<p>Last month a heated online discussion that spanned many forums (including this one) emerged in response to the question, "Are too many students going to college?". </p>
<p>A journalist at the Daily Texan wrote a small piece about the issue, though the comments surrounding his article mostly had nothing to do with the topic at hand, but focused on the off-color remarks of a well regarded economics professor at UT, Dr. Hamermesh. These are a few of his alarming and uncalled-for comments. </p>
<p>“People who say there are too many kids in college are the same right-wingers who say minorities are not smart enough to get into college,"</p>
<p>“We are not Austin Community College or Texas State University. We should be training the leaders of tomorrow to think,” Hamermesh said. </p>
<p>The</a> Daily Texan - Professors dispute employment value of college degrees</p>
<p>I read Charles Murray's "Real Education" and was nodding in agreement with him on almost every page. Why? Because I saw it everyday in my classes at UT. He states that only the top 10-15% of college-aged students are intelligent enough to handle real college level work. In terms of SAT scores, he suggests a minimum of 1180/1600 as the borderline for the ability to handle college level work. </p>
<p>How does this relate to Dr. Hamermeshs comments? The mid 50% SAT range of incoming freshman from the class 2008 to UT was 1120-1340. If you do a quick analysis of that data compared with the 1180 as the borderline for ability to handle college level work, almost a THIRD of students should not even be attending this University, or any University at all. </p>
<p>Hamermesh's implies (though he might have been quoted out of context) that all UT students are great students and that everyone at ACC or TXTU is an idiot. I'm overstating a bit,to illustrate my point more clearly. Sure, the average student at UT will be much smarter and capable than the average student at ACC or TXTU. If you use the same comparison of TXTU SAT scores, about 70-80% of their students should not be in college. Among the heated comments were many from TXTU students who chose TXTU over UT, pointedly accused the UT football team of being bad students or downright dumb (very true, given the sad state of high-level collegiate sports, but their football players are most likely just as unintelligent, and ours are evidently much better athletically, we are headed to the BCS Championship game, after all :)), and many who simply felt that Mr. Hamermesh insulted them (true). </p>
<p>You can call me racist, elitist, or any number of bad names, but the scientifically accepted conclusion is that as groups, East Asians are more intelligent than Whites, who are more intelligent than Latinos, who are more intelligent than Blacks. These are aggregate results. BUT BY NO MEANS, do you take this data, to create racism. It is immoral and irresponsible to look at an INDIVIDUAL and presume his or her academic ability by the color of their skin. It is stupid and wrong. There are a great number of Blacks who are way smarter than a great number of East Asians. Just as there are a good handful of students at TXTU or even ACC that are smarter than a handful of students at UT. </p>
<p>Professor Hamermesh essentially makes the politically incorrect and morally corrupt statement that, "All Whites are smart, all Blacks are dumb," except instead of white, it is "Longhorn", and instead of black, it is "Bobcat". </p>
<p>He also claims to be against the idea that "Too many students are going to college". But all the students that are going to his particular school, should be here, because they are the future leaders, blah, blah, blah. The statistics I presented earlier will show that he is sorely mistaken about the abilities and suitability of his own students. He's seen it in his classes, the intellectual incapability of some students at UT, but he insists on denying it. He would be lying if he said he thought every student at UT belongs here. </p>
<p>Engineering degrees and hard science degrees are worth it. The students graduating with these degrees are smart, by the nature of the difficult and demanding curriculum. Many drop out in the first year, but the ones that remain and graduate, are mostly good. Social darwinism at work. Engineering students and the majority of science students will agree with me that they study more than people in other majors. Graduating with these degrees from UT is something kids should be proud of. They will obtain jobs that make a difference in our society and also pay well. </p>
<p>At the other end of the "degree" spectrum are the majority of the liberal arts, communications, business, education, and other degrees are worth little more than the paper they are printed on for a large number of students. </p>
<p>Many kids majoring in these fields are doing it for all the wrong reasons. A lot of them despise their coursework, struggle with assignments, and on top of that, incur a significant amount of debt to attend. They are here because without that "B.A", they would be viewed as second class citizens in the world, and would never get the foot in the door of a decent paying job. There is an enormous injustice in the false premium placed on a "B.A". These kids do not need the knowledge supposedly learned during their years at college for the job. They want to be salesmen, saleswomen, brand managers, television and radio hosts, etc, skills that can be taught within one or two years. They do not need to be pouring over Hobbes and Locke shaking their heads in confusion or attempting to "do" calculus. They cannot do it. As most people cannot dunk a basketball no matter how much effort they put into it. Forcing people through four or sometimes five years of this "education" is approaching cruel and unusual punishment. This needs to change. </p>
<p>This brings me to my next point. By allowing these young men and women into this University, you have forced many instructors into impossible situations. They cannot teach difficult material or demand superb work from their students, because if they did, a lot of kids would fail, and they would be in big trouble, that is, unless they have tenure. </p>
