@“Erin’s Dad” It was I that brought that up to make a point. The article did not mention it.
My comment got to the students implication that non-major courses were a waste of time in the students opinion.
“Art appreciation” may have been a reference to reply #3 of this thread.
However, many colleges’ general education requirements allow the student to choose within each category, so a student can choose to learn something new instead of repeating what s/he knows. Also, college courses may be more in-depth than high school courses on the same subject.
Since when is college algebra “high level math?”
College is not (necessarily) a scam, but it is obvious that it is not the right choice for Willson specifically right now.
here’s the companion / follow-up article:
How entrepreneurial of him.
And since was art appreciation not important–and should be done at the high school level only?
Seriously–art is everywhere, in the cup you drink out of, the car you drive, the canned soup you buy, the computer you’re typing on. Steve Jobs was the first person to mention how calligraphy changed his thinking about the world and helped redesign computers. They went from ugly difficult-to-use objects to streamlined art machines with luxurious fonts. Some computers, thanks to Jobs’ vision, are tiny and can sit in our hands and with gentle swipes of our fingers bring all of the world’s knowledge instantly to us. They are beautiful objects to use and to look at.
For those here who need to break down everything into exact dollars made and lost, maybe you can tell me how much money Jobs made by make aesthetics central to his brand?
If you think that engineering or accounting or any field can ignore aesthetics, wow. Just wow.
$29.95 for a t-shirt flipping the bird? i think i see the real scam here …
Though I didn’t love all my gen ed requirements while getting my chemical engineering degree, I really did enjoy most of them. Sociology, Greek & Roman mythology, theater appreciation, economics, etc. Some helped in my career and some just expanded my worldview. A few were a complete waste of time, but the same could be said for a few of my technical courses (e.g. the degree program dictated a physical chemistry course taken AFTER two engineering thermodynamics courses…I learned no new concepts, skipped at least half the lectures, got an easy A, and still remember 20 years later what a colossal waste of time it was). No degree plan is going to be 100 percent useful and engaging, but dismissing gen ed or college in general as useless seems pretty extreme.
Smart kid. Plenty of kids drop out for similar reasons, but don’t tell the world about it. By making this one controversial post, he has gotten a lot of free advertising for his products.
Well, it was for some of us. 
Huh, he was an architectural engineer major, as I was. If he had graduated with an ArchE degree, he would have been responsible for designing structures (making sure they stand up, not that they look pretty). It’s a tough major. I would hope he had to take lots of math classes and not have time for marriage or tax classes! In some schools, it’s a five-year program. I think he’s a tool.
He makes a lot of good points, and brings us some of the issues with modern education delivery. Why should students be forced to take general education courses? Why is delivery so inefficient? You don’t need to go to college to learn how to do anything with all of the public and online resources that are available, but he misses the part about networking and growing up in an intellectually and socially stimulating environment.
Colleges and universities aren’t trade schools and anyone who wants a college degrees must fulfill their university’s requirements. If one doesnt want to do that, then don’t go.
I don’t agree that our colleges and universities should change their mission because some people find certain courses useless.
Of course, there are few colleges without general education requirements (or very minimal ones) like Brown, Amherst, and Evergreen State.
Well if his first product launch is any indication of his talent then he should get his derriere back into K-State. That is if they will take him after that pic that leads the article. How big of a market is there for that crass t-shirt – very small I would think.
Hi Erin’s Dad–Although I liked your post #16, I can’t even really agree on the statement that “he was going to be an engineer.” I’d stretch as far as “he thought he was going to be an engineer.” It would be interesting to know what math he was taking at Kansas State, and whether he had any physics.
Sounds like a viral marketing scam to me.
Interesting to see if it works.
Normally not part of the grammar police, but the irony of not being “adverse to learning” is too rich.
“spending hours trying to grasp the concept of the quadratic formula”
??? I thought the quadratic formula was taught in high school. If he thinks that is hard, he should wait until he gets to higher level math and chem classes (ie Heisenberg’s and Schrodinger’s equations).