Being the typically boring person I am, I was reading through the legal mumbo jumbo at the bottom of each board post while waiting for a thread to load. While reading up on the Chicago Reader’s Advertising rates, this quote jumped out of the page:
According to the July 2003 MediaMark survey, while 51% of people have attended college, only 24% have graduated. Natuarally, being a bit sceptical, I dug further. From the US Census Website (table 1), We get after a bit of calculation, 48% of people attending college and 30% graduating. Obviously, there are people currently attending college who should not be counted in these figures.
From The national centre for educational statistics, we get some 15 million people currently attending college out of a population of roughly 300 million (CIA world fact book). Or 5%.
Subtracting these people from our statistics, we get roughly 33% of people passing college and 15% of people who drop out. Or rather, 31% of the people who have ever attended college have or will have dropped out at some stage.
Granted, its less than the 50% the Reader was citing but it’s still, IMHO, an alarming number. Should we be concerned at such a high attrition rate? What are the main reasons that college students disappear in such large droves? Is this rate comparable with other developed countrys?
Do they double count students that change courses ?
31% drop out doesn’t seem that bad… many people probably get a good job during the university and quit. Others can’t afford the cost or don’t get the grades. I think many people who actually manage to get into University aren’t really good enough students for that level… they are trying for the diploma formality.
Well, no. I was simply going by the highest education achievment awarded using the US census figures. Even if you change courses, you don’t get double counted. Interestingly enough, there was quite a surprising amount of people in the census that get their masters degrees at a ridiculously young age (like 19 years old). Does this mean that we are suffering from a glut of university spots at the moment? or are admission criterion not good enough to properly predict who is capable of passing uni?
Personally, I think the much more likely reason is that there runs an institutional thread of bone crushing apathy and disregard among the teaching staff which inevitably spreads to form apathy and loathing in the students.
Ya know how the U.S. high school system sucks? particularly when compared to those of other nations? Well, our colleges are generally considered top notch. So you have a bunch of ill-prepared kids leaving an apathetic system, and moving into a whole new world where they get their asses handed to them on a platter.
Japanese students do all that hellacious cramming to pass the super-hard exams to get into colleges. But then college itself is “a sandbox,” according to a fellow academic’s drunken ramblings.
So the difference is, the American system lets you into college before it brings on the pain. Something about this technique tickles America’s love of Social Darwinism.
Also let’s remember that in the USA, for many young people college/university has become what you are “expected” or “supposed” to do after High School. Either by social pressure or family pressure or “just because it’s what you do”.
This means American colleges/universities get a large influx of people who are not really suited for Higher Ed, not really ready for it yet, or are there less than willingly. That creates quite a bit of extra attrition.
Even if you go straight into work after HS, there is much encouragement for you to start taking part-time higher-ed courses at some point – even if just leading to an Associates degree. Plus in many lines of work you may even be required to take some courses for professional development w/o ever going for a terminal degree
There is also the effect of a dynamic economy/society where you get to switch courses often along your life, and universities/colleges who are flexible about accommodating unconventional students – my own baccalaureate had a decade-plus gap in the middle.
American colleges have a large influx of students who are not suited for anything, IMO, other than metabolizing Bud Lite.
Well, no. I was simply going by the highest education achievment awarded using the US census figures. Even if you change courses, you don’t get double counted. Interestingly enough, there was quite a surprising amount of people in the census that get their masters degrees at a ridiculously young age (like 19 years old). Does this mean that we are suffering from a glut of university spots at the moment? or are admission criterion not good enough to properly predict who is capable of passing uni?
Personally, I think the much more likely reason is that there runs an institutional thread of bone crushing apathy and disregard among the teaching staff which inevitably spreads to form apathy and loathing in the students.
JR, you’re right. In a “classless” (har!) society like 'Merka, college is the “prole cutoff line.” Heck, even Gatsby had to “study electricity” (it was on his little list).
I’ve got a question: What are the rates of application to college of all industrialized nations? What are the rates of acceptance to college of all industrialized nations?
If a greater proportion of the population enters college in the first place, then one would expect a greater proportion of dropouts.