<p>Additionally, Professors often judged by how EASY their class is. Good professors and TA's are the ones that give lots of A's. A lot of kids I know, when faced with a liberal or science prerequisite, automatically scan Pick-a-Prof for the coolest sounding class that also gives more than 50% of the students A's. This is how they choose their classes. A bad professor is often one that is rightfully demanding of his or her students. Those classes are usually never filled up too quickly. Sure, there are plenty of horrific teachers at UT (the math department and engineering departments are full of them, a lot of who combine the worst sins of zero personality and unintelligible English communication skills), but you should praise and laud instructors that ask the most of you. You should never punish them. </p>
<p>I'll give a few anecdotal examples of my experiences with the laughable degree of difficulty of some of my classes. I took a management class (I was a McCombs student), according to Pick-a-Prof, with one of the more "difficult" professors. He assigned essays. I worked hard on the first essay, to be rewarded with a 50/50. I was happy, until I realized, everyone either got a 50/50 or a 45/50. You got a 50/50 if you wrote on the topic and it was of the appropriate length and 45/50 if you didn't do both of those things. After I found this alarming fact, I proceeded to churn out absolute garbage for assignments. Garbage that would earn me an A+ every single time. I made a high A, mostly based on the fact that I came to class everyday and participated meaningfully, which many students did not bother to do, but still somehow felt slighted and angered when they were awarded a "B", so angered that they stood twenty deep in front of the professors office to attempt to win a few points for the "A". </p>
<p>Too many students care solely about grades and not enough about the coursework or the opportunity to learn from an accomplished faculty member. Its about the A for them, not the knowledge. </p>
<p>I can safely say that in my English Literature, Philosophy, Government, Economics, Sociology, and EVEN calculus courses, I was unchallenged and simply bored out of my wits. In my high school, a challenging prep school, I spent hours formulating and proofreading my papers, only to usually receive a very honest B and the occasional A. I am an above average-writer and I'll admit, not too great at reading and analyzing classical and contemporary literature. In my classes at college, again, I found I could write a "paper" if you could it that at all, less than ten minutes before it was due, and almost always, receive an A or A+. Still, many of my students found these courses, extremely difficult, for some odd reason. Certainly it couldn't be that I was just a bonafide genius. No, it was a dizzying combination of grade inflation and unqualified students. The instructor was forced to give me a good grade because my crap was light years better than the writings of my peers. If he failed me, he would have to fail almost everyone else, and that wouldn't be too good for him or her. I got an A, most other people got B's, and C's, and a few D's and a F's. It will never look like grade inflation on the surface, because the distribution is correct, but it is. I don't deserve that A. I know it. The instructor knows it. The only people who don't know the truth are those with B's and C's that should be D's and F's. And sometimes they think they deserve A's. </p>
<p>Even calculus here is dumbed down. Yes, calculus. That word that sends many a first-year into a tremors is in fact, too easy. I took 408D with a "extremely hard professor" according to the general student consensus, but it was a laughing matter. He was a dreadful teacher by all accounts, but a great mathematician, I would assume. I skipped almost every class. Why? You took a test with 5 problems. These 5 problems were the low-level or medium-level problem set questions with switched numbers. Thats it. The test takes less than 30 minutes. I'll admit, I made a low grade on the first test, because well, there are 5 problems, you miss one, its a lot of points. And I thought it was going to be a hard test. So I way-overthought two problems that could have been solved in 10 seconds. A terrible self-fulfilling prophecy. Once I realized it was easy, it was easy. But still this is one of the most widely failed and dropped classes. Many students try to wriggle their way out of the calculus requirements by taking "online classes". Those students should never be forced to take calculus as part of their degree. Its cruel and unusual punishment. But apparently, the school thinks it does them a lot of good. </p>
<p>The honors programs (Plan II, DS, BHP, etc) are usually pretty good, though some are guilty of handing out way too many A's (BHP). But some of the students here are not up to snuff either. I've had economics majors in these programs ask me how to solve economics questions. They were befuddled when I showed them that calculus was necessary to find the area under a curve. They wanted to use geometry. Calculus was too hard. I hope they were not planning on pursuing economics in graduate school. </p>
<p>I'm sick of going to class with students who hate the class. I'm sick of being the only student making a meaningful comment in class. I'm sick of editing papers written at middle-school level. </p>
<p>What are Office Hours for? This is why most students go to office hours.<br>
1. Plead and argue for a grade raise. This is pathetic. Ok, if you have a legitimate reason, but simply disgusting when you don't go to class and expect a raise.<br>
2. Ask for the instructor to explain/tell you/repeat FACTUAL or SIMPLE material that is clearly presented in the text. You do not need to be in office hour to ask a respected intellectual about when the constitution was ratified. That is easily found in your textbook or google. One instructor bemoaned the fact that this was happening to me when we were talking in private.<br>
3. Brown-nosing. I've had many people tell me the reason they go to office hours is so that they can hopefully snatch a good recommendation letter in the future. Trust me, instructors know when your here for that reason. </p>
<p>I've gotten the opportunity a few times to hold meaningful conversations and discussions with my instructors about their research, explore class topics more in-depth, and sometimes just to talk about life. I love going to Office Hours. I wish I had more of these opportunities, but unfortunately, its crammed full of students attempting sins #1-#3. </p>
<p>This is my rant. What are your thoughts? Am I right? Wrong?</p>