Originally wait-listed for acceptance at UW-Madison, I remember very clearly the night I finally received my large envelope from the school, with the Badger-red “Yes!” emboldened on the back flap. I was in.
And while the University of Wisconsin may have had doubts about letting a neighboring born-and-bred Illinois resident into their borders, I quickly forgave their hesitation, becoming a dedicated student to the school and its culture. I garnered a 4.0 GPA or darn-near close to it every semester, religiously “studied” at the Terrace, partied at State Street bars, and worked as the school’s top student fundraiser at the UW Foundation. Plus, I actually graduated in four years.
Little did I know, I was an anomaly.
A couple years later, the Lt. Governor of Wisconsin invited me to be part of a special retreat pondering the question, “What really matters in college?” with a specific focus on liberal arts programs.
Nearing the end of the retreat, we set goals and plans for the future. As the token Gen Yer, I was obviously eager, but our next meeting didn’t convene until a full seven months after the original weekend, and the following meeting was scheduled for four months after, and was subsequently postponed. Indefinitely.
“I’ve gone, I’ve done it, and I have serious concerns about my actual level of preparedness to contribute anything meaningful to my fellow humans,” one young blogger writes about her educational experiences.
And it’s no wonder. Education is failing a startling rate. Universities have declining assets, growing liabilities. An Ohio State economics professor reports that “students study, attend class and write papers fewer than 30 hours a week, for only about 30 weeks a year. While the typical American employee works 1,800 hours a year, the typical college student works half that amount on academics.”
Only 33 percent of University of Massachusetts freshmen graduate within six years (not even four), which economist Mark Schneider refers to as a ‘failure factory,’ and those colleges are the norm.
Only half of teenagers who enroll in college end up with a Bachelor’s degree. This is such a failure to society’s economic potential that we could easily list public universities alongside the Wall Street firms and regulatory agencies that have irreparably damaged the American economy. But we don’t. Somehow, the failure of education is not as worthy of our ire.
Colleges, in the meantime, are scrambling to stay on top of the pace of innovation and the ever-changing job-market by eliminating majors like philosophy (University of Louisiana) and American studies and classics (Michigan State) after declining enrollments in those areas.
But even as colleges and universities rush to prove their relevance, everyone agrees (colleges and employers alike) that students are specializing too early. “There’s this linear notion that what you major in equals your career,” reports Katherine Brooks, director of the liberal arts career center at the University of Texas. “I’m sure it works for some majors. The truth is students think too much about majors. The major isn’t nearly as important as the toolbox of skills you come out with and the experiences you have.”
If majors aren’t all that important anymore, then why are colleges and universities still set up that way? Why aren’t students prepared for the real world? And why are educational institutions scrambling to protect traditional hierarchies and predict the next big thing instead of restructuring the educational system to run in parallel with innovation?
“There isn’t anything wrong with the teacher/student relationship. It’s only been around for two or three millennia,” says Dean Edward Snyder of the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. A comment so arrogant that we have to assume Dean Snyder isn’t intentionally asinine, but rather simply doesn’t want to abdicate his throne of being “in the “last [and] best position to influence [student’s] overall academic, ethical, and professional development.”
Nevertheless, the gross inadequacies of the current educational system should excite you. They should excite you as a changemaker, entrepreneur, parent or future parent, capitalist or socialist, as an optimist, and as a person who wants to learn and succeed.
The educational system is committing travesties against Gen Y. Ready to throw the book at ‘em?
Roll Call.
What are your experiences with education? Did college prepare you for the real world? Your profession? What do you think?
Are online degrees an option?
(PS – Tune in tomorrow (Thu) for Part 2 of this post, in which I’ll offer some ideas for solutions.)
62 replies on “No “A for Effort:” How Colleges Fail Generation Y”
Wow Rebecca, this was a thought-provoking post! I had never thought about the fact that universities might be failing to prepare the very students they work so hard to get in their doors. Can’t wait for part two!
Specializing too early? Grab your raincoat because my head is going to explode.
My wife worked in a research lab doing vaccine research. She worked with two colleagues, one from the Netherlands and one from Sweden. Although years wise, they had the same years of schooling (all bachelor degree equivalents), it was quite obvious that they did not have the same type of schooling. Although my wife basically aced her biology major at a research university, she was light years behind her colleagues.
The reason: lack of specialization early in their academic careers. By their junior year in high school, both of these people were taking advanced math and science courses. By the end of their formal college education, they had taken 80 more credit hours of science and math than my wife had. That’s two and a half years!
My issue continues to be that we push too many kids into college and we push too many of those kids into a liberal arts program that may weigh them down with debt and little else. That’s not a popular political or social message.
You’re right that the educational system is failing kids and our future. Education was built on a backward facing methodology that keeps programs from rapidly evolving and giving people skills they’ll need to compete a decade from now.
Looking forward to your solutions post.
Rebecca,
Excellent post! I couldn’t agree more that colleges are letting people down. I graduated *mumble* years ago with a B.S. in Computer Science with a bunch of theoretical knowledge and absolutely no marketable skills. Part of that was my own doing, as I should have taken on some project work outside of courses. Part of the reason I didn’t is because I had to work to pay for books and food.
The problem was, I took the core classes to get the degree, but had no room for application coursework due to the quantity of gen. ed. requirements at my institution. Easily half of the hours I earned had nothing to do with my major or my minor.
So the options pretty much boiled down to leaving with nothing but a broad, shallow pool of knowledge, or taking extra time to earn a degree. I was stubborn and determined to get out in 4 years, because I thought it was the right thing to do. Well… I was wrong.
I think the problem lies with the conflict of feeling they need to broaden the horizons of students and give them a well-rounded education while at the same time preparing them for entry into their desired field. What gets sacrificed is the time students have to actually develop skills. Instead, they get their gen. eds. in (often without retaining any of the information) and get a glossing-over of their specialization. They come out with a piece of paper with their name on it, and not much more.
Academia needs a serious overhaul. That much is absolutely certain. Add me to the list anxiously awaiting your ideas toward that goal!
Rebecca,
I had a love/hate relationship with college. To me it felt like a stepping stone to a greater skill set, talent and ultimately career. I am not a model “academic” student, however motivated myself early (high school freshman) to get going on expanding my skills as an artist so I could pursue a path of becoming a graphic designer or illustrator.
