Admissions scandal

Great post, @blonthang

I think we should be excited about this because it means the world can potentially benefit from the creativity and effort of many more people now. Maybe the next great breakthrough in some field will come from a poor “uneducated” kid who was self-motivated enough to get online and learn the skills necessary to make a contribution.

And if they decide later that they need that stuff, they can take a course somewhere or find the online resources needed to supplement their learning.

I think we are in a phase of re-defining what education means in the digital age.

 

Yes!!, one of the oft-overlooked benefits of the internet; it's more than posting our opinions on what 4* DB we're likely to sign next year.

How many great brains were left never used, never challenged, because over the history of man they were in a body that plowed the fields, died scaling the cliffs of Normandy, or in this case, were shut out from a university due to graft and corruption?

But, today, save for the heroes who die young, those other brains just might get a chance that would not only benefit them, but all of us, even when cheaters step in their way. Just brush them off and bypass them in the fast lane.

 

Generally agree. I could not care less whether my IT guy studied Shakespeare or even got a degree at all, as long as he is competent at his relevant work.

However ... I do think the highest and best use of the internet is discussing which 4 star (or better yet 5 star) recruits may be coming here.

 

And, how hot their mother is in a bikini.

 

Also, one must be aware of the concern of fidelity of internet info, though I believe it to all be true:

Uh, bon jour...

State Farm TV Commercial, 'The Internet and French Model'

 

What, you don’t give credit to what comes out of the mouths of the immoral degenerates with addictive behaviors in the entertainment industry; most of whom have only a high school education, if that much?

The higher education scene has lost it’s way with the exorbitant cost for tuition and books. The professors are getting paid way too much and get away with murder thanks to something called tenure. The system has been gamed with the government’s addition of student loans. It allowed schools and professors to jack up prices to a ridiculous high because the payback day is out of sight for the students. Back in the day students could work their way through school because tuition was affordable. And books went back to the bookstore with credit towards the USED books (I) purchased. The biggest sin of the current scheme is that it has killed the chance of a student working their way through college. My siblings all paid their way and came out debt free. Poor, but debt free. But with the $150 books by greedy professors and the crazy tuition costs those days are gone.

I challenged a philosophy professor from a large Texas college recently as to why he is forcing his $150 textbook on his students and he could not give a good answer. I should have challenged him on why anyone would pay for such a class and why he got paid so much for a part time job.

 

The big lie about the Ivies is that the hardest part is simply getting admission. After that grade inflation is significant.

 

During my daughter's college tours (notice plural) we were told the same thing at UNC, UVA, MIT, Harvard, Wharton, Northwestern, Stanford, et al

"Oh, you graduated from Texas? Here we make it hard to get in, not hard to get out."

 

Fall of '88 my first semester at UT: 15 hours for approx $500. Paid that easily with surplus earnings from a Summer job. Room and board was a bigger financial concern, and Austin was still cheap back then. Jobs for college students were plentiful too. I worked at the Frank Erwin Center--a fun gig and convenient to boot. Used books were not too expensive. I also hated when profs made the entire 150 person class buy their overpriced supplemental packets--that was a racket.

It gets better: $1 calzones and $1 egg rolls from pushcart guy at the Littlefield fountain and RLM.

Today's students are being taken for a ride $$$$

 

Luxury dorm rooms (instead of cheap and basic) also contribute to the overall rise in college costs.

 

They do appear to be motivated

 

$100 tuition for 12 hours. $.10 dogs at 24th and The Drag. $.03 gizzards down the road and most important, $5.00 for all of the beer I could drink in one night at Loui’s or other watering holes, including the back row at Dirty’s.

 

What was it $0.99 chicken fried steaks at the Stallion on North Lamar, one day of the week, like Wednesdays? Help me on this.

 

$1.39 for a ribeye and potato at Sid's on Lamar with all that great bread.

 

Wow! That's old time Las Vegas prices there. (Substitute prime rib for rib eye).

 

The old Chicken Shack on Guadalupe & 26th had all you could eat fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and slaw for $1.29. Legend is Hands Hartkoph walked in one night, and they cut him off after 50 something pieces of chicken.

 

1989 - Wild and Wooly Wednesdays at Double Dave's Pizza. All you can eat pizza and pizza rolls, as well as all you can drink Shiner Bocks for $12.

- Mike

 

Ye olde Yaledad
+ ye olde getting away with securities fraud

This whole matter does tend to highlight how there is a different set of rules for "certain segments of our society" and the rest of us.

 

My children will be debt free because I'm going to pay the difference between what they earn and what we are being charged. It's ridiculous.

I'm in favor of a two-year accounting degree program. Sixty hours. Take Lit or languages later in in life if you need it. Two years, debt cut in half if you have to borrow and you're out working a real job that pays well with excellent upside. Why is that not available?

 

I remember back when Shiner was the college student beer of choice because it was the cheapest thing you could get that tasted ok. Better than Old Milwaukees best, etc. Now its called a craft beer. Oh how times have changed.

 

I'm thinking I bought a 12-pack of Shiner for $1.99 back in 1977...

 

I believe it. Around '90 you could get a keg for around $45-$50...maybe that was a half keg, but now a half keg of shiner is $130. I don't recall going to any party around campus that had any other beer. I'm not sure how today's college student can afford to party.

 

When they dropped the drinking age to 18, back in the summer of '73, Coors was a premium beer, but yo could only get it in Dallas or Dripping Springs as I recall. When I came home on weekends, I'd buy 3 or 4 cases for $6 per case to take back to Austin and sell a six-pack for $5 or $6 each. Then Coors enlarged their distribution in Texas and that ended that gig. The last time I tasted Coors, sometime in early 2000s, it was thin on taste and definitely not worth the price.

Kegs of lower end beers were $15 - $17 but you also had to put down a $10 deposit which you got back when you returned the empty keg. What they called "pony kegs" which were 1/2 the volume of a regular keg, were cheaper, around $10 IIRC.

 

When I was at UT, there was a local "drinking establishment" which had a sing up over the urinal in the men's room which said "PLEASE FLUSH TWICE...IT'S A LONG WAY TO SHINER, TEXAS"

 

True this. I've been working on an advanced degree at a university in the northeast, and never have to leave my home in Dallas. Everything is on the internet, access to the library, live class, outside reading materials, I can collaborate with other students and I take exams in my home. This may be the face of all graduate and undergraduate programs in the future, with the exception being for certain sciences such as chemistry, biology, virology, or immunology type classes which require lab work. I'm interested to see how this all pans out in the future.

 

If you take an online Calculus class from Arizona State U today you will be taught via computer algorithm, not a human. Physical schools (and tradional teachers) are in the process of becoming obsolete. Universities now have to sell the "experience" rather than the education. This is why nearly every school is racing to build oppulent dorms, dining halls and student union buildings. We took 20 college visits a few years back and all had new buildings in those areas all built within the past few years.

 

That be the $.03 gizzards.....big ones.

Augie Hartkoph?

 

We drank Pearl and those who thought it bad beer always said they preferred beer before it went through the horse.

 

Wow! 20 visits! I remember only making 5 when I was a senior in HS, one of which was to a school I had NO intention to attend (OU), but I went with buddy who did and one was to get a friend of my mother to shut the hell up about how wonderful aggy was and my visit there proved her to be dead WRONG.

All the new building that universities are doing has to be recouped partly if not in total from students tuition, which many will have to take student loans over their 4-5 years in school, so I'm not surprised graduating students' debt levels are so high!

 

I do believe I saw that sign but not sure where it was!