<p>Here's an image that lists the results and findings of a survey of colleges and students:
<a href="http://www.onlinecollegesanduniversities.com/college_america/collegeamerica.jpg%5B/url%5D">http://www.onlinecollegesanduniversities.com/college_america/collegeamerica.jpg</a></p>
<p>Any reactions?</p>
<p>If I thought my kids were spending 8 hours per week studying I would not be paying the tuition.</p>
<p>S1 laughed himself silly when saw that 8 hours a week number.</p>
<p>I like the point its trying to make, but not the obviously distorted numbers and misleading representations (e.g. “Arguing with Judge Judy” is probably a class on rhetoric and could well be very worthwhile. Some professors like funny names for their courses. Another example: Winemaking is almost certainly for Cornell’s Hotel Management School, in which case its a fairly important course.</p>
<p>Not to mention the unwarranted slam on the social sciences…</p>
<p>9 hours A DAY on Tv, cell, facebook? Did they just make this stuff up?! If these are “average habits” perhaps that explains the 1/3 drop out rate and 6 year grad rate…but I’m skeptical. Almost all of the kids I know who have dropped out or not graduated on time were more affected by the high cost of college than by bad habits.</p>
<p>Winemaking is (a) almost certainly a major (and department) at Cornell’s *College of Agriculture and Life Sciences<a href=“not%20the%20hotel%20school”>/i</a>, and (b) as anyone who has ever been within 50 miles of Cornell should know, a significant industry in the central New York Finger Lakes region where Ithaca is located. It would be unthinkable for Cornell not to have a first-rate winemaking program (although for obvious reasons the program at UC Davis is probably the flagship for U.S. oenology).</p>
<p>Yes, I have a reaction. This is obviously a “survey” done by someone who wishes to discredit higher education. I see a lot of bias and question the motives as well as the “survey” methods used.</p>
<p>One of my girls took waterskiing for a phys ed credit at a FL state school. She figured it was her once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn how to do it correctly.</p>
<p>The website for Cornell’s Program in Viticulture and Enology makes clear that, although the Cornell Ag school has been involved in research and teaching on grape production and winemaking for over a century, the multidisciplinary program was only recently created as an undergraduate major because of a combination of explosive growth in the state’s wine industry with a critical shortage of people trained in cold-climate grape growing and winemaking. This particular major appears to afford excellent employment prospects.</p>
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<p>This. Or at least, they want to discredit traditional, brick-and-mortar college education. Which makes some sense, because, look at what the site is about.</p>
<p>I have no problem with a course in maple syrup. I went to Alfred University and read the description of the course and it makes for an interdisciplinary study. I took a course in the Natural History of America at Clark many years ago and it hasn’t helped me in my career but there are bits and pieces of the knowledge that come in handy from time to time. Having a country of people with various bits of knowledge in a wide variety of things, even though they are not immediately useful in a career is a good thing.</p>
<p>In France there is a school of Champagne making, and this is all students study for 3 years (and the champagne produced by the students - indistinguishable to most of us from the real thing - is sold for only 7 EUR a bottle). The same town (Chalon en Champagne) I believe also has a circus school where you can study juggling, trapeeze, uni-cycle riding etc.</p>
<p>10 hours per week partying sounds low. (Based on what I remember from the dark ages. :o)</p>
<p>This has a clear and heavy bias with an attitude that I really resent. The Starbucks logo next to the ‘Popular Careers of Social Science Majors’? Gimme a break.</p>
<p>While I am sure some data is stretched to make a point, there is a lot of truth in those results, no matter how many here want to believe otherwise</p>
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<p>Are you implying that this survey has some sort of covert agenda?</p>
<p>So, what ARE the common jobs for social science majors today?</p>
<p>Cornell’s Hotel School does have a Wine Tasting class however… They also have their own nice wine cellar! I think it’s pretty neat. Also quite necessary in that field since who knows, you may be working at the Four Seasons and a VIP guest shows up.</p>
<p>Did this jump out at anyone else?</p>
<p>“1700 die from alcohol related [sic - needs hyphen] injuries including falling out of a window”</p>
<p>Where are the data to support this? I know of one student who died, ostensibly of substance-related causes (although this was never verified), and it was a huge to-do on campus. </p>
<p>I have heard this “1700 college students die from alcohol” figure before, and I wonder where it comes from.</p>
<p>It is no secret that college students (and young adults not in college) are “partyers”, but if this death rate has any validity, colleges and the college community (inc. parents) need to address this honestly and seriously. Colleges have a stewardship responsibility for our kids, and if a total in the thousands per year are dying on their watch, I think that is a huge issue for everyone. Maybe colleges should have a “Substance Abuse Studies” course as a core requirement…</p>
<p>I try not to take unsourced statistics from a clearly-biased source with any credibility, but alcoholism can be a problem, especially in American colleges. For some reason, the drinking age here is 21, which means that most kids start drinking not in a responsible family environment but with a bunch of other kids. Now, most of them end up getting it under control and have a good time at parties, but there’s always going to be that percentage who go overboard and end up hurting themselves / other people because they never learned to handle alcohol like an adult.</p>
