

Student-to-College 'Mismatch' Seen as Graduation-Rate Issue - tokenadult
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/09/23/04undermatch_ep.h29.html?tkn=NYLFEJGpUYxme4ip8k2XD3YdOwY07a1GPlng

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dagw
College graduation numbers is a bad metric to measure anything truly
meaningful. The notion that everybody 'has' to go to college isn't doing
anyone any favours either. Too many kids end up wasting time doing stuff they
have no interest in just so they can graduate, and colleges end up diluting
their academic standards so that they have something offer even to those
people who really shouldn't be there.

Lot's of people have said it before and I'll say it again: vocational schools
is the way to go. 1-2 year programs set up by and for specific industries
training people in the specific skills those industries need. Let those who
want learn a profession go to vocational schools and leave universities for
those who truly want the full theoretical and academic education with all that
that entails. That way everybody wins. Universities get to focus and what they
do best, companies get people with the specific skill set they are looking for
and people how just want to learn who to do a job won't have to 'waste' their
time with taking courses the see no use for.

edit: spelling

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skolor
First off: 4 year graduation rates are stupid. There's no other way to put it,
they're a stupid measurement and one colleges should stop paying so much
attention to. At my school, they've made a huge push to try and get everyone
out the doors within 4 years, to the point they have informed academic
advisors that they should be advising students to cut corners and "just
graduate". While it may be a worthwhile standard for a private university,
where a large majority either doesn't work or works a very small number of
hours for "spending money", at a public university, with many students paying
their own way through college, its a bad measurement. Its better for everyone
for a student to take 6 years to graduate and walk out the doors with half the
debt of someone who graduates in 4 years (or less).

As far as college/vocational schools, if it is possible, you should go to
college. However, don't study what you want to go into, study something
tangentally related to it (unless you are going into highly focused field,
like engineering or a medical degree, and even then try and get as far away
from what you want to as possible while still being on track). Going to a
school I was "undermatched" for, and going into the computer science program,
I was bored out of my mind, and just wasn't getting much out of it. After
switching to statistics, I've found my classes much more enjoyable, and have
vastly increased my understanding of both statistics and computer science.

While it may not hold true for everyone, I've found that working in something
tangentially related to what I wanted to do (Computer "stuff", originally), I
learned a massive amount about both the field I wanted to work in, and in the
field I was studying. While it may not help me get a job, I learned quite a
bit more than I would have otherwise, which is why I went to college in the
first place.

