Elite Colleges "Blind-sided" by Perceptions of Elitism

[JurisDictum]

Finally, the huge largesse of tax money institutions like Harvard and Yale receive have come under scrutiny. They aren't even mentioning the fact that part of the reason they are able to raise so much money is also due to preferential tax treatment to University donations (why pay tax when you can donate to your kid university instead?). We're just talking about the money they get straight from the government.

And they freaked of course. Because if there is one thing that is constant in America, its the shamelessness of its elites.

The presidents also said they're trying desperately to address perceptions of elitism by taking every speaking engagement they can — touting their positive impacts on their communities to local civic groups, lawmakers and alumni. They're drafting op-eds and sending them to any publication that will take them. They're writing letters and economic impact statements for legislators. Some colleges are also working to recruit conservative students and students from rural areas more aggressively.

They say they haven’t received credit for the steps they’ve taken to address the widespread economic inequality on college campuses by pouring millions into financial aid, especially for low-income and working-class students, who rarely pay the full sky-high sticker prices at the nation's most elite schools.

Yea I don't think paid speaking engagements are -- I don't know -- the right move here? Sounds like you guys are about to get reamed by a bunch of angry Trump/Bernie-voting populists, and you guys go out for speaking engagements to alumni?

Look assholes, no one thinks everyone from Harvard is smarter than everyone else anymore. We just assumed your more privileged now. There's no fixing that. We used to value elitism. As they know -- because they purposefully market themselves as elitist. How can Harvard not be elitist? It's the god damn place elites go to school or its not really Harvard anymore -- is it?

But now we are valuing elitism less. We are going to insist that you pay for your own rich snob club. Taxes are for PUBLIC institutions god damnit. It's such a fuckin' joke to be giving any of this funding out to private companies that only educate the rich and privileged.

[JurisDictum]

Fine, fuck you guys then.


































It's not like I care.


Just keep jerking it to blacked.com and watching Netflix, because neither are going to be around much longer.

[Cecily]

I'm for turning Ivy League schools into community colleges.

[JurisDictum]

Originally Posted by Cecily [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I'm for turning Ivy League schools into community colleges.

It's a joke. The idea were going to make everything dirty by letting average intellect people in. It's already swimming with well born people with average intellect. The admission process has been a myth ever since they could fill their entire year with 4.00 kids....and chose not to.

Maybe if this was ONLY a post-graduate school for the elite they could maintain their prestige...but no one really has the same respect for these institutions anymore.

This is why Plato thought it was a good idea to remove kids from their parents at age 10 and then raise them together as a group away from them. That's the only way to honestly measure who is worth leading . The way the system works now --- it's just pedigree.

If you know your boss is more capable than you -- your much more willing to be a good worker bee. Elites have become so irreversibly convinced of their superiority they can't even see it. Their dumbass kids aren't respectable and there is a good chance they aren't either...its generally only the guy that originally made the money (usually a guy) that has anything exceptional about them. Sometimes not even them.

Edit: inb4 massive "revelation" that elite kids don't even do their own school work half the time and have that shit basically outsourced to essay companies and private tutors.

[JurisDictum]

Originally Posted by Spyder73 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

As someone who spent a lot of time and money on a college degree I do not like them being devalued and I also don't want everyone having one.

#BetterThanYou
#Sorry

Too late. Degrees are going to be like 70%+ of the population. Everyone now knows anyone can get one that has the dedication...which means its going to be a norm and if you don't have one we'll just assume your half retarded (if a member of the millennial generation).

[JurisDictum]

You know right-wing Americans really are idiots when it comes to stuff like designing a system to help educate the country.

They think "Wow there are too many stupid people. Let's make a big competition where we take the top 5% of them and shower them with opportunity and give everyone else less...That should help with the stupid people problem."

No child will be left behind...unless they do bad on the test so really, most children will be left behind -- even more so than before. But No Child Left Behind had a nice ring to it as a sales pitch.

