"What changed this was admitting hardship cases on merit"
What changed it more was "big time" college sports. Hardship cases may have had some academic merit that could add to the presumptive educational mission. Shoehorning in lunkheaded but athletically-gifted "student athletes", on the other hand, degraded the colleges into nothing more than minor leagues franchises designed to raise prestige and that most sacred thing in the modren age, revenue. The academic mission could go pound sand. This also lead eventually to racial "integration" and, worst of the lot, Title IX.
That’s the cascade that broke the system. That the majority can’t see the contradiction between pro sport spectacle and educational mission is insane. Not having a definable purpose as an institution is an invitation to beast degeneration and inversion.
Although the SBC sports scene was very different from a power school. Not sure about the current day. I'm not exactly an engaged alumnus.
I achieved a BS in History. Yes, I know...but that is what I am actually interested in, and it should have been enough to land a teaching job. Oh, how ignorant I was of the edyookashunal complex and its boorocracies.
Therein lies the problem with many, I believe. I took a business major that I had no passion for, and not only is the degree itself useful for landing a decent job, but what I have learned in college is highly beneficial in general.
One good thing about east-coast SBCs: they once were very tough, very rigorous institutions that worked their students hard. That gave them great reputations. Not so much because they had highly inquisitive students with a strong spirit of learning (quite the opposite), but because rich New England WASPs sent their spoiled-brat kids there to be brought down a few pegs and learn a little humility while they made future business contacts and enjoyed four years of drunken debauchery. (Episcopalians particularly loved their alcohol.) That culture is gradually fading.
I must dissent, hear me out. There is a big movement within the hard-right to deny the value of college, and this is wrong. Its as bad as any dumb Boomer knee-jerk advice slogan. College is an opportunity to level-up in ways you cannot imagine right now. Let me be the first to say, college is not for everyone, and it was never intended to be. Just as there is a person for whom is college is not right, there is another person for whom is EXACTLY right. They were made to be scholars. If scholarship is your passion or nascent talent, then go for it! The common theme across the anit-college crowd is they have bullshit majors like economics, english lit, marketing, ect. If you major in STEM you are going to have a very different college experience. For one thing you will not be partying a lot or getting involved in social justice crap, you will be studying all the time. You will have access to the expensive advanced lab equipment and software you need. At the end you will have a STEM degree and enter a STEM profession doing productive work for society. That degree means you can join the professional class, the middle class, ect. It is the last rite-of-passage in modern industrial society. Go to college you won't regret it.
"What changed this was admitting hardship cases on merit"
What changed it more was "big time" college sports. Hardship cases may have had some academic merit that could add to the presumptive educational mission. Shoehorning in lunkheaded but athletically-gifted "student athletes", on the other hand, degraded the colleges into nothing more than minor leagues franchises designed to raise prestige and that most sacred thing in the modren age, revenue. The academic mission could go pound sand. This also lead eventually to racial "integration" and, worst of the lot, Title IX.
That’s the cascade that broke the system. That the majority can’t see the contradiction between pro sport spectacle and educational mission is insane. Not having a definable purpose as an institution is an invitation to beast degeneration and inversion.
Although the SBC sports scene was very different from a power school. Not sure about the current day. I'm not exactly an engaged alumnus.
Up your own game is the only way.
I try to teach that to students that can hear. The only skill to learn is to teach yourself. Improve. There is no magic paper.
Bingo.
I was woefully disappointed in kawlej. It was a box ticking waste of money and time. I thought I'd learn things and be taught to really THINK.
Nope. Tick the box and move on to next course. Get paper. Get job. Only there were no jobs....
What was your major?
I achieved a BS in History. Yes, I know...but that is what I am actually interested in, and it should have been enough to land a teaching job. Oh, how ignorant I was of the edyookashunal complex and its boorocracies.
Therein lies the problem with many, I believe. I took a business major that I had no passion for, and not only is the degree itself useful for landing a decent job, but what I have learned in college is highly beneficial in general.
Love the "Hidden Ivies" book cover.
Hidden Ivy = SBC = "We Wish We Were an Ivy" = Ivy-League Backup School.
Bravo, Uncle John.
One good thing about east-coast SBCs: they once were very tough, very rigorous institutions that worked their students hard. That gave them great reputations. Not so much because they had highly inquisitive students with a strong spirit of learning (quite the opposite), but because rich New England WASPs sent their spoiled-brat kids there to be brought down a few pegs and learn a little humility while they made future business contacts and enjoyed four years of drunken debauchery. (Episcopalians particularly loved their alcohol.) That culture is gradually fading.
I must dissent, hear me out. There is a big movement within the hard-right to deny the value of college, and this is wrong. Its as bad as any dumb Boomer knee-jerk advice slogan. College is an opportunity to level-up in ways you cannot imagine right now. Let me be the first to say, college is not for everyone, and it was never intended to be. Just as there is a person for whom is college is not right, there is another person for whom is EXACTLY right. They were made to be scholars. If scholarship is your passion or nascent talent, then go for it! The common theme across the anit-college crowd is they have bullshit majors like economics, english lit, marketing, ect. If you major in STEM you are going to have a very different college experience. For one thing you will not be partying a lot or getting involved in social justice crap, you will be studying all the time. You will have access to the expensive advanced lab equipment and software you need. At the end you will have a STEM degree and enter a STEM profession doing productive work for society. That degree means you can join the professional class, the middle class, ect. It is the last rite-of-passage in modern industrial society. Go to college you won't regret it.
Have the STEM degree.
Productive work? Hah. If you squint real hard and pretend Dilbert isn't a documentary.
"Go to college you won't regret it."
It was a functional choice, but a Beast institution will not provide a path out of ClownWorld.