And some of those English majors are doing it for pre-professional reasons, with goals to become high school English teachers. Others seem to think that English is a go-to major (though not as much as political science) for their pre-professional goal of going to law school.
It’s always been the case that some colleges thrived while others struggled. There’s nothing new about it.
So, to summarize, if you’re a poorly funded, barely selective public college located in a rural area, you’re a loser, and it’s your fault if you’re not a very selective tech school in a demographically growing area of the country. 
What a novel conclusion, wsj, that brings forth solutions and paths forward! 
What COULD Concord and Edinboro do? Not in fantasy-land, but within their own parameters (ie., They’re never going to be located in a desirable area, they’re never going to become very selective, there won’t be pots of money deluged on them by donors). There HAVE to be a variety of ideas.
@violetstar: I’m guessing you don’t live in a rural area and don’t know what percentage community college students who start out wanting to graduate with a bachelor’s degree, actually get a 4-year degree, nor the general rate across the board. Honestly, considering their students’ preparation, lack of funding, and environment, 35% is not bad (look at CSU Bakersfield, Chadron State, and PASSHE Edinboro stats.) Yet these colleges can be a lifeline to their communities. Instead of condemning them and letting them die, what could be done to help them serve their public better?
You can even argue that just a few classes for the returning adults can make things better for them either personally or professionally, especially if it helps them complete a degree started elsewhere.
The #1 reason for poor completion is financial, so to increase completion rates there should be better financial aid (perhaps some sort of partial tuition waiver for returning adults who must be part time because they have a job and a family). The #2 reason is poor preparation and that means better funding for k-12 with better offerings for prepared students and better support for the others, better ways to ensure state standards are met, and excellent support (hence funding) at the college itself, with ‘best practice’ skype conferences for the professors and administrators. Basically, investing in rural communities is expensive.
Closing non selective public colleges would be devastating individually and economically.
How could we set up dual apprenticeships/vocational education programs such as what Germany or France have set up? You need employers willing to hire and invest in 16-19 year olds as well as 20+ year olds (kids in high school who move to part time HS part time work, completing vocational jr-sr years over 3 years, and are paid; kids who completed gen eds and are in their major part-time, the employer pays tuition as well as a stipend but gets first dibs on the employee once s/he graduates. Housing is taken care of, either through public dorms or ‘journeymen houses’.) That’d require cooperation between high schools, colleges, and employers. Don’t know if it’s feasible in rural America. I know there’s vocational education about everywhere and there are apprenticeship schemes in urban areas served by multiple highs schools. But this would be different since it’d require various groups to cooperate in good faith and if one doesn’t pull through the whole thing falls apart. A positive point is that it’d threaten no one’s position but I don’t know if it’s feasible.
^I’m scratching my head at what I’m missing here. Concord College isn’t a victim. I don’t feel sorry for it. People weren’t buying what it was selling. Time to move on.
Colleges in the bottom 50% will gradually disappear because of demographic trends, and more importantly, disruption from online education. Why go to a college attending lousy lectures when you can have some of the best professors delivering exciting lectures online?
"They know that the individual with a B.S. in supply chain management is not the same as the individual with an A.B. in Philosophy. Each has its own path. "
LOL.
Lets turn the tables - which student would an employer (say in manufacturing) choose:
Student from top 40 university with a BA in supply chain management or a student with a Philosophy degree from Concord or another low ranked college?
The problem is the ‘college for all’ mentality. As mentioned above, we need a great apprenticeship program to train 18-20 for jobs that need skills. Like the Swiss or German system (but without early tracking). Government should be investing in that.
Though, @suzyQ7, without tracking, I don’t see how a school could have both a college-prep and vocational tracks without wasting resources. Say with a 100 students, you have resources for 50 college prep and 50 vocational tracks. How would you determine?
In any case, it’s not as if, under the German system, people are locked in to a path at a young age. There are many ways to qualify for uni in Germany and the majority of German students at uni now actually did not enter through the abitur-from-gymnasium track (most of those are non-traditional).
For that matter, the majority of college students in the US now are also non-traditional.
Exactly.
@suzyQ7 Someone who studies philosophy is not intending to go into manufacturing. In my mind, a course of study that prepares a student for a specific career IS a vocational track. This includes bachelors’ degrees in engineering, nursing, supply-chain management, advertising, journalism, business administration, education, social work, construction management, and accounting, among others. The way I see it, we do have vocational schools/programs. We just don’t call it that. We call it “college” because, well, college for all. Students who major in vocational fields have a wholly different type of education than the student who majors in a liberal art or science. They are coming from a different place altogether.
I know that engineering is a different type of vocational track than, say, advertising or education or supply-chain management. But it’s still preparation for a specific career.
Lots of students choose liberal arts majors for pre-professional reasons or preparing for a specific career:
- Biology: convenient for pre-med students.
- Political science and English: go-to majors for pre-law students.
- Statistics or applied math: preparation for finance and actuarial jobs.
- Economics: substitute for majoring in business.
- English, math, history, biology, chemistry, physics, foreign language/literature, art: preparation for high school teaching.
- Any: preparation for PhD study to become a college professor.
What is interesting is engineering is a do all path. With an engineering degree you can be an engineer, lawyer, doctor, Investment banker, etc. It does teach a lot of highly desirable skills, and while you can do a lot of these things with a liberal arts education, one thing you cannot do is be an engineer.
Yes, this proves my point. I’m not saying that these subjects do not enable any careers or that they cannot be used as stepping stones to careers. Of course they can. But they are not designed to train students for a SPECIFIC career. A nursing program trains a student to be a nurse. A chemical engineering major is trained for a career as a chemical engineer. A construction-management major is trained to get a job as a construction manager.
True. Same with nursing and computer science. If you study a technical subject you don’t have to choose a career that requires those technical or vocational skills.
@CU123 Elite universities used to call their engineering program “Applied Science”. It was only a decade ago that Harvard finally admitted that its Division of Applied Science was really an engineering school. Now they call it the “School of Engineering and Applied Science”.
Absolutely right. And often people who train to be nurses can certainly add education later to become, say, nurse-practitioners or an MBA to manage hospitals, or Chem E’s can get MBAs and become managers or law degrees and go into patents. And of course grads of nursing and engineering programs can take jobs outside their field that simply require a bachelors degree.
But the degree is still geared to a specific career.
FWIW, pre-meds can and do major in anything, they just have to take a certain set of classes. Honestly Chem is a better major than Bio if one is trying to double dip major requirements and premed requirements - there are 4 Chem courses required and only 2 Bio, plus a Biochem.