Personally, I can remember growing up and teachers telling us how we need to go to college to get good jobs, etc... 10 years later, and it seems like a bachelor's degree is essentially the new high-school diploma as far as how qualified it makes you look. I agree that there is a false sense of entitlement from people - "Hey I have a DEGREE, I deserve to be paid $50,000 + for my first job, even though I have no training or qualifications other than this previously mentioned degree..."
Another problem is the fact that it is unfortunately in universities' best interests to keep enrollment growing, and a lot of state schools (hell, a lot of every type of school) have become little more than diploma mills. Over half of my undergrad was spent at a school where there weren't many girls (probably 3 guys for every girl...ugh), and I know several who said that they are sure they got a lot of extra help, grade-wise, from professors who probably would not have done the same for most guys in the same situations. Simply half-ass your way with a D or F until the last few weeks of the semester, go cry to your professor about how life was so hard the past few months, etc., and viola, you pass with a C. My girlfriend will even admit that although we essentially have the same degree, and took almost the same classes with the same professors (although at different times), that she studied less, LEARNED less, and still managed to graduate with a slightly higher GPA than me.
Another girl in particular comes to mind, whom I graduated from high school with, who my girlfriend was friends with, and who is a complete moron: she graduated with a biology B.A. at the same time that I was graduating with a biology B.S., and she didn't even have a 2.0 GPA in courses related to her major. It is university policy that you MUST have a 2.0 in the classes associated specifically with your major, but she complained when she didn't get her degree and one of her professors (a woman, who was also her advisor) simply changed her grades in 2 courses she had taken and done poorly in, to just barely bump her up to a 2.0. This school is not what I would consider "easy," as even when I was trying my damndest I would still wind up with B's here and there (and I've always been considered a "smart" kid).
This girl went on to get a job making $50,000 for Sprint (wonder why Sprint sucks so much?), and she completely fucks off at her job (spends most of her time texting and shopping online, and this is from other people I know who work with her). There were many opportunities while at college for her to learn some life lessons and how to get her shit together to make grades and still have fun, but pushover professors and the quest for enrollment pretty much ensured that she was going to graduate no matter how little she tried.
These are just examples from a particular school with a particular issue (low female enrollment) that led to overcoddling and thus a lack of preparation for the real world. I'm sure if I looked at what goes on with athletes and major state universities I would feel even worse about this trend.
Then there is the whole fact of degrees not being equal...I'm trying to get into dental school, and I have a GPA in the low 3's, but did amazing on the ACT back in highschool and just did very well on the DAT. But I've been told that my GPA is my biggest roadblock to getting acceptance. I have met people who have already been accepted to the school I wish to go to, who have business/econ/other non-science-based degrees and really high GPA's from schools essentially the size of a community college. So while I struggle through biochemistry, physical chemistry, organic chemistry, calculus, molecular genetics, etc., they take a bunch of easy econ and speech skills classes and wind up with a great GPA.
C'est la vie...
Last edited by -CARNIFEX-[LOC] (2009-03-28 11:29:13)