While I had the rare opportunity of attending a college that was a jr. college when starting – this college became a 4-year institution after my freshman year. Although it took me 6 years to complete my degree, I got to get my GEs done while waiting for my upper division classes to be developed. I then was able to attend upper division with focus and help provide feedback as to how I felt the program could be developed for future GenY students, along with my fellow classmates. A lot of hard work was put into studying, drawing, theory and more but ultimately it was the students decision as to how best to succeed in their education. We were lucky in that we got to work with our professors to create a program worthy of the next generation.
I believe that many universities are failing their students, but shouldn’t we ask ourselves this?
Shouldn’t we be working to help those younger than us understand the importance of applying hard work and talent to make something exceptional of themselves? Sure some of us get through. Others work their butts off. Maybe as we set the bar higher for future generations by instilling a harder work ethic, then Universities will be forced to step up to the plate to provide the atmosphere that these children are prepared for?
As a parent, I want a good education for my kids. However it is my responsibility before anything else to instill a desire to learn, and to develop my children’s work ethic to the extent that they will want to work hard enough to get where they want to go.
If talent is over rated, and Universities accept applicants based on talent, then the system will be dead in no time. Although one may feel that Universities need an overhaul, doesn’t it really come from the need for an overhaul in teaching the next generation to continue to strive for something more? Not just wanting more but working for it beyond what we know how to do right now?
Gen Y posterboy Mark Zuckerberg didn’t finish college. Neither did his tech predecessor Michael Dell. Nor his predecessor Bill Gates.
Will my daughter (due a week from today) go to college? Maybe not. Maybe she can get what she needs without it. If she’ll have 6 jobs in 6 different fields by age 30 (like I have), what she majors in won’t matter as much as whether or not she knows how to learn.
Colleges, when at their best, teach you how to gather and synthesize information so you can make informed decisions. Of course, this rarely happens in the classroom.
900 hours on academics each year is enough. We also need 900 hours discovering ourselves and the kind of people we want to be.
People “go back” to school all the time when wanting to start a new career (MBA, law, teaching) – we should just “go back” to begin with, offering skill- and specialty-based education throughout one’s lifetime. I’m supposed to learn everything I need to know for the rest of my life in 4 years between the ages of 18 and 22?
Give me a break.
And give ’em hell, Rebecca!
Rebecca I couldn’t agree more with what you wrote here. I originally delayed going to college after high school. This was in part due to some mistakes that I made, but also in part because I didn’t see a true career path out of college. 10 years into my professional life I felt the pressure to go back and have been attending classes at night for the last 4 years. I work for an old school corporation where a college degree is highly (and in my opinion overly) valued. In my experiencing I have learned more from my on the job experience then any secondary education has taught me. Additionally I feel much of what is taught in in the traditional BA classroom is impractical in the business world. It just feels, even at the old school employer that I have, that the business world is evolving at a rate quicker then the classroom. All of that said I feel it would be a shame to give up now and will be continuing through to finish sometime in the next 12 to 18 months.
Up here in Canada, what has surprised me are the huge capital expansion plans most universities have launched in recent years. This is occurring while enrolments in some parts of the country are declining, with the added problem of further declines. One exception is metropolitan Toronto, which is growing rapidly due to immigtration.
But what is happening with all this money being shovelled into new buildings, sports complexes and student residences is a curtailing on the hiring of professors. On top of this is the growing trend to hire lecturers on contract and to use graduate students to teach first and second year.
This is taking place while tuition continues to escalate.
I’m mid fifties and my four “kids” are in their twenties. But from my perspective, Gen Y is getting ripped off, both from a financial sense and from an education content standpoint. The return on investment of a university education is becoming increasingly suspect, leaving community colleages to fill the void.
Love it, Rebecca. I concur with much of what you are saying and I know first hand because I am a professor at a major university. Universities are among the most political and slow to change institutions you can find anywhere.
Our university system needs serious improvement. Not incremental, but radical. And I strongly concur that means OPPORTUNITY for those willing to see it.
Let me disagree on one very important philisophical point. No institution can fail you as an individual – only YOU can fail yourself. If you are putting your faith in any organization or company to take care of you, you are still allowing yourself to be in a parental relationship. That’s NOT an empowering stance. Only individuals can empower themselves.
Instead of pointing fingers, if we are not happy, we should CHANGE what we don’t like about universities and any other institutions that are failing. That requires personal responsibility and hard work, as you know.
GREAT thoughts! Keep up the good work.
Bret
I had a 2.7 GPA in college.
I didn’t try, didn’t care and largely partied through most of it. I just wasn’t motivated by the material and was more interested in lots of other things (mainly the emergent marketing and community space).
I also played a lot of WoW.
Needless to say? My college experience academically was a lost cause. I still graduated in 4 years and the GPA only provided a hurdle at the first job. Ever since? Haven’t even been asked.
Colleges can do a lot more by simply creating more meaningful experiences off-campus and beyond the classroom. Then again? I went to school in Maine…so that may have had something to do with it.
Still frustrated. Could have had a much better experience if a few things were different.
@ Leia – Thanks! In some cases, universities probably spend too much time on the admission process even. There are some weird protocols about who colleges let in… : )
@ Lance – I do think some majors (and careers) necessitate specializing early. It’s the case for Gladwell’s 10,000 hour theory. Europe is a popular example of schooling that does this. However, ancetedotally, I can tell you my sister’s British ex-husband would lament that he was forced to choose so early, and back here in the States my friend was telling me just last night that her husband who is three years away from finishing his nine year neurosurgery residency jokes about only practicing medicine for five years; he’d much rather be in day trading.
So while there may be exceptions to the rule, as Sam’s comment reminds us below that the skills and experience needed to succeed are simply different nowadays. Most likely you’ll change jobs six times before you’re 30, and not only that, but very few fields require you to be an expert coming in, and not being an expert is what often leads to innovation. More on this “design” way of thinking in a future post…
@ Eric – Thanks so much for sharing your experience! Such an interesting story and I think an indicative example of some of the issues students face while in school. “Marketable” skills being a huge one.
@ The Dingbat / Adrienne – Great points and I’m with you that we not only need a shift in the structure of education but our mindset in how we view it as well. I would argue that students largely go into college expecting to be served a “breakfast-in-bed” type of education where they will get everything need with little work. In reality, education can be very rewarding if only we put a little extra elbow grease into it. As it stands now, you get more when you put more in, but I think there are ways we can encourage this naturally instead of just having a few lucky ones skate through. Thanks for the comment!
