Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Charles Hugh Smith: The Nearly Free University

“G.P.A.’s are worthless as a criteria for hiring, and test scores are worthless. ... We found that they don’t predict anything.” - - Laszlo Bock, the senior vice president of people operations for Google — i.e., the guy in charge of hiring for one of the world’s most successful companies

The post secondary education system cannot last.  I have read about this on Gary North's site, and he has written a book review about Charles Hugh Smith's The Nearly Free University.  You can read the introduction to Smith's book here.

Why can't the current system continue?  Because of cost.  In the old days, the college degree was a weeding out process - employers would use it as a way to avoid low IQ workers and they'd know that the person could at least start a task, finish it, and deal with boredom.  Now, with 'everyone' getting (or deserving if you subscribe to Current Progressive Thought) a college degree, that vetting process doesn't work. 

In the interview below, these topics and others are brought up.  If you're getting a degree in something, why are you paying huge dollars to pay the Assistant Dean of Supervision, or some other useless bureacratic sinecure $150,000 a year?  For what?  How does that person help you get your degree?  What is he teaching you?

Many people I work with, and students of mine seem to think I am against college.  This is not true.  I am against going broke - hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt for a degree that you can't use for anything.  Americans as a whole now owe more money for student loans than they do for their credit cards.  This from a population that has been conditioned in a Pavlovian manner to SPEND when things get tough, or any other reason for that matter.  You should count the cost, and analyze the benefits and job market you'll get after you get your degree.

College tuition is way out of line in terms of cost, and Charles Hugh Smith has some good ideas as to avoiding it and becoming successfully educated.


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