my not having fulfilled all the requirements for a passing grade (i.e. doing the assignments) so he gave me a pity C.

I took a year off to save up my own money, and goodness what a difference it makes when you are 19 instead of 17 and paying for your classes by flipping burgers. You take that ish *seriously* then. I got a 4.0 from there on out.

But you don't think that making money for college as easy as signing up and filling out a form is contributing to campuses being flooded with students who don't take it seriously?

 

We have a differen set of challenges in the community college system.

 

I agree colleges let in too many students, a practice that should be examined. I also think a year or two of 'gap time' is worthwhile for some students. I resent the hell out of kids who are smart enough to be there but have zero interest in their education. They are their because their parents make them, or they don't want to get a job, or they want to party with their friends. They waste money and resources.

 

If it makes you feel better, the damage I did to my own life was a lot more severe than the damage I did to the system.

 

That doesn't make me feel better. I don't want that for anyone. But you should not have been forced into college (if you were) or should have been able to gracefully exit when you realized it wasn't the right time for you. Sooner, rather than later.

 

Dumb ass is two words in that instance.