@ Sam – Yes, yes, yes! The way we lead our careers is changing and so education needs to drastically change as well. I think the 900 hours to discover ourselves could be structured more in colleges, but more on that tomorrow. Appreciate your insights!
@ Tenny – I love that you brought up that you’ve learned more on the job than you did in school. I believe that we can accelerate that type of learning while students are still in school and that would be a vast improvement to the current system. Thanks for sharing your story!
@ Jim – UW-Madison is expanding at a rapid pace here as well, in large part due to the fact that they’re frenetically trying to keep up with the pace of the real world around them. The tenured professor bit is something I hope to discuss in tomorrow’s post, but there’s definitely a breakdown there as well – do you find that to be a negative or positive thing? And I appreciate you bringing up the financial cost to students – the debt we leave with is ridiculous!
@ Bret – Hearing the professor’s perspective is much appreciated. The slow-moving nature of education should change immediately. My experience with the retreat shows just how much we’re dis-servicing future generations with such a pace. And I thank you for the reminder. As I discuss above, I think the student mindset is currently that college will do it all for us. That needs to change.
@ Stuart – Haha, you make me chuckle. What things could have been different for you? Knowing you a bit, I know you’re a smart person, so it sounds like college just wasn’t challenging enough for you. Would you concur and how would you change it?
Bravo Rebecca! I think about this even now, knowing that I am looking at MBAs. I want something useful and meaningful. For me, undergrad wasn’t about what I did in the classroom, but outside of it. I learned more valuable skills about leadership, organization, politics, budget management, engagement, and so on through my sorority activities. I also held three part-time jobs at the same time, so I know how to juggle. I think back now, and can’t even remember some of the classes I took…and that was only 4 years ago! But I remember the ethics lessons I had to learn with an executive board when they had to go through disciplinary reviews.
I also wish I had more options for practical education. I went to a hard-core liberal arts school that sends you out into the real world not understanding credit card debt, differences in investments, how to buy a house, ways to navigate tough political situations in the office, or any of the skills that might have been useful. Sure, I can google for advice now, but I look at my degree on the wall and wonder what it really means.
This is a hot topic for me.
I am totally on board with Launce Haun. I disagree that colleges are pushing students to specialize too early. If that were the case, then why is there an increasing “need” for graduate schools and why do recent graduates have so much trouble landing jobs (aside from the economy). If anything, most undergraduate majors do not teach its students useful sets of skills to specialize in the first place. We’re spending more and more time accumulating credits and having less to show for it. They should just eliminate undergraduate programs all together because it is turning out to be a second high school diploma, and a general one at that.
Rather, I feel like colleges force students to specialize too late by imposing useless requirements and over encouraging students to spend years upon years in graduate school before starting their careers. In my experience, undergraduate and many graduate programs feel like limbo compared to getting out working and getting experience with a company or on your own (start a business). I didn’t feel like a specialist at all when I graduated. Myself and most of my friends had to settle for low wage paying jobs that didn’t even require college degrees, even though we all majored in hard sciences.
That said, I do agree on two things. 1) It is primarily the STUDENT’S responsibility to ensure that they get the experience and skill set they need. Yes, this creates an entirely too passive education system, but you cannot completely blame colleges for that. I’d rather have more personal responsibility than have other people dictate to me what I need to be doing or when and forcing me to jump over a bunch of hoops like a trained pet. In my case, my situation is totally my fault, because I really didn’t know what I wanted and I thought I had to go to college to figure it out.
Because of that, I also agree that 2) we ARE pushing too many people into college. In order for students to take responsibility for their education, they need to know what they want to do in the first place. Many high school students and graduates don’t know what they want because, instead of getting exposure, they’ve been too busy, again, crammed into classrooms, meeting a bunch of nonsensical high school requirements, and taking/retaking countless redundant and discriminating state and national exams.
Just cut out all the bureaucracy and there will be less people floating around aimlessly, not knowing what to do, and going into debt over it. At the very least, if people want to float around aimlessly, don’t trick them into going in debt over it.
Really though-provoking post, Rebecca. I’ve really enjoyed reading this as well as everyone’s comments.
Like Adrienne, I have a love/hate relationship with college. In one aspect, it was the greatest 4 years of my life. I studied abroad, got involved in a ton of activities, met some of my best friends and experienced a lifestyle that I’ll never again have the opportunity to do.
On the other hand, I do feel like universities are not doing everything they can to help students transition from college to the real world. They definitely making an effort, but they’re not quite achieving the success that they should with their.
I work in PR – and I majored in corporate communications. I guarantee that I would not have gotten my current (or past) job without my specialized major. So I must disagree with your idea that colleges are becoming too specialized. My friends that majored in more general studies like English or Psychology have had a MUCH more difficult time trying to find a job. As much as we like to think that a major is just a major and that having a 4 year degree should be enough to help us get a job following graduation – I just don’t think that’s enough anymore.
@ Emily – Similar to you, some of my most valuable experiences in college were those outside the classroom – I too held multiple jobs/internships and was the President of my major’s student association. Students that don’t take the initiative are missing out on some valuable experience, but I think there’s ways that college can build this into the curriculum too.
@ Valerie – I haven’t seen any articles or research anywhere that there’s an increasing “need” for graduate schools – would love for you to point me to some if you have it. People are going back to graduate school more now because supposedly there aren’t any jobs during the recession. I’m not a fan of graduate school at all, unless you’re looking at a professional degree in business (MBA), medicine or law.
@ Jennifer – Thanks for the comment, Jennifer! We have very different experiences re: majors. Since I work in PR, I would strongly argue you DON’T need a degree to do good PR, and indeed that’s ridiculous. PR is about building relationships, and being persistent and persuasive. I don’t have a degree in PR or marketing or communications or even English, and I didn’t have any jobs with those things in my title prior to this job. What your friends need to learn, and another thing colleges need to learn to teach them, is how to talk about how your skills in one area prepare you for xyz job. Most of our skills our transferable, and I wish more people understood this (sorry, hot topic for me : ). Would love to hear more about your experience.
Rebecca:
Your command of the facts is impressive and you are asking the right questions. I teach marketing at University of Notre Dame. I work very hard to make the class relevant, but reality is that what I teach is likely to be old hat by the time my students graduate. Also, a small proportion of business students even go into marketing (although that is on the upswing). Instead, what they are learning is how to think like marketers and to analyze marketing problems. Five years ago i was talking about BMW Films, now it’s Twitter. Five years from now it will be something else. It doesn’t really matter, the principles endure. Relevance is overrated.
