A freshman at Kansas State University drops out after his first semester (receiving a 4.0 GPA) because he believes college is a scam:
http://www.kstatecollegian.com/2016/12/19/4-0-k-state-student-drops-out-says-college-is-a-scam/
Good for him.
Everyone gets to make their choice. No one says he has to go to college. Not sure why this is even an article.
I agree with many of the points the student raised. At the prices the schools charge now and the debt people go into, one does begin to question the logic in being forced to take classes that are not applicable to your intended occupation.
I totally understand the opinion that college should graduate well rounded adults with critical thinking skills and soft skills. But now that money is becoming an issue, is it really necessary to require an engineer or accountant to take a music appreciation class? Or an Art appreciation class? That is $14,000 in a questionable expense if you ask me. Yes. $14,000. Private schools cost close to $7,000 per course! And that is just two classes that I mentioned. I am sure there are a few more that your employer would not exactly be interested in that you took. Something needs to be done. The age old luxury of learning for the sake of learning is getting beyond the financial reach of most students.
If he was in-state, he was paying about 8 grand for a year of college education. That’s for all of his courses, not just one.
It would be interesting to see how “RaveWave” is doing about a year from now.
By the way, people who just want to take specific college courses have plenty of options to do so, including community colleges, evening divisions, and online courses.
He was going to be an engineer. Personally I want the engineers who design things to go to college and learn all that silly math. The quadratic formula is used in civil engineering.
If you want to be an entrepreneur selling “accessories and clothing related to electronic dance music, raves, festivals and concerts” – apparently including inappropriate T-shirts – then maybe you don’t need a college degree.
but if you aspire to be a doctor, nurse, engineer, lawyer, teacher, then it’s kind of important.
You will have to take it up with ABET, which accredits engineering degree programs. The accreditation criteria for engineering degree programs includes the following with respect to curriculum:
Note that this means that Brown, which has no general education requirements for most students, requires that students in ABET-accredited engineering majors take some humanities and social studies courses (although fewer than many other schools require).
However, such humanities and social studies requirements for engineering majors do not seem to eliminate the stereotypes of engineering majors having no awareness of such subjects, even though their critics are sometimes humanities and social studies majors who take only the minimum possible science courses (often of the “rocks for jocks” type).
It is generally a good thing for engineers to have awareness of humanities and social studies subjects, both in professional life (e.g. understanding of economics and sociology can be helpful in the workplace and in business) and elsewhere.
Unfortunately, financial pressures are real and do affect attitudes toward learning.
It’s more like $4500/course if you’re a full-time student. (Assuming the tuition is $45,000/year, which is on the high end, and that the student takes ten classes every year.) This is still a lot, of course, which is why most people go to public schools. Many private schools offer significant financial aid, though.
The expression “cutting one’s nose off to spite one’s face” comes to mind.
I’ve hired engineers. Boat loads of them. People who think engineers don’t need to take art or music have never used a computer mouse or have never downloaded a song from Itunes. Prospective engineers who have never taken a history course or read a work of literature are going to have a tough time working on a development team for a groundbreaking new product (Bill Gates hired anthropologists to lead the teams when he was creating various versions of workplace programs. They understood how groups operate better than computer scientists). You wouldn’t want to fly in an airplane designed by a team of people who had never taken a psychology course (human factors engineering, which is critical to aviation safety is based on a sophisticated understanding of how humans process information and how they react and panic during a crises).
His aspiring business fails my “Shark Tank” test.
Well, if he really thinks the quadratic formula is “silly” he probably wouldn’t have lasted in engineering anyway. :))
It appears that he is quitting college because he thinks Gen eds are stupid. Okay then. While admittedly I do find some content of Gen eds boring or taught at an extremely basic level, I do recognize their use if (for nothing else) GPA boosters. I hope his entrepreneurial endeavors of selling accessories and such goes well. Not sure how it proves college is a scam though, if one wants to enter a field which requires at least one college degree.
@halcyonheather True. I think your number is more accurate. I was including room and board costs for a COA of $70K a year. 10 classes a year.
S2 has some similarities to this kid. I hope to spend a boat load of money and get a kid who is a far better version.
As an engineer, the most valuable classes I took were Psych 101, Buddhism, and The Art of the Short Story. Thoughtfulness, calmness, and brevity.
Re Erin’s Dad, post #5: A student who thinks that the quadratic formula is silly is not “going to be an engineer.” He is just enrolled as an engineering major–but probably not even that for long.
^ Operative word is “was” @QuantMech. I agree no one can get through an engineering discipline with that kind of mind set.
DS is coming off a good semester (yay!) where he had to take a fairly time intensive humanities class which all UF first years take (he is a CS major). There is no CLEPing, APin, DE’ing out of it. It is more or less aggravating depending on the professor (some students had great profs for this class). Apparently there was some wailing and gnashing of teeth amongst DS’ fellow dorm residents over this class (engineering LLC). 
We are blessed to be in state with Bright Futures so it didn’t cost that much. But I can see where an OOS tuition student would think “what is the point of this class.”
I see both sides of this issue, especially as a humanities major myself.
ETA: Just finished the article . . . have to admit that kid sounds very entrepreneurial and some people with that mindset don’t jibe well with school. My H is one. That being said he is the biggest proponent of our son doing college (instead of dev bootcamp or something like that).
I don’t understand repeating classes that were already taken in High School. Art appreciation was already taken in HS and the student has to do it again in college. It’s a waste of time and money.
I couldn’t find anywhere in the article where art appreciation was mentioned.