Do you feel too many unqualified students are entering colleges?

[shlver]

I have a friend who is a TA for a huge 100 level math class. It literally has over 150 students. I was a teacher's assistant for a precalc course and I expected students to be able to graph, know trig, etc. and comfortably add fractions, but his students are having trouble doing that.

[NotYetGreat]

Over here, especially when it comes to Math, I realized how poorly it really is taught. Students from courses that require basically a refresher course on high school mathematics struggle HARD, and I'm not talking about 1 or 2 out of 30, but whole classes of students who just can't follow easily. I sat in my friends' Basic College Algebra course and I was just shocked at how difficult it was for them.

[alenleomessi]

i feel many unqualified students are having high paying jobs
college is a joke here anyway

[Dolphin]

I don't like to point fingers unless there are undeniable facts to back up said finger pointing....but I think it's safe to say that our parents' generation really facked us over in many ways including how we have been educated. lol

[knickballer]

Yes and a significant part is due to No Child Left Behind. Now it's the duty of the schools to get every child to graduate even if they are dumber than a bag of onions. There's also the job of poor parenting where schools have basically assumed the title of parents in some cases whereas the parents don't even attempt to teach or tell their kids right/wrong. It's really bad with public/state schools/universities..

As for Math/Science the whole country sucks at it.

[JMT]

Of course. Once the national mantra became "you can't succeed without a degree", every mouth-breather who manages to stagger through the grueling challenge of high school goes on to further their "education".

Between 1990-2000, college enrollment (degree-granting institutions) rose 11%. Between 2000-2010, it increased 37%.

And now, all those who are exiting college no more prepared for the next step than when they entered it are hearing the new mantra "everybody has a college degree; it's no longer enough as there are no jobs".

[Tarik One]

It's annoying too. I'm often hesitant to join study groups mainly because other students want to piggyback off your hard work. They practically ace all of the homework assignments and quizzes, but fail the midterm and final exams.

Dumb people are nauseating.

I have no choice but to pursue a Masters because these nimrods have devalued a Bachelors degree.

[millwad]

Yes, especially in the US, at least based on my own experiences.

In Sweden college is for free and therefor the universities only look for good grades when they take in students to programs and the good universities tend to have good students as well.

I am currently doing my last term for my degree in economy at A&M and the students are not as bright as the swedish students but it should also be mentioned that the other foreign students tend to lack a lot too, especially when it comes to the english language.

[ace23]

In Sweden college is for free and therefor the universities only look for good grades when they take in students to programs and the good universities tend to have good students as well.

How is this different from the US?

[L.Kizzle]

No.

[SpecialQue]

Of course. College is a business, so they're not going to turn too many people away.

[millwad]

How is this different from the US?

A lot of the exchange students are not really the brightest, it's the kids with the rich parents. And the american students have to pay a lot of money in tuition and as long as you can't get a scholarship while coming from a poor background then you can sure as hell count out a lot of great minds.

I should also mention that the elite college's in the US have the best minds and the best students in the world, like Princeton, Yale, Harvard, MIT etc..

[ace23]

A lot of the exchange students are not really the brightest, it's the kids with the rich parents. And the american students have to pay a lot of money in tuition and as long as you can't get a scholarship while coming from a poor background then you can sure as hell count out a lot of great minds.

If you're poor, you will not have to pay much if anything to attend university/college, especially an elite one.

The average American HS student would attend Harvard for free if he were able to gain admission. And good universities here do tend to have good students.

[millwad]

If you're poor, you will not have to pay much if anything to attend university/college, especially an elite one.

The average American HS student would attend Harvard for free if he were able to gain admission. And good universities here do tend to have good students.

If you're poor, then you have money to survive.

Now imagine if college studies would be for free and the only thing that would be matter would be your intelligence and hard work and dedication.

I saw a ranking that said that A&M is a top 165 college in the world and if that is true, then I'm really scared regarding where the world is going because alot of these students are not bright. I'm just finishing my last course and some of the american kids even know less english than me and they have a hard time spelling and english is not my paternal language and I'm just an exchange student.

[knickballer]

Of course. College is a business, so they're not going to turn too many people away.

I can understand from a college standpoint from the $$ standpoint. My problem is with public education in k-12 where kids are basically spoon fed everything and babied through the ranks.. That's the main problem and the students who graduate don't learn anything of importance and then you have kids who have zero business of graduating doing so because of stupid laws that are passed. It's inflating the education..

As for the price of college if the government didn't offer student loans than the price wouldn't be so inflated. Certain private colleges jack up the price because they know the students will be able to pay for it using government loans and that's where the debt comes in. If students have to borrow money from the banks there would be less students entering these expensive schools and they would be forced to lower their tuition prices.