^^Yes, the students don’t have to go sit in a computer lab to churn out papers. 
Who remembers the sheer terror that would strike when the main printer jammed (15 minutes before the paper was due)?
Not that that ever happened to me. 
Computer lab and printers!? Try a typewriter and correction tape. 
I had a typewriter that had a correction tape ribbon. Seemed so state of the art at the time. Business and engineering majors were required to have a PC even back in the mid 80’s when I attended.
Seventies for me. No PC’s. I had a typewriter and correction cartridge I could pop in and out. So state of the art!
Yes, I think colleges have changed. When I went to med school ages ago we had at least one girl in my class who lived on the West Coast and flew into school on the East Coast only to take exams, but that was an exception. I assumed she did all the reading from the syllabus and texts on her own.
Fast forward to today, my graduating senior at Berkeley says a lot of classes are accessed by webinar. Lots of students binge watch lectures from their apartments right before the exam. No need to keep up with class. Seemingly little need will exist in the future to actually attend class, although as a Chemistry major I hope they still have the bench top stuff.
Oh the smell of ethylene gas and the feel of pipettes on your index finger, the smoothness of Erlenmeyer flasks and the roar of Bunsen burners-- hopefully will survive.
The age-old practice of procrastinating and then cramming is probably much less effective then keeping up with the class. Perhaps the difference between then and now is that cramming may be somewhat easier to do when the course materials are readily available on the web, but it is still a suboptimal way of studying a college course.
@garland… I remember when having the IBM Selectric was an instant friend magnet. Everyone was nice to you if you had one, on the off chance they could borrow it come paper writing time :))
^Mine was a Smith Corona Correctronic. I thought the Selectric was so cool when I saw one!
“I think when we recall our own high school experiences (as parents) we need to remember that schools varied then just as they do now. AP tests go back to at least the 70s. My public high school had them and all the “top” kids in my school took them, though only in senior year at that time. Several routinely went to top colleges too.”
Yep. And again, this is regional as well. My son is graduating from the same HS I graduated and although the school now offers a larger number of AP classes, the number that each kid takes isn’t substantially different. I think I had 8 or 9 when I graduated and son is graduating with 10/11 (not sure if Micro and Macro Econ counts as 1 or 2 since they’re each a half year.)
So in your particular region this has changed, but it’s been happening for a while in other places.
My high school had one AP course - AP English. Highest math course that was available at my high school was pre-calc. This was in the mid 70’s.
Back in the day, kids who weren’t “college material” found a two year program and got launched into the working world (secretarial school? Hair stylist? culinary arts? court reporter/legal assistant? Interior decorator? ) Now I think these same kids are doing the same thing but it takes four years and it’s called college (except for hair stylists-- there are still some highly regarded vo-tech programs in my area which are not academic but lead to entry level jobs at salons).
I met someone recently with a four year degree in “Hospitality Management” who got a job at the front desk of a big hotel chain. Gonna take a LOT of years to pay off those college loans!
^^Hospitality is a big major. Cornell has a hotel school with that major which yes, I am sure the education that allows you to man the front desk at a hotel costs a pretty penny. When will hair cutting need a degree?
“I met someone recently with a four year degree in “Hospitality Management” who got a job at the front desk of a big hotel chain. Gonna take a LOT of years to pay off those college loans!”
Have a friend who started off that way as a Marriott management trainee after a 4 year hospitality degree back in the 80s. Now makes well into the 6 figures in senior management at another big player in the field working in acquisitions and development after taking over a decade off to raise kids. Don’t knock it. Everyone has to start somewhere.
Those jobs don’t get shipped offshore either.
I don’t knock those jobs.
I knock the absence of affordable vocational educational opportunities for kids who are not “college material” (i.e. not Cornell Hotel school students). Does someone need 60K in student loans (parents plus the kids) for a hotel training program?
I worked in a retail training program out of college which had both kids with BA degrees and kids from vocational retail management programs. Those retail management programs still exist- but they are marketed as “Post Bac” type programs.
Credential creep and increasing occupational licensing requirements are happening across the full range of employment and educational attainment.
I’m all for better Vo-Tech options in this country (Germany is a great model we could emulate) but I don’t think all hospitality majors need to be Cornell level or Vo-Tech to be worthwhile and beneficial. That’s pretty big chasm.
It may be that some career paths require starting at the bottom. I don’t know if this is true in Hospitality, but it is in other fields such as certain elements of communications. The degree or rather, the skills learned through the degree should help her rise through the ranks. At least I would hope so!
Those chains have excellent career tracks! My #2 son’s friend is doing very well. MSU, Cornell and UNLV are the best colleges outside Europe.
Anyone admit to banging out keypunch cards???
@TomSrOfBoston I never did, but I do remember seeing many “want ads” (remember the big fat employment section of the Sunday paper?!) looking for “key punch operators”. It seemed like such a secure, in-demand job 30+ years ago.