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<p>No one is required to take out student loans, nor attend a university that uses tuition dollars to support athletes. </p>
<p>Can you imagine how much your taxes would increase if all of the nearly 4,000 colleges and universities in America were free? And you’d have to pay it even if you didn’t want to go.</p>
<p>Yes Bay, I can imagine how my taxes would go up if college were free. It would be just like Denmark - where people are #1 in happiness according to your sources. </p>
<p>Actually, here it would be more expensive than Denmark, because under the present system it wouldn’t just be free “school” it would be free training for professional athletes too.</p>
<p>USNWR current world rankings show 20 of the top 50 overall ranked universities are in the US. This is impressive - however, much of what contributes to this ranking is their research, not their undergraduate work. In the US, in departments like egnineering, math and science, there are a large number of foreign graduate students. What will happen if this talent pool increasingly decides to stay, or go, back home? </p>
<p>When you look at the same rankings from USNWR for engineering programs only, the US has 14 of the top 50 universities - the difference between the overall measure and the engineering school measure is significant to me because this is the area where the Asian schools are putting their effort. It will be interesting to revisit these same rankings in another 10 to 20 years.</p>
<p>I’m not trying to pick on athletes, but there are limited resources in education and I don’t think the present balance between what is spent on high dollar athletics (not simple physical fitness for everybody) in relation to the expenditures for high quality academics for everybody (including good vocational training for those who aren’t college bound) is serving us well as a nation. Something’s gotta give - right now it’s the US competitive edge in educating our own citizens.</p>
<p>bchan,
I agree that a large exodus of graduate students, especially in certain fields, is hardly desirable for the U.S. However, I question whether athletics is to blame for that, or even whether K-12 preparation is to blame for that. A couple of reflections on that:</p>
<p>(1) You yourself admit that it is certain (more technical, more scientific) fields where this exodus is occurring. I don’t know the percentage of non-foreigners to foreigners in the example you gave of the prof who “had a meltdown” (due to few of his proteges continuing on to U.S. graduate schools), but keep in mind that among Elite U’s, anyway, there is a very strong percentage of undergraduates with non-U.S. personal origins in scientifc fields. Overall, there have been certain superiorities of proficiency and comprehensive knowledge among entering undergraduate students of non-Western personal origins (especially Indians, Chinese). This does speak to U.S. K-12 preparation (math/science).</p>
<p>However, there are a couple of forces beginning to work against that trend:
(a) U.S. industry itself: Technical skills are in high demand, on all levels, including in very advanced levels. This is beginning to lure students to these fields and away from other fields previously sought. Some states are particularly cutting-edge with regard to new and advanced technologies, and academic programs training for that, in those States, are becoming increasingly competitive among U.S. students. I don’t see Eastern domination (if you will) as a permanent trend.</p>
<p>(b) K-12 responses to this ^. Science education in particular --method & curriculum – has begun to respond to industry demands and student desires. Math has not caught up (to say the least!). Many of us in education have been lobbying for the latter for quite some time, and continue to.</p>
<p>(2) Personally, I have already begun to see evidence of inadequate preparation for college, locally, and that is even in the basic areas of (non-technical) reading comprehension: critical reading, analytical reading, which are prerequisites for college achievement. These deficiencies, as well as the scientific ones, are not resulting in overwhelming admissions of foreign students, but in omitting more public school students from Elite U’s, in favor of better prepared private students. There is an incremental increase in international students, at Elites; however, since these U’s are also seeking higher tuitions to offset more generous financial aid policies to domestic students, it’s difficult to attribute these admissions mainly to superior K-12 schools, although there may be a serendipitous duplication going on.</p>
<p>(3) Those of us frustrated with inadequacies of U.S. public education may be surprised to learn that at a recent convocation of U.S. & Chinese educators, in China, it was the Chinese who were seeking to model more of their K-12 education on American standards which include creativity, rather than maintaining their traditional focus on repetition and mastery of orthodox knowledge. The Americans, OTOH, voiced a desire to become more like the Chinese model, a statement which drew laughter from the Chinese present!</p>
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<p>Asians do seem to focus intently on engineering and related fields. Americans may lag behind in this area, but not for any reason related to college athletics. As someone who grew up in an engineering household (both father and older brother have multiple engineering degrees), my perception is that, at least in the past, American culture did not favor or encourage a career in engineering. Engineers were generally perceived as one-dimensional nerds, who led comfortable middle class lifestyles, but had limited potential to earn the big bucks like bankers, doctors, lawyers and corporate types (so that is where the smartest students flocked and still do) unless they also held an MBA. There was no glamour or excitement in it. In college, the Engineering major was perceived to require an inordinate amount of work, which lacked a creative or human element.</p>
<p>When earning a degree in engineering is perceived to be the “golden ticket” to a secure job and comfortable lifestyle, (and this may be happening right now), then more American students will pursue that career.</p>
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<p>Exactly what I was referring to. Just as many students are now pursuing very new technologies which seem to promise a lucrative future. There’s no question that the economy is a factor in educational choice. (Sometimes, contrarily, blind popularity is also a driving and even irrational force – such as the preference for the field of psychology in the '70s, despite the inability of the industry to absorb all those graduates. However, there appears to be trend back toward practicality in the choosing of academic paths.) If suddenly the agricultural industry was the new Wall Street, we would see a dramatic increase in aggie grads and programs.</p>