<p>Almost every college that exists besides the academies, are out to take as much money from you and your parents as possible. Once you realize this FACT, you will just have to accept it as it is. Colleges nowadays are run like a business. Colleges are no longer a haven for educational enlightment, like it was a century or two ago. Colleges’ #1 goal is retention. The more people they have at their school, the more tution $$ they have to build fancy buildings/rec centers/etc to attract even more students so they can get even more tuition $$. </p>
<p>Don’t be mad because this is just reality. Colleges’ barely educate you anymore. They select professors based on their quality of research and their potential of producing papers that can be published in peer reviewed journals with high impact factors. Some of my professors last year were atrocious. Seriously, I thought that my high school chemistry teacher did a better job than the Chem professor I had last semester and my HS chem teacher only went to a community college. Don’t get me wrong though. A lot of colleges have a TON of brilliant professors except that they’ll most likely never teach you because all they do full time is (guess what?) RESEARCH. They are too busy enhancing the “prestigious” reputation of the college. The ones who are not so successful in research are the ones who teach your classes. </p>
<p>Going back to the retention situation. College classes have been constantly significantly dumbed down to a point where it’s not even laughable. A study showed that 3/4th of college students cannot even locate the US on a world map. (For those of you who see the Miss South Carolina reference, this was the correct answer :P) Colleges want you to think that you are very successful by giving you an A for just showing up to class. The professors make the tests extremely easy or make it open note/book so that you can get a better score. The reason for this is that if you do poorly, you are probably going to transfer or drop out due to poor academics. This means that the college cannot snatch your tuition $$ and for colleges, this is the worst thing that can happen.</p>
<p>Having said all that, there are only few colleges left that still make efforts educating its students even though ALL colleges’ primary goal is retention and thus, $$. When you pick your college, you should go to one of these colleges who at least make a respectable effort towards your education instead of those schools who do as much as they can to snatch your tuition $$. Although there are some middle/lower tier schools that fit the former description, most of the middle/lower tier schools fit the latter. However, It happens to be those schools that are highly ranked/regarded that continues to strive for educating its students. This motivation is not created by the school itself, but by the students who attend these schools. These students are among the best the nation has to offer and actually WANT to work hard and earn their grades compared to the state school student who parties every day. An abundance of the best students create a competitive environment due to human nature’s competitive instinct. This pervasiveness of competition makes each and every student at these top schools to strive to do his or her best, thus allowing the individual to learn the most and receive a genuine grade.</p>
<p>Many State public universities (even those low-ranked) actually have low tuitions, so the cost isn’t really much that cannot be paid with a little FA from FAFSA, and a couple of scholarships.</p>
<p>Not true. (Prestigious) research professors routinely teach undergraduate classes at top universities. They tend to teach upper-division courses mostly, but some of them also teach freshman or sophomore classes.</p>
<p>Osprey, what do you suggest that college administrators do with all the money that they generate for their institutions? Is it your impression that it winds up in their pockets?</p>
<p>Honestly, one could argue (as many already have in the current debates on highered), that even top tier schools (like many top 20 research Us) don’t do a particularly great job at educating and also primarily care about research. People complain about places like Harvard, Berkeley, and many top 25-35s being like this all the time. While they are relatively good at at least challenging students (kind of), that doesn’t mean they have great (or even good) teachers across the board (perhaps having bad teaching makes it harder than expected). Luckily I can say my school has more good than bad from my experience, and I bet that many of those from non-top tiers could say the same. By the way, many of the more high-powered researchers do teach UGs and well. Not only that, but many are teaching freshmen and sophomores, much more than expected. AND, they are teaching surprisingly well (though lecture track profs. are still much better in general). I’m sure the same patterns persist at UVa, Berkeley, Chapel Hill, UCLA, etc. You see the good bad, and ugly at us all, tier 1 or mid-tier. All are trying and most (this is me being nice trying not to offend people b/c I’m sure someone will try to claim their school is infallible and is the exception if I say “all”) are falling short. No need to paint the top 20-25 as clearly trying harder than others b/c it may not be true. They may just be perceived as trying harder b/c of the prestige of their grad. programs or the faculty members themselves, but many use the same tactics as other schools.</p>
<p>These angry threads are exasperating because the OP, a college kid, takes his experience and uses it to purport some deep knowledge of all colleges.</p>
<p>bernie12, I agree with you because most of the top 20-25 schools’ primary goal is $$ and they are mostly concerned with how they can reach into the students’ pockets and grab the most $$. However, as I indicated in my original post, these colleges do make respectable strides in the students’ education whereas lower tier/mid tier schools simply don’t care about the students’ education. That is why only the top 20 or so schools, with some exceptions coming from mid/low tier schools, are the only “semi-legitimate” colleges left nowadays.</p>
<p>^ Tenors- funny, witty…and so insightful. And scary to see how many kids think broad conclusions can be drawn from their own experience. Critical thinking, anyone?</p>
<p>My conclusions are supported by and come from a book that was written by a college professor. The book is called “The Five Year Party”. Get some facts and come back and see me kid.</p>
<p>[The</a> Five Year Party](<a href=“http://www.thefiveyearparty.com/][i]The”>http://www.thefiveyearparty.com/), while it draws many examples from a very low tier school, does include examples from highly prestigious schools, indicating that the problems therein (alcohol abuse, insufficient attention to academics on the part of many students, grade inflation, etc.) are not limited to lower tier schools.</p>