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Bag 'em all!

Nah, seriously, what is wrong with our system of higher education?! (or is it our lower tiers of education responsible?) Met the fourth native born American college student who literally could barely read English (He could not pronounce words as simple as 'continue')! He could not even read a newspaper article without struggling and he is on his second year of University education?! How does that happen? At least 40-50% of the people I have met at my University never (or hardly ever) do their homework, show up for their class 1-2 times a week max, and have the attention span of a fly. How do they get into college? The women only ever care about make-up, drinking, men, TV shows, etc. The guys only ever care about football, drinking, women, porn, etc. How do people like that make it into a University, never mind how they get through 4 years! They speak like they know everything in the world, and they are so ill-informed on even the most basic of issues that you would think that they are in 10th grade!

Sorry to rant like that, but in all seriousness, am I the only one who has noticed that half to 60% of the people going to college do not have the intellect, knowledge, or dedication to make it into high school? They don't study, they don't come to class, they just don't care...and still they graduate. What happened to HIGHER education? I don't know, maybe I am just attending a University full of losers... :P

EDIT: No offense to college students BTW, I certainly am not referring to all college students (heck, I am one myself), just the idiots who never bother and think they are geniuses.

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Most of the folks at my UNI are at least fairly intelligent, even if they do not always act, er, "wisely", shall we say. Certainly, they can read a newspaper.

I don't really bother with other people's study habits, what they do with their time and (parents?) cash is up to them. Certainly, its not up to the education system to dictate how they spend their time, only whether or not the measurable knowledge they display as a part of the graded coursework is satisfactory. Laziness and work ethic aren't something you "learn" in college- its something that needs to be instilled earlier, as a general rule. Certainly, one will work harder in college compared to high school, but the ethic needs to be there sooner.

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How do they even get into college though? And I kid you not, I have met 4 guys now who could hardly even read. How do guys like that get into college? Doesn't our education system do anything to prepare them for college?

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I must admit the biggest idiots I ever met were at university whilst the wisest man I have ever meet was my woodwork teacher.

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Ooh, sounds like an awful place.

I couldn't cope.

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lol, the smartest three people I have ever met were a martial arts instructor, a truck driver, and a history professor/martial arts instructor. Interestingly only one of them had a degree. :P On average, the common working person I know is a lot wiser than the average college student. Not to say that there are not smart college students, there are, I have met them.

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It is not a social event though Louis, it is an institution of higher education. It is supposed to be there (and parents pay lots of money) to educate people, not to make getting laid easier. Why would you waste your time and money going to college if you don't care about getting an education? It is an insult to higher ed.

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Social education is more important... only a very slim percentage of people actually spread new memes... the rest have to figure out to spread their genes.

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Don't get me wrong Pap, I am not saying that meeting people, socializing, etc is bad or anything, I am just saying that at a University it makes sense that education should be their priority. You know what, if it isn't, there are a lot of misfortunate, underpriviledged people who would love to have a chance at the opportunitty that they throw away. And think of how dishonest the education system is being to employers who think that these people graduating are not going to be clueless.

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Communication is about the most important thing to an employer. Most degrees are not creating professionals, and the few that are tend to have post graduate components (CPA for accountants, specialisation for medicos).

A lot of people get into uni nowadays that is why the value of degrees has watered down... it is 2 parts supply and demand and 1 part decline in standards... in IT there are vapour certs, I'm sure there are institutions with a bad brand name that have a similar problem with their Bachelor degrees.

End of the day go out like an Aussie... Play Hard, Work Hard.

=][=

One other thing, remember you are not competing against the lazy ones, not even the top 20% at your institution. When it comes to degrees and their value you are in an international pool of competition, and just like sport if you ain't training your opposition is.

I train other engineers and one of the things I told them is 'The moment you get comfortable with the technology learn something new or you will slide backwards.'

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I had one run in front of my car the other day and I hit it. Stupid things come into the suburbs looking for food LOL what retrads!

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lol, good for you! It is worth any damage to your car!

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That's because those people are out in the real world, getting experience. Until not too long ago I thought that the ivory tower was just a part of the more radical right-wing propaganda.

It isn't.

EDIT: And yes, I agree largely with Vuk. Most students mature/grow up/become rational after they've gone out into the workforce and been there for a few years.

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My brother would like you.

http://www.sysreal.com.au/

Works for them.



But yes, people are lazy. I have friends that don't turn up, and barely pass.

I also have friends that do not turn up at all for the semester, go to the exam and get a 7 (highest grade)

Then you have people like our sapi who study hard and get good grades.

Then you have people like me, who can't even get into uni.

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The increase in numbers of students and pointless subjects has led to a significant fall in the value of university degrees.

Employers no longer much care if an applicant has a first degree, let alone if it is "Media Studies". They will look at which college (there's only a few in the world left that are known to keep high and rigorous standards) and the subject to determine worth.

From Vuk's post, one assumes this applies to the United States too.

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Just to throw this thread off topic for a second...

But isn't the point of any education to prepare people for work? Why would people need preparation for what should be a continuation of a process they started 10 years earlier?

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Well yeah, I'm an idiot, but what can I do about it? Is anyone able to transfer wisdom to me or do I have to go and live in the wilderness for two years?

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One could argue that those who are being lazy yet pass all their exams have learned how to work efficiently

As a student, you're young, you have alot of freedom, alot of free time and you have to get your degree. The combination freedom and being young will never, ever come back. Sure, education is something serious and you need to make sure you get that degree, but why would that exclude grabbing that once in a lifetime opportunity of enjoying the fantastic combination of being young and free.

