In response to:
Even in engineering, business, nursing school (or any other specialized field) a student has to slog through about 45-60 hours of CRAP courses before they even get to touch their major. Yeah, I know, some will argue that fluff courses give a student a chance to explore different fields, but shouldn't a student have some type of plan (other than to enjoy four years of maximum freedom with minimum responsibility) before they attend? Then again, how many kids are pushed into college because it's only the "dumb" kids who attend trade school or go to community colleges.
My daughter is a junior in high school, and I'm scared to death.
Imagine that you have a product whose price tag for decades rises faster than inflation. But people keep buying it because they're told that it will make them wealthier in the long run. Then, suddenly, they find it doesn't. Prices fall sharply, bankruptcies ensue, great institutions disappear.
Sound like the housing market? Yes, but it also sounds like what Glenn Reynolds, creator of instapundit.com, writing in The Washington Examiner, has called "the higher education bubble."
Government-subsidized loans have injected money into higher education, as they did into housing, causing prices to balloon. But at some point people figure...
I teach in a community college but graduated from one of those elite universities, then got an MBA from a solid state school. A few thoughts...
It is quite alright to get a taste of college at the local community college...you can even do that while in H.S. Perhaps someone who is uncertain what they want to pursue is better served to start at community college.
I think that my expensive private school (Emory Univ,) was a waste of money.
I believe that those core courses that you call "crap courses" are important as part of an overall liberal education (not in the political sense).
The correlation between college degrees and income remains VERY solid...that's why state schools sometimes with HOPE type programs make a lot of...