I think parents bear some blame in this. At Notre Dame, tuition as with any selective university is outrageously expensive, a fact I am keenly aware of since my daughter is sophomore there and I have no tuition relief. Given the ‘investment’, parents push students to study for a career, yet as your commenters point out, a career is something you can learn on the job. My daughter is studying the great books and theater. Will she use those in her job? Probably not directly, but at least she will know how to think, write and debate her ideas. That’s invaluable for her life as well as her career. College is different things to different people. If fewer people are studying philosophy and great books, it’s because our culture has devalued those studies.
Very thought provoking post, and I can definitely see its merits in some of my friends who are still in college.
I can relate to Stuart. I’ve never been a “good student” primarily because school bored me and I didn’t care enough. As far as it seemed, I was jumping through hoops to get a piece of paper that said I knew what I was talking about, when realistically, no one would believe it anyway until I had a different piece of paper (resume) that had experience that claimed I knew what I was talking about.
That said, college was a great experience. I used the lack of most “real world” pressures as an opportunity to do the bare minimum (3.0) in school, giving me as much time as possible to build a reputation and a ground of experience. If I were to do anything differently, honestly, I would probably spend more time doing non-school related activities and push toward starting a business.
I will say, however, that my last year was worth something, as going through a business development major taught me great and deeper analytical skills.
Looking forward to part 2!
One additional thought to add:
I wonder even how much schools believe in themselves anymore? I received a number of honors for my “extra curricular activities”, and was profiled above students with spectacular GPAs. Business schools may be different than other professional schools at universities, though. Just an additional, random interjection.
I think the problem began years ago. With the previous generation who is now in management at universities. As one commenter pointed out, they’re throwing money at buildings, news headlines, coaches, and not professors.
But I’m going to jump off the bandwagon for a second, hopefully this gives a bit of a kick start. I think the problem is one of expectations, and the kids who show up at the door. Like Stuart, I didn’t ever try very hard in either high school or college. I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but supposedly I went to one of the best high schools in my state – I didn’t believe them when they told me that. It wasn’t challenging. I took four AP courses my senior year and slept through most of it. I came into college 4 credits shy of a sophmore, graduated with a 3.6 a quarter early, without much effort. I actually regret not finding other opportunities while I was there – because there are people far far beyond me in talent and skill (and one notable college dropout who is, without a doubt, the smartest person I know and now works for Google).
I had no expectations, and I had no desire. Another commenter wrote that people should be learning all the time, and that learning is our real job. I couldn’t agree more. I only figured that one out several years out of school.
The reason kids are failing is that the society which has brought them to school has not prepared them for it. They don’t know how to learn. They don’t know how to think critically. They don’t know how to ask the right questions. To be sure, universities as a social institution bears some blame, but so do the rest of our social institutions. On the whole, almost every aspect of greater society is on the decline. (That is not to say, of course, that we don’t have our standouts and shining stars, just that the mean has dropped far below acceptable).
The teacher/student relationship has been in place since Aristotle. And many of our other most basic thinking principles are still rooted there. I don’t see that being overturned. It has undergone modifications, no doubt. “How should we modify the university?” is a question that likely has an answer. “How should we modify society?” I wouldn’t even know where to begin.
I was struck by the way that you framed this blog post. I agree that the educational system in America is far from perfect, but I find it interesting that you put almost the entire blame on the universities.
I personally worked by butt off in college (like you!), and I know that I spent far more than 30 hours a week studying and writing papers. I think that 30 hours of sleep during the week would be more accurate for me. And most kids who went to my school took summer school classes, so we didn’t only study 30 weeks per year.
While I will not try to argue that the universities in the this country are not to blame, I think a lot of this responsibility needs to fall to the students themselves. And perhaps some lack of work ethic and study habits should be attributed to earlier education, but I remember the phrase I heard most often in college, “Your education is what you make it.”
I could have taken 12 hours of credit each semester and graduated in four years with one major. Instead, like most students, I tried to take 18 credits each semester and graduated with two majors and a minor (one of the biggest complaints at school was that we were only allowed to have two majors).
My one complaint with education in universities at this point is the lack of preparation for a real job. Yes, I think I learned a great deal, and yes, I think I have the skill set I need to be competitive. But what about all the other stuff that comes with being a “grown-up”? Keeping a budget? Networking? Those are the only skills I wish I could have learned in college that I did not.
Rebecca
@ Rebecca: That is why I put the “need” in quotation marks. It’s a perceived need, not a real one. A lot of people ARE going back to grad school because of the recession, but it was happening before the recession hit as well. At the very least, I know that within the field that I studied, it’s tricky been tricky for years to get by on an undergraduate degree alone. This is my personal experience and I know plenty of other people with this dilemma, inside and outside my field. It’s not like I chose what some would consider to be a “fluffy” major either.
Of course my social circle does not represent the entire U.S., but neither does a lot of ‘research.’ So take what I say (or anyone else) with a grain of salt, of course. I realize I’m simply stating what I’ve been seeing and experiencing from my own perspective of the world.
However if a lot of people are going back to grad school, for whatever reason, it tells me a lot. Most undegraduate programs aren’t doing anything to help students specialize at all, which is my point. Eventually a lot of people will hit a glass ceiling, of course, and need more education and training. That is a given. But now, we’re hitting that glass ceiling at an earlier age, recession or no.
As far as the professional schools you mention, their usefulness should be looked at on a case-by-case. Too many people (at least, in my field of study) label them as a safe or smart decision, when this isn’t always the case. I wanted to be a health professional and was moving in that direction until I found out how screwed up and unsuited for me the industry really is. Of course, you’ll always have a job as a health care professional, but it comes at a high price. The question is, are you willing to pay that price? I’m sure a lot of lawyers would agree with that sentiment. It’s a good choice for some people, but not all.
Sorry for my rant, it just really lit a fire under me. As always, Rebecca, great post!
Love the part about Failure Factories. As tuition costs sky rocket, universities try to maintain the “traditional educational environment.” Universities will have to adapt to the intelligence based evolution of web 3.0. Change seems eminent!
Thanks,
Kevin
Excellent post. The Onion has a good article on the value of some higher education: “University Implicated In Checks-For-Degrees Scheme.”
