Colleges Increasing Spending on Sports Faster Than on Academics, Report Finds – NYTimes.com. GROUCHO (Dean Quincy Adams Wagstaff ): Have we got a stadium? FACULTY: Yes. GROUCHO: Have we got a college? FACULTY: Yes. GROUCHO: Well, we can’t support both. Tomorrow we start tearing down the college. —From Horse Feathers, 1932, starring the Marx Brothers […]
Groucho on: “Colleges Increasing Spending on Sports Faster Than on Academics, Report Finds” – NYT.com
April 7, 2014 by
Krugman on “No Skills Gap” Part II
March 31, 2014 by
There was a reply to my comment on Paul Krugman’s Op-Ed. (See Krugman Relying on Flawed Data on “Skills Gap”) It asked an excellent question. Here is the comment and my reply. Comment: “Then, of course, we would see employers preferring those who received a degree when it still was an education. But we don’t […]
Underwriting Standards for Universities? Why Not?
March 25, 2014 by
Today’s Wall Street Journal has a good article on graduate student debt http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303949704579459803223202602 It gave me an idea that I posted as a comment. I haven’t carefully thought it through but here it is. (If you regularly read this blog, you can skip the third paragraph.) “…”…if we had some sort of underwriting standards…” …[the author […]
WSJ: Pressured to State Facts, Schools Give Excuses and Questionable Data
March 17, 2014 by
There is a good article in today’s WSJ: http://online.wsj.com/public/page/reader-comments.html?baseDocId=SB10001424052702303546204579435050684294642&headline=Colleges%20Are%20Tested%20by%20Push%20to%20Prove%20Graduates’%20Career%20Success I commented as follows: from my experience as a former professor (I taught math at Wsshington University at St. Louis.), I read the opening paragraphs of this article as follows: “Marketing and sales departments of universities tout their schools qualities, but are unwilling to release data […]
Tom Friedman’s “How to Get a Job at Google”
February 24, 2014 by
It is good because it quotes the Sr. VP in charge of hiring on the five attributes that companies like Google are looking for in an employee. Here is the link http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/opinion/sunday/friedman-how-to-get-a-job-at-google.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&_r=0 I want to point out the following statement from Tom Friedman, “…For most young people…going to college and doing well is still the […]
Good News: WSJ article notes that “Cash-Conscious Families Clamor for Numbers on How Much Students Learn”
February 21, 2014 by
The article is here. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304899704579391513428597546 Here is my comment. “I am a former professor. Far too many universities cater to their naive and uneducated customers – once quiantly called “students”. They do this even when it means NOT educating them – just fooling them into believing they are getting the education they need. This new […]
“Making College Pay” by “Making College equal Education”
February 13, 2014 by
“Doesn’t a more educated society create a stronger economy? Doesn’t the internet create jobs? Doesn’t a society who can understand and support economically valuable public policy create jobs and a better society? A college “education” does create jobs and a better society. A college degree without an attached education -which is what we have far […]
“Highly Educated” (From The Atlantic)? I Say Maybe “Highly Degreed”
January 25, 2014 by
Actually, Jordan Weissmann has posted interesting news about a study by the Dept.. of Ed., but I must take him to task about his interpretation .http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/01/highly-educated-highly-indebted-the-lives-of-todays-27-year-olds-in-charts/283263/#comments “I am former college professor, who has spent almost a lifetime observing how much of higher education is essentially a scam on students and their parents. I feel compelled […]
Statisticallyl Interesting Report
In my previous post “Highly Educated” (From The Atlantic)? I Say Maybe “Highly Degreed” I referenced Jordan Weissmann’s Atlantic article http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/01/highly-educated-highly-indebted-the-lives-of-todays-27-year-olds-in-charts/283263/#comments I think his statistics are wrong but very interesting and I expressed this in my comment. “If 84% of all of today’s 27 year olds have some college, then the number of 27 year olds with […]