"The college drinking game"

Jonathan Zimmerman from NYU tells it like it is relative to college drinking and weak academic challenges at many US colleges.

College should be interesting, broadening but most importantly - hard work.  Many colleges have failed this last criteria substituting gorgeous campuses, climbing walls and resort-like dorms for more hours at the chemistry lab.

We don’t require today’s college students to read enough, write enough and study enough.  What do you expect for your $250,000 education?

Zimmerman has a few sobering statistics:

1    *      “In 1961, the average full-time college student spent 25 hours a week studying; by 2003, it was down to 13 hours a week.”

2    *    “In a typical semester, half of our college students don’t take a single class that demands 20 or more pages of writing. A third don’t take a class requiring 40 or more pages of reading.”

Another look at the value of college

Here is a more nuanced piece about the myths of college. It still does not address
the difference between correlations and causation. But it does get into the problems with averages when looking at the stats associated with the higher earnings of college grads versus non-grads.

"Averages hide a lot of things. In this case, lots and lots of things. For example, one-quarter of workers with only some college or with associate's degrees make more than do half of those with bachelor's degrees."

A college professor questions the value of college

A college professor questions the real value of a college education. The college establishment has helped the work world select and promote based on college degrees. If they could simply use the original entrance exams they would achieve the same filtering process for tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars less. Education is critical but not all education is created equal. Time to rethink our blanket acceptance of our college model.