I do not qualify to talk about the failures or successes of US Colleges however I do think Universities should prepare us as a complete individual. I don’t think it is about ramping up your work rate. I think it’s about forming your creative and critical mind, preparing you socially to live in a connected world, developing you physically and emotionally as well. Academia is only part of the equation of a good university stay: sports, social activities, arts, life on campus are also fundamental to make you ready for the big wide world.
I was a kid when I entered uni: I didn’t quitecome out a complete mature person but I can tell you it’s not just the academic part that I know realise was so integral to make me who I am today.
My two pennies ;)
Rebecca – a great post, well-written and definitely thought-provoking, though I’m not sure I agree with you.
Whatever happened to personal responsibility? Why is the blame placed solely on the schools when students have just as much responsibility as well? Yes, there’s plenty wrong with higher education that we need to fix, but I’m not sure all of the blame should be placed on the schools.
College isn’t always the answer for everyone, but students who do choose to attend college (any kind of college) should be making the effort to do everything they can to get the most out of it. Gen Y needs to take responsibility for their education and not expect everything to be handed to them on a silver platter.
I also think there’s something to the idea of blending the practical and the theoretical. If the debate is between a well-rounded liberal arts education or a specialized, practical, application-based education, why not aim for both. Make college five year – the first two, a liberal arts core curriculum touching on a little bit of every subject, then three years of in-depth, practical courses supplemented with real-world experience.
I’m Gen Y and I spent my last semester of college taking three classes, researching and writing a thesis and working two part-time jobs (one a work-study position, the other an internship). I felt prepared for the “real world” when I graduated because I worked hard to earn my degree.
By all means, let’s find solutions to fix the schools, but how about we throw in some of our own effort as well?
I look at a college degree as a ticket to the big game.
That’s it. You need one to gain entrance…what you do from there is your call though.
Interesting discussion! Especially since I never expected my undergraduate degree to prepare me for the “real world.”
I understood that a liberal arts degree would allow me to explore ideas and develop my own — not prepare me for a specific job. And as such, I suppose it is really a luxury to have had the time to do so. (I do hope I will be able to provide this to my children too.)
I actually think it borders on the unethical to provide a liberal arts student with student loan in the 10s of thousands of dollars (on par with sub-prime mortgages), since upon completion what awaits is an entry level job that certainly won’t pay well, but will introduce you to the “real world.”
Other degree programs may be more geared for a specific job preparation, but mine certainly wasn’t. And in this regard, I think your points are bang-on.
I don’t have the answers so I will eagerly await your post tomorrow. My concerns and interests on this topic lay with:
— parents failing to prepare their own children for the “real world” by not teaching work ethic, time management, accountability, etc.
— professors who have never actually worked in the “real world” are ill-positioned to prepare others for it
— ways that a university environment can cultivate innovation amongst its student body
Until the next post! Julie
Rebecca,
I find this particular post interestingly close to my heart. I found myself in the same situation as you (and it seems many other readers here). I was also wait listed originally at my local college (UNC-Chapel Hill) but instead of getting in at the last minute, I was denied. But that didn’t stop me; I applied for a transfer and got in the second time around. There I worked my butt off, but also made my education my own. I studied abroad for a semester, was a transfer student, and graduated in 3.5 years with a major, minor, and a 3.9 GPA as well.
Point being, many fellow students thought I was an insane above-and-beyond student, but to me I was just trying to get what I thought I needed out of my education. Part of the reason I graduated early was because I didn’t feel like I was getting enough real-world experience and so I took my “final semester” after I graduated to intern full-time. And how did I graduate early many asked? I don’t believe every required course has be taken. There are plenty of students out there who already know the material for a course and would rather take a course about something they know nothing about. I went to some professors and asked if I could study for 2 weeks and then take the final to place out of the course. No problem. Other students looked at me in disbelief when hearing this. But this is your education; you’re paying for it; why not take your education into your own hands?
Yes, I do think that I learned a lot in college and it has definitely helped me to get to where I am now, but was it enough? I don’t think so.
I work now in education policy research because I thought that the education systems needed to change for the better. Higher education has been here for maaaany many years and has changed dramatically over that time, but don’t forget that the student population has changed a lot too. Students just expect to go to college and that they can surf through to get a degree. The students you’re talking about that graduate in 6+ years or don’t graduate at all… they just don’t take their education seriously these days
I feel very lucky because I didn’t go to college- I went to the real world, CO to L.A. right at 17. I had to get a job and WORK and learn to be street savvy, etc. and learn to be an adult. Now i’m 23 and many of my friends just got out of school and want to be writers, or in similar fields that I’ve already DONE- but they have NO IDEA where to start. Whereas, i’ve already gone through the process of having jobs i didnt like and weeding them out early, so that i didnt get stuck in something I hated forever. There’s no HANDBOOK on how to be a freelance writer- there’s a million tips someone can give you but the truth is you just have ot get out there and try to do it….now i have all my friends emailing me for advice, they have a fancy degree- but they dont have any experience. If anything, not going to school made me FIGURE OUT A WAY TO MAKE IT WORK, without someone holding my hand.
That being said, college is a GREAT route for some people- just wasn’t the route for me.
This is a very interesting and relevant post, something that I have heard little discussion of but found myself and my peers wondering often throughout our four university years.
Contrary to what you and many others here are positing, I don’t believe the responsibility falls on the university or higher-ed system (well, not solely). In fact, I observed far too many students expecting far too much of their professors, advisors, and larger college community. Those four years, to me, were about developing the capacity to act and think and make decisions about my future rather than having a college counselor advise me on which to path to go. And once I made a decision about my path (i.e. my major) it was up to ME to decide how I could make the most of it – and to seek out the help I needed along the way. I think too many college go-ers enter with the notion that college is their ticket to success – but they have no clue what they have to do in between points A and B. And so many believe that college will just magically take them from A to B.
Where colleges could improve is in letting students know that these four years are really up to them, not providing them with every comfort of home in dorms, or posting every lecture’s slides online so that going to class becomes entirely arbitrary. What you get out of college IS what you make of it!
I think you are drastically underestimating the amount of jobs that need specialization. I would say that many of the reasons why people are switching careers six times before they are 30 (or whatever that number actually is) is because they may be good at a lot of things but they aren’t great at anything.
