Scott Galloway thinks the future of college will be elite universities offering online programs

[katliamom]

@Iamdch

I was not pointing out the negatives in online classes; rather I am pointing out a facet of on-campus college life that, for some reason, is not often discussed. My S is loving his HS online classes and is actually more productive with his time. College is, however, much more than classes and homework. Classes for some majors, as well as introductory classes where the expectation is that there isn’t a close relationship with the instructors/TAs (think 300-person intro Chem class), are probably perfectly fine online. But the reason people seek out the elite top-30 schools is for the intangibles they offer – the opportunities to get involved in special research projects outside the day-to-day classwork and to form long-term personal and professional connections that will extend well beyond their four years as an undergraduate. There is an old saying “It’s not what you know but who you know” for a reason.

I don’t disagree. But a small percentage of college students overall attend the elite top-30 schools. The majority doesn’t. In fact, the majority of the world doesn’t attend those kinds of schools. Most students in Europe attend schools with no college sports, little or no campus life, feel lucky if they get to talk to the professor (who doesn’t have to have office hours) and regularly attend 300-person lecture classes. Yet somehow Europe does OK…

For the majority of schools in this country, the trick will be to offer some of those “intangibles” while living with a post-COVID economic reality. And that is likely to include online classes and fewer of those “intangibles” and a more limited “college experience.”