You have to focus resources on two groups:

Genius Scientists -- these are the only group of intellectuals that are likely to honestly use the resources and power they are given for its intended purpose. It's an amazing group really.

Idiots -- Because otherwise they cost us even more money and drag down non-idiots.

[JurisDictum]

Originally Posted by Spyder73 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Fake news

Only 6.7% of the world holds a bachelors degree or equivalent. In USA I think its like 25%.

It's 39% of millennials already and most of them aren't even 30 yet....with so many going to school in their later 20's these days...I'm telling you its going to be higher.

59% have already done some college.

Gen Z will be even more.

The reason is not college downgrading entirely...its actually mostly about the fact that no one can get a job that pays well and they think (sometimes correctly) this will help.

Edit: While we don't talk about this as much in America as in Europe -- one of the best things to do with a degree is take it abroad where only 3% of the population has a U.S. quality degree.

[loramin]

Humanities degrees, as well as the more "applicable" degrees, have always been a proxy for value. No employer with a brain thinks "that kid has a degree in Literature, clearly the classes he took will make him a great salesperson" ... but they still want to hire people with degrees over ones without because they know what it took to get that degree.

If you have a choice between a non-degree applicant and someone who studied underwater basket-weaving for four years (but like legitimately studied it, wrote essays on the best kinds of baskets, etc.) that still works as a proxy. You know the basket-weaver has put up with bosses (professors), had enough of a brain to write something interesting about baskets, and had enough willpower to spend hours and hours underwater weaving baskets.

Of course, proxies just aren't as good as the real thing: as was mentioned you could pay someone to write your basket essays for you. And even when the major would seem applicable (eg. Computer Science), it turns out it's really a proxy, because 80% of what you learn in computer science is not transferable to a programming job (that's why the major is called Computer Science and not Computer Programming).

Ultimately as computers/robots take over more and more jobs, and as the jobs remaining require real specialized skills that aren't taught in school (eg. practical programming), we're going to see more and more non-proxy solutions. Nine month hacker boot camps are a perfect example of this: I would much rather hire a fresh grad from Hack Reactor than a fresh Computer Science major ... even though the comp sci major spent four years and the Hack Reactor grad less than one. Because Hack Reactor is more about real skills and less about being a proxy, I know their grads are more likely to actually have the skills I need.

But even without all that being said, I don't think colleges are going anywhere; they'll just be forced to become more practical.

Originally Posted by Spyder73 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

EDIT: Super TLDR - If you want to make money you better be in some form of sales or get used to the idea of being a pleb forever

Or programming, or law, or the right healthcare positions (do you know how much x-ray technicians make?), or ... well you get the idea. But yeah, specialized skills (and sales is definitely a skill) are where it's at.

[mickmoranis]

I have hired 4 mellenials and this is what they do:

#1 works 7 hours a day and constantly reminds us about how work is slavery
#2 chews with his mouth open
#3 changed his pants in a conference room with open windows infront of 7 other employees cus they got wet in the rain and he had a pair he changed out of in a pile under his desk from the last time it rained.
#4 cried the day they repealed net neutrality for almost 2 hours and had to take the rest of the day off because he was overwhelmed.

ladies and gentlemen... this is what college produces.

oh but on the bright side these adult children take 1/3rd the salary of an actual adult.

[Patriam1066]

Originally Posted by mickmoranis [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I have hired 4 mellenials and this is what they do:

#1 works 7 hours a day and constantly reminds us about how work is slavery
#2 chews with his mouth open
#3 changed his pants in a conference room with open windows infront of 7 other employees cus they got wet in the rain and he had a pair he changed out of in a pile under his desk from the last time it rained.
#4 cried the day they repealed net neutrality for almost 2 hours and had to take the rest of the day off because he was overwhelmed.

ladies and gentlemen... this is what college produces.

oh but on the bright side these adult children take 1/3rd the salary of an actual adult.

I've done #3