If you want to go new school skills, we can talk about SEO and the difference between someone who has worked with it in a for-profit environment for three to four years versus a newbie who just has some education. Looking at results, looking at opportunity cost, the choice is clear: we never wanted a SEO person who didn’t get close to that sort of experience.
As far as career exploration, that’s why I think the push to get kids in college right after high school is a major part of the problem. Maybe they should try six careers before 25 to get a sense of whether college is necessary and what track they should take? The current system burdens people with massive debt while they are in career exploration mode after school. That puts a lot of unnecessary pressure on someone.
@Rebecca I definitely see what you’re saying and perhaps I need to clarify. By no means to you have to have a major in PR, marketing, communications, etc. to do well in this business (you are a great example of that); however, I do think that it helps and only strengthens your already-existing qualifications. In such a competitive job market, anything you can do to give yourself a one-up can work in your favor. And I think having a specialized major is one of those things. I agree with you, all those qualifications you mentioned: building relationships, and being persistent and persuasive are extremely important.
It seems that our experiences have been very different…quite the opposite actually so maybe we’ll just agree to disagree. :)
Thanks again for the blog post!
RE Meredith’s comment.
I share the sentiments, what we don’t extract from life’s experiences is due to our short term vision.
One of the most important concept for Gen Y is to create their own You Inc and use the opportunities of work and school for their benefit instead of expecting. There are a lot of opportunities/freedom for today’s 20-something than previous generations and with that comes responsibilities.
20-Somethings have more responsibilities to themselves than ever before.
College has no guarantees for any specifics except that you meet the criteria to be recognized in having studied for your subject. That’s one part of college. The other part is growing up and learning about life – and college, as an institution, is not responsible for – each of us is for our own lives.
Learning not to expect, but to create opportunities is an entrepreneurial spirit that runs through successful people.
Thank you for a great post. You do a marvelous job in your blogs! Bravo!
Thanks for the blog post.
like many people have said there are problems all over the place from the student to the college, to our culture. so its hard to point the problem to just one
I really think many people have different experiences with college, where mine was great, I learned so much and gained so much from my 4 years. I worked hard, had many aboard experiences during, have many different jobs on campus, outside activity. But now that I have a liberal arts education its much harder to find a job when I was working.
So for me it was on the other end where businesses and employers didn’t understand that I might even be better then a business major or another person that was specialized then me who understood many subjects.
So I really think its the whole side of it where some people need to specialize in some subjects but for the most of us we need liberal arts education for some of it and then grad school or extra or that our major comes into play for our “area”. We need more people that understand many things and the whole world around them, But that is just me.
Maybe we need options for those who know for sure what they need and want to do in middle/high school can start on their subject where others can do it much later with a 5th-6th year of college.
Thanks again! Can’t wait to read part 2
UMASS Boston is a commuter school…..(I don’t know about Montana or New Mexico) I would be curious to see the historical data to compare the 33% to the historical average.
I think that part of the problem in the U.S. is that we send everyone to college / university. You could be a complete idiot, but you’re going to get that degree (even if you shouldn’t necessarily be there).
Ultimately, I think the students need to take some of the blame. …figure out what classes you need to take, study, talk to an advisor. It doesn’t seem like rocket science….I’m not saying this is the case, but maybe the bigger issue is that Gen Yers have a harder time adapting to college compared to previous generations. If that is the case, then their parents are to blame.
I think I can address a small portion of the “longer than 4 years” degree. At the University I work for, some departments don’t offer “required” courses but every other year. When trying to take all these courses, much too often students have to choose between required courses each semester and as seniors, some of their courses aren’t offered when they still need them. This is a cost saving measure by the departments that cost students dearly in living expenses, tuition and fees and student loans for another semester, two or more.
I think there is definitely some failing going on in education…but I don’t see how that is a new thing. Academia has always differed from the real world, but it is possible that both are necessary parts of a single journey. I don’t think I learned a lot of relevant information in my majors in the four years it took me to complete a bachelor’s degree, but I did have a lot of relevant experiences and I have been able to build on my knowledge as my real world experience has gone along.
I agree that it may be time for the academic world to look at how they are preparing students, but as we have seen in the past – academia works a few years behind the rest of the world.
Rebecca,
Completely agree with you about the current situation our country is in with the Gen Yer’s getting a lack of education at colleges. It continues to decline each year as funding gets cut and state grants disappear. The breakdown in colleges failures I believe starts with the class room size and instructors. To many times have I been in a crowded auditorium with the same old monotone professor. What bothers me is that professor is close to making six figures and they cannot try to make things interesting? They use the same slides and notes since they started barely changing with the boring book that they make you memorize.
If they would make the classes smaller and more intimate explaining real life situations. Going into detail how they used Marketing or Biology to solve their problem that would be a much more successful real life expereince. One of my biggest pet peeves while in college and even now is the student that just graduated with there MBA with no work experience becoming a college professor. This boggles my mind to no end that person has no real life experience outside of college life to offer a student?
Just my opinion.
This article was great by the way I will subscribe to your feed to get further updates!
Scott
I agree with what you are saying. Being a Gen Yer myself and graduating this upcoming semester with six years under my belt. What I’ve learned though is that taking this long to graduate has actually helped me grow to be a better person, something I may not have recognized if I finished in four years. Anyways, thanks for your time and input and look forward to your next post.
Rebecca –
Couldn’t agree more with some of the points pointed out here – and in the comments as well. I went to NYU, and had a very different experience from most college students that attend state and/or suburban/rural schools. The best part about NYU for me was the fact that I was encouraged to study the things I was passionate about, but also to take advantage of the job market of NYC, and the places and things that could help me get to where I wanted to go.
An internship requirement that I completed in my program was one of the most formative experiences – because it eloquently illustrated that link between what we learn, and what we actually do.
i think it is really important for us to consider that academic passion still means something. Good for you for being so involved, and for showing a commitment to what you loved about your college experience.
Rebecca,
You bring up some intriguing points. I think part of the issue is the way college (4 year degree) is presented to junior high and high schoolers. I recall hearing over and over again from teachers and counselors how important it was to attend college. What I ended up hearing was “you are a loser and will never be successful if you don’t go to college”. I had planned on going anyway, but mostly because it was the thing to do, not because I necessarily wanted it.
I was all set to attend a state school but I ended up getting sidetracked, making stupid teenager mistakes. I took a low-level office job and soon realized that I really did want more out of life and that I wanted to go to school. I went to my local tech school and took university transfer courses so that I could attend the UW. When I finally got there and started taking classes I was elated, but it was because I wanted to be there.
