For those considering a college education, perhaps you should think again. Thoughts?-Offistart

This is from the Journal of Higher Education.

鈥淎lso, the past advantage of college graduates in the job market is
eroding. Ever more students attend college at the same time as ever
more employers are automating and sending offshore ever more
professional jobs, and hiring part-time workers. Many college
graduates are forced to take some very nonprofessional positions, such
as driving a truck or tending bar.

How much do students at four-year institutions actually learn?

Colleges are quick to argue that a college education is more about
enlightenment than employment. That may be the biggest deception of
all. Often there is a Grand Canyon of difference between the reality
and what higher-education institutions, especially research ones, tout
in their viewbooks and on their Web sites. Colleges and universities
are businesses, and students are a cost item, while research is a
profit center. As a result, many institutions tend to educate students
in the cheapest way possible: large lecture classes, with necessary
small classes staffed by rock-bottom-cost graduate students. At many
colleges, only a small percentage of the typical student's classroom
hours will have been spent with fewer than 30 students taught by a
professor, according to student-questionnaire data I used for my book
How to Get an Ivy League Education at a State University. When
students at 115 institutions were asked what percentage of their class
time had been spent in classes of fewer than 30 students, the average
response was 28 percent.

That's not to say that professor-taught classes are so worthwhile. The
more prestigious the institution, the more likely that faculty members
are hired and promoted much more for their research than for their
teaching. Professors who bring in big research dollars are almost
always rewarded more highly than a fine teacher who doesn't bring in
the research bucks. Ernest L. Boyer, the late president of the
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, used to say that
winning the campus teaching award was the kiss of death when it came
to tenure. So, no surprise, in the latest annual national survey of
freshmen conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at the
University of California at Los Angeles, 44.6 percent said they were
not satisfied with the quality of instruction they received. Imagine
if that many people were dissatisfied with a brand of car: It would
quickly go off the market. Colleges should be held to a much higher
standard, as a higher education costs so much more, requires years of
time, and has so much potential impact on your life. Meanwhile, 43.5
percent of freshmen also reported "frequently" feeling bored in class,
the survey found.鈥?/div>

@Tracey:
Obviously, but not everyone can afford to go to an Ivy Leaque school.

As a teacher (obviously experienced college) I can say that 95% of professors outside of the actual education department...general studies...were HORRID teachers. If elemenatry and high school teachers taught like that our nation would crumble. But they are also very intelligent people...they just arn't teachers.

One of my education professors nearly lost his job before he had it when he told the university that a BS in education was just that...BS. That there was little Science behind the actual act of teaching (anyalizing data and whatnot...probably) that those wanting to be teachers would be just as good if they didn't attend college.
While I agree to a large extent, having that background to rely on, the ideas I was given and theories I learned have helped me. But I learned more about teaching in the first 6 months of teaching than I did in 4 years of sitting in a classroom. My own style grealy pervails, but college does help. In my opinion there is no such thing as useless knowledge.

EDIT-As a teacher we are constantly taking more classes, going to workshops and conferences, continuing our professional development and knowledge of how kids learn. We have to keep up with things or we will fall behind. I have not been out of college for more than 1 1/2 and I have already had more than 150 hours of professional development of some kind and will have more than 50 more over the Summer. Frankly I love to learn and am frustrated when I don't know something (my quote is "I'll look it up")...I hope to pass this down to my students. It seems rather lazy to accept your mind as is at the age of 18.

I am glad I didn't spend too much time in college and went out into the workforce. I now have a good paying job and things are going well in my life. College was so frigging superficial.....Camping and bowling were mandatory classes, for example........

It's better than work and at least you learn something!

*hey Tracey I guess your not not a Harvard, Yale or Oxford grad :-D

Oops, too late! I'm just about to graduate.

Why didn't you tell me this four years earlier and saved me a lot of time and money?

For those considering a college education, perhaps you should think again. Thoughts?

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