Try to get as much as possible out of this period of your life; and I'm not just talking about your education. Travel, party, chase the opposite sex (or the same, if that's your preference), have conversations about literature, arts, philisophy, politics, from 7 pm 'til 6 am while slowly getting more and more drunk, party a bit more, go to sports events, go to whatever you want to do and can afford, enjoy the ability to spend days and days of doing nothing useful, ... Djeez. Being a student is great; don't ruin it by spending 99 % of your time sitting in class or behind a desk.

Don't go for the "I'm being mature" trap. You're too young to be mature. Go crazy.

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Yeah, unfortunately. It is the thing where anyone can into it, so if you do not have a degree you must be a mental retard, but even if you do, it does not mean that you are special (though most students think they are :P).

Yeah, but it is in tiers. The lower tiers prepare you for the higher tiers. You cannot (or at least should not be able to) get into high school unless you have been taught to read and write in the lower tiers of education.

There is nothing wrong with enjoying yourself and having fun, but learning should be your priority when that is what your parents and the government is paying you to do.

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Meh, I really only attend lectures out of habit now. Biology is 90% material I covered in high school classes. Theatre class is stuff I learned a while ago. Minority studies ( Gen Eds) is a rehash of AP World/US History with the teacher's own biases thrown in. Sociology is the only class where I really am learning anything

A lot of my friends are in similar situations. So yes, we don't really take college that seriously because we can still get good grades without trying. I think people care a lot more once they get past the core requirements and start to take classes in their major.

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It varies depending on the college. However, beware of judging people exclusively by their partying habits. In college, I didn't sign up for classes that started before noon, never signed up for friday classes, and skipped about 1/3 to 1/2 the classes I did sign up for anyway. There were at least two classes that I never went to more than 4 times the entire year (and those 4 times were all exams). I lived in a fraternity house where there essentially always drinking and partying going on in at least one person's room at any particular moment. I stayed up to about 3-4am every night and smoked weed about 2-4 times per day every day for my last two years. I even sold pot my last year. I suspect I was one of the one's you believe are "losers." I graduated with honors, went to a good law school, and am now a federal attorney.

IMO, the most important thing about college is that it teaches you to be an adult. Most of the stuff you learn in class isn't relevant to life. College teaches you to be manage your life affairs while in a setting where you're still sufficiently insulated from society to allow you to make mistakes without screwing up the rest of your life. Sure, I learned a decent bit in college, but none of the actual information I got was as useful as the skills I learned for time management, budgeting, and just generally living as an adult without my parents around to pick up after me.

Almost all useful skills are gained by actually doing the job, not by education. Formal education mainly teaches you how to learn, it never really gives you the skills you need to do the job. If it did, companies would be far more eager to higher fresh graduates. As it is, no matter what the job is new grads come in at the bottom simply because they know jack squat. Every grad in every job requires a huge amount of training, despite whatever degrees they may have hanging on the wall.

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If you want to virtually guarantee zero marketability after college, get a comm degree. As a comm prof I would spend the better part of two years honing people's knowledge of communication etc. Then they'd graduate, with knowledge in a field that virtually ALL employers publicly claimed they couldn't get enough of, and barely 1 in 50 would find jobs in a related field or be hired because of that skill set. Most of them had to break into completely unrelated fields or get a master's in a completely different field to get hired as companies promptly ignored the very skill set they publicly claimed to desire. Eventually, the comm skill set would let these grads do well -- equalling or surpassing other similar groups of non-comm grads in terms of promotions and the like -- but in terms of out-the-door marketability it was useless.

The reputation for Comm, Theater, and English is pretty simple -- degrees for people who don't have the chutz-pah to go out and do something but wanted a safe secure party environment for a few years. That "rep" is over-simplified and a bit unfair, but it still persists and does affect hiring choices.

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As a college studnet I can saftley say I only care about winning the Big XII.

Eveything else is seconday.

As it petains to the topic, there are plenty of mouth beathing retards who know how to build a bridge or could tell you how your digestive tract works but there are far fewer people who you'd like to be around.

Social education tumps book learning everytime.

Whats that old saying. It's not about what you know it's about who you know.

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They become more boring as they realize their life's going to suck is what.

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You mean that they are no longer escapists living on their daddy's bill. They actually learn what is important in life and how to handle themselves in the real world, instead of hiding in their little insulated groupy environment because they are too insecure or afraid to join the real world.
Just another way of looking at it I guess.

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I still want to know when we are going to start killing and eating college students. I went out and bought a bloodhound. From my personal experience, vegetarians taste the best but fat people can be ground up and used for seasoning, filler and making clothes, soap, wax, etc. Frat boys are usually the safest to eat rare as all the alcohol in the body distills the germs, but you have to stay away from the genitals for fear of STDs. Lesbians taste like McRib.

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Not necessarily. Many people can still have fulfilling and happy lives after college and after they have matured, they're simply more realistic. Usually.

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I'm not confusing the ability to communicate ones professional skills with having a communications degree. Content still beats the wrapping, but an inability to communicate is not good. A PhD in a coma or an extreme introvert does not a great corporate professional make. The extreme introvert might make a good boffin however and there is more introverts in IT then other parts of our business.

In Aus we start off with our majors, we don't do a general year or two. It is straight in. That is why you can be a graduate at 20/21 years old with a B.Sc and that is the norm. Engineering degrees take 4 years to complete after finishing high school.

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I wouldn't pegged you as the sort; You are now my hero. I'm almost the same way, I have some awful habits (I do about 80% of the things in your posts) and still have aspirations to become a CPA and hopefully attend law school. Don't get my wrong, I get all my work done (fairly well I might add), but I like to play just as hard.

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True in all circumstances and locales.

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