I think education is important and there are always going to be professions where specialized schooling just can’t be replaced. But I think providing teenagers with alternatives and helping them see viable career paths outside of a 4-year degree might be an important step in the right direction.
I’m really looking forward to your solutions post!
I think Lance brings up an excellent point. Most countries make you specialize much sooner. While I dislike many European systems that pigeonhole people at such a young age, I find it hard to believe that the US system of higher education forces you to specialize too early. The breadth of coursework required to graduate from most four-year universities makes people flexible to take on a number of different professions throughout a career. The major can certainly help you out in careers in related professional fields, but it doesn’t necessarily lock you out of less relevant fields.
I would love to hear your alternative to the major-based track.
In reply to your reply to Lance, Gladwell’s point about 10,000 hours was only to explain how outliers–to the tune of Bill Gates and Tiger Woods–arise. I’m not sure how that relates to higher education administration, but I would like to hear the connection if you have it.
[…] post on how colleges are failing Generation Y explored the collapse of our education system. There were so many good comments from that post, I […]
I must say this post made me a little sad to read! We learn about how social media and so many other things are changing at such a rapid pace, yet I haven’t seen such rapid changes to my school except budget cuts…I do need to add though, that I am completing my senior level classes for a business degree in management – and some of them have been absolutely fabulous.
Thanks for the insightful post!
I’m a high school senior who’s about to go off to college this year. Thank you for this post. It’s a great call to action for those of us to keep in mind before we dive in to the college experience.
It is even worse that that. Take a look at public schools and the failures there. This can often be cited be the root to the issues that you mentioned. I have three kids. One graduated three years ago, one last May and one next May. After struggling to figure out their goals, all three have ultimately decided on a plan after college knowing full well that they were old enough to start taking care of their lives themselves.
Kids often go to college for no goal in mind. I don’t care if you start out undecided and work your way to a goal. But by graduation you should have some sort of sense of something you want to do next. Some sort of direction. It doesn’t have to be a life time thing. You need to leave college with some sort of skills. I told my children that they are building a tool kit that will help them for life. They need to fill it with whatever tools they see fit.
Often times when choosing a college, there seems to be no purpose. The kids look at college shopping like going to the mall and shopping. They see the front facade, the glitzy products and think I could shop there. To me they need to see the college choice process as looking at that same store and say would I want to work there. What will I learn, what experiences will I gain for life and what will my return on both my efforts and financial commitment be. Tough sounding but at today’s costs, it has to be considered.
College should be a privilege, not some sort of half-hearted attempt to delay the inevitable. Now I am not saying all college students behave this way. Many don’t. But parents need to step up and stay involved and demand changes if their children are squandering their opportunity. Our institutions need to make changes. While the model has been around for centuries, the world changes daily. It is quite interesting that the educational process is of such great importance to our children yet in its entirety it often so miserably fails to achieve its most basic goal. To educate our children.
bravo for an excellent blog post and i hope you do more. of all the comments i found my own view well expressed by liz:
“What I [heard as a high schooler] was “you are a loser and will never be successful if you don’t go to college”.
it’s very true that minors are expected to make hefty decisions that will have major impact on their lives, and how many kids are really prepared to calmly make such decisions? esp when college is marketed to them as a grand romantic experience? with brochures full of people riding horses and generally smiling and having fun?
How often do you hear of “new and exciting” high school experiments, whose primary goal is not to cultivate individual talent or desire, or give kids marketable skills in the here and now, but merely “to get all our kids into college”? on 60 minutes last week for one.
there is tremendous pressure placed on high schoolers to go to college without any real thought about what they will do once they get there, much less after the graduate. it is offered as, and widely believed to be, a magical solution to all problems.
those who understand the system do well in it. college is an institution that has its own goals and priorities, and you must come at it with your own. sadly, many kids think the college has their best interests in mind, when their interests are secondary to the interests of the institution.
college is more than education. it’s a badge of social standing that your kid “goes to harvard.” people are willing to pay for that by itself, and so the market charges. it’s a safe(r) place to send your kid to meet the “right” person to marry. and of course the connections you make, esp at the “better” schools” where the rich and powerful send their kids, can be worth far more than what you learn in class. for some, the value is there.
my question is, what did college actually offer you (in black and white) for your tuition money? We’re all assuming that there is a deal in place– where is it? I just got a brochure from boston college that says “advance your expectations.” i have no idea what that means. the typical deal offered by colleges is to “open the door to getting you on the path to . . .”
final question: individual stories aside, what are we, as a culture, getting from the university system for our money? think for a moment just how much of GDP goes to colleges, in terms of tuition paid by each student, subsidy and guarantee of student loans, estate and other bequests (huge), research and govt grants, and no taxes on their ever-growing ownership of the private sector via their endowments? that’s a LOT of capital, folks (much of which probably goes to be handled by major investments banks). could we get the same benefit for less money? would the money you pay for tuition be better spent on starting a small business?
other than the military and minimum wage jobs, at the moment, for the average high schooler there is no other game in town. “college” has taken on the aura of a state sponsored religion. bravo to you for your heretic post.
bottom line: college is a business. big business. they need to attract tuition money, and they need to attract outside funding by expanding constantly and creating projects to pitch to potential donors.
caveat emptor.
oops, wrong website listed above- jl
Rebecca,
Interesting post.
How many people do you know who can say they used their college education in their day to day jobs? College has become a rite of passage. Go to college get a job, work, works, work etc. and if you are lucky get a raise from time to time.
You do have to give credit to the school who have added courses to address today’s economy and technology (classes on social media, internet marketing, etc)
The cost issues is scary. As the cost continues to rise more and more people will just get deeper into debt that will only take them years to pay off. I love finding companies like http://www.straighterline.com they make the basic college course available at reasonable prices.
I am off to read the your follow up post now.
I think the problem is that people assume the aim of college is to find a job. This thinking should be dispelled. I think the age range from 18-24 is an important time where they learn discipline, patience, and developing interests along a broad field of knowledge. College can be an excellent experience to develop as a person, but is not an end-all for job woes.
I think the skills that students develop at a good liberal arts college are valuable. This is where other colleges that aim to pass students through, fail. Also, for someone going back to school later in life, their needs are different than an 18 year old from high school.
This article is particularly relevant for me. I was lucky that I gained some marketable skill in computers early on. I was interested in software, the web, as well as, putting computers together. These are skills that I learned in extracurricular activities in high school, though.
In college, I took some science, math, and software writing classes (C, C++), and I ultimately ended up in Philosophy (the dwindling major). I went on to pursue a MA in Philosophy, and I can’t say that I regret it.
My personal feelings are that the critical thinking methodology that exists in strong social science classes are far more helpful for most students. (Unless you are going into the Sciences) Learning how to write, speak, and argue. Symbolic logic in Philosophy and Discrete Math in Computer science teach proofs, arguments, and thinking your way through solutions.
Although I didn’t learn any additional “practical” skills in college, the time I spent getting my BA and MA (the average 6 years noted in this article) allowed me to mature, know how to complete things on deadline, and work on and put in hours into long term projects.
Many of my cohorts left college to start at marketing level jobs, consultation companies, and finance. Many of those jobs seem to rely on a mentoring policy that relies on strong communication and solid educational background. I think for most jobs out there, especially in communications, you cannot predict what skillset will be necessary. You need to find a field that interests you and let your intellectual curiosity guide you.
Dear Rebecca-
Love the post, and I agree that higher education certainly has many issues. It’s failing Generation Y, as it did generations before them. For myself, I was a first generation student, and made the huge turn-around after a few years off to 4.0 student, including straight in to a maximum-load clinical psych graduate program where neuroscience, pharmacology, experimental stats, and many other technical courses were the mainstay.
You might find it interesting that I actually operate a college entry and re-entry program. I wound up doing this type of work after many strange twists, and really love it. I work with students directly in the Pittsburgh area, and do distance consultations to parents and students in many states. So, the topic of college failure is too big for me to drone on about here.
If I had to sum up what I’m thinking: College remains, for the average person, the most certain way to increase one’s earning power. That credential serves to preserve earning power (in comparison to non-grads), and ultimately helps our labor force be competitive in the world. The U.S. currently ranks 15th out of 29 developed nations in college graduation rates, so low graduation rates not only hurt the individual, but have national implications.
As workers, students can’t see themselves as relying on employers as previous generations did. Trends-watching and entrepreneurial thinking must be part of their outlook so they can position themselves for the future. So, specialization can be very useful as a tool, but not without understanding the big picture trends that will affect us all.
[…] Rebecca Thorman raised some excellent points in her recent posts on Gen Y and the university system. While there’s no doubt in my mind that system has room for […]
[…] says “use quickbooks.” That’s what happens to graduates all over the country. Rebecca Thorman’s post addresses how colleges are failing students, but I really think the over reliance on theory in the […]
I’m a Gen Y sophomore college student and I totally agree that my generation is choosing to specialize too early. We have this mindset that the perfect major will land us the perfect job in 4 years. Total b.s.
But I think that the Gen Y mindset has been enforced by our Gen X parents who focused on climbing ladders. Having the “right” foundations early on could mean a leg up on the rest of the population.
I’m getting the notion that Bachelor’s degrees matter much less than getting a Master’s or going to medical or business school these days. Am I right?
[…] a comment » A lot of people have been writing about education lately. Is the university system failing its students? Are students failing to take the opportunities abound on their campuses? […]
[…] No “A for Effort:” How Colleges Fail Generation Y Education is failing a startling rate. Universities have declining assets, growing liabilities, and […]
[…] Get into education administration, lobby reform to politicians, overthrow outdated lesson plans, revolutionize school requirements, change the whole entire educational […]
Since writing your article, it seems that things haven’t gotten much better. Did you hear about tuition going up again this year? Let’s hope things start to get better….
College is a load of crap designed to make people feel inadequate. It’s also only relevant within the realm of academia and certainly does not have the bearing on the outside world that everyone seems to think it does. I think alot of people have a hard time separating the facts from the generalizations people usually make about college.
I’ve been attending University for 6 years now. Did great the first year, and all went downhill from there. I havent learned anything of worth to share with society or in anyway relevant past my biology classes. College hasnt helped me discover what direction I want to take with my life other than making it clear I despise academics and most things related to my mayor ( by now, since I enrolled liking the subject, but developed an aversion to it). Most relevant things I’ve learned, I have learned by myself buying books, reading in the library or reading on the internet, or just through experience. I dont work well in the college environment, and the way I learn is different from the way courses are taught. The stupidity and irrelevantness of many classes have swayed me to skip many class periods and just attend the necessary days, to get a passing grade and move on. I know full well grades dont reflect how much you know or retained or understood the course material. Right now Im in probation, and I think I will be dismissed this year. My father is very immature and im worried of how he will react. Im trying to just keep this under the covers while I put my stuff together. Im planning to just keep studying on my own in the library and maybe drop in in a few classes without enrolling, as well as getting a job/starting a business with my mother to start saving money. Perhaps that way I can study where I want instead of just where I can afford. Maybe a college with no-grades system, and more modern and practical facilities. Maybe ill do a community college. Im not sure. I know I can make money without a bachelors, I just have to be creative. But I’d really like to go back to college later and get a degree that I find meaningful and practical. I;ll see. At least is summer. Theres time to ponder and experiment.
[…] kids into vast amounts of financial turmoil, and for what? Disaster. And while that may be true (education does need a transformation), debt is not the main issue on a young person’s […]
I attended the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia…the first school of Pharmacy right? Well, I struggled a bit in pharmacy school, didn’t get much help when I sought it out. It was a 6-year, PharmD program. I was there for 7 for medical and personal reasons, and because my semester GPA was a fraction below the minimum required GPS needed to continue to the final year, they dropped me from the program. Well, I thought, ok I’ll take the bachelors and get a job, then eventually go back to get my Masters and Doctorate. The Bachelors of Science in Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Studies they gave me? Worthless. It was not representative at all of what I know. I couldn’t explain it to people. And most of them expected it was a general studies degree. After over a year of trying to find a full time job and not really knowing what my degree was good for, I emailed the school and asked what exactly other people who received the same degree went on to do. You know what my career options were with this degree and all the experience and skills I obtained? People either became Pharmacy Technicians, Pharmaceutical Sales Reps, or simply went on to graduate school… I already work less than part time as a pharmacy technician, I have no intention of being a pharmaceutical sales rep, and I tried for the past two years to get into a Masters programs and couldn’t get in. I’m still at a loss with this worthless degree.