Colleges are insanely inefficient at teaching. amirite?

The people arguing this concept are the ones who definitely needed to pay attention in Gen Ed's

by Jackeline60 7 hours ago

I don't understand why someone who despises Gen Ed requirements would even go to university. If you aren't interested in learning and want to boil everything down to getting a career you can skip Gen Eds and just do trade school.

by Anonymous 6 hours ago

I agree, except that, at least in the US, many jobs require a college degree. I used to work for a state government. You had to have a college degree. You could get an IT job with a degree in under water basket weaving. You just had to have a degree.

by Connect_Being9618 6 hours ago

Because people think universities are vocational schools not you know, more education.

by Anonymous 6 hours ago

Because jobs require them?

by Anonymous 5 hours ago

Because a bachelors degree is considered an arbitrary gatekeeping requirement for most jobs people would consider good or for an industry where you can have a career and growth.

by Anonymous 5 hours ago

I think the problem is just the tuition price. Gen Ed's are fantastic but less so when they cost 20k a year

by ResultStill 5 hours ago

Can you do anything you want with a trade school? Maybe they want a job that requires a college degree but isn't something you can do with trade school. I find it really funny how stupid some people can be. They think they're evolved for valuing college for education and not just a requirement for employment 😤 ... but then apparently they forget that it's also a requirement for many of the best jobs out there? I don't understand why someone who despises Gen Ed requirements would even go to university. Really?? Did you forget what most people know by middle school, or were you just trying to sound superior?

by Anonymous 5 hours ago

My only point is that if you aren't interested in learning or growing as a person your earnings potential is not going to be great with a bachelors.

by Anonymous 5 hours ago

To this day I think my Philosophy course showed me more about discussion and human nature than anything else. Has helped me a lot in business.

by Anonymous 4 hours ago

That speaks to how bad grade school is in the US. Isn't high school, with its myriad electives, AP/IB courses, and its own form of Gen Ed supposed to make you well-rounded prior to college? Especially given how much stock is put into superfluous stuff like extracurriculars. You'll notice that requiring Gen Ed courses in uni is uniquely American; that's not a good thing.

by Anonymous 4 hours ago

They may or may not be fully useless for some. That's a very low bar to clear and still begs the question of whether they are worth the very hefty cost.

by No-Gap 4 hours ago

Not every university is a hefty cost. The one I went to if you had a 3.0 gpa in the city's school district. You went for free. But yes gen eds are worth the time.

by Anonymous 3 hours ago

I don't know what wage rates and tuition are like in your region, but in Canada at least, tuition is fairly minor (although I'd still argue, hefty) compared to the opportunity cost of not working. It's not particularly hard for the typical 18yr old guy to get an entry-level construction job paying at least 40K a yr. Whereas you probably won't pay more than 15K tuition. Proving that it's worth the time spent is a much higher bar than proving that it's worth the tuition. Mileage will vary by region of course.

by No-Gap 3 hours ago

Yes they are.

by Anonymous 3 hours ago

I can't tell you how many techbros I find who are incompetent at anything other than computer science. If anything we need more liberal arts requirements so that we can more effectively distinguish between university degrees and technical certificates. Signed, software engineer

by Anonymous 3 hours ago

Yup! Honestly anyone who complains about General Education and Electives is a giant red flag for someone who is NOT curious.

by Anonymous 2 hours ago

Well Gen Eds are there so youre well rounded as a person. Also bad teachers exist at every level

by shawnaschmeler 2 hours ago

Gen Eds also help for the students who end up changing majors.

by Anonymous 1 hour ago

Or pick up a minor. Or go to grad school

by shawnaschmeler 1 hour ago

Then you're wasting your life. If you're not curious about other people and fields, I don't want you in any position of power.

by Anonymous 1 hour ago

It is for the school

by shawnaschmeler 1 hour ago

It's also good for society in general. Democracy suffers from people being idiots, we need smarter people and more of them.

by Anonymous 1 hour ago

I wonder. In Australia our Unis dont have general education. I did computer science and the only courses I took were comp science, maths, elec engineering, and physics as an elective. Our bachelors are also often 3 years. Do Americans really end up more well rounded and effective in democracy? It doesn't seem like it to me. Of course there's so much that goes into that that it could just be drowning out the signal of gen Ed.

by Edmund39 1 hour ago

I agree that there's probably too many spurious variables to really tell. I do think there's something to be said for general education, but probably would need to read up on some literature to know for sure. It's more a hunch than a hard position.

by Anonymous 1 hour ago

It shouldn't cost thousands of dollars to be well rounded. If college is gonna be so time consuming and expensive it should focus on getting people in and out as quickly as they can without losing efficiency when it comes to their degree

by Anonymous 47 minutes ago

Oh I agree, college should be free, or at least way more affordable. Any democratic government should be prioritizing investments into education at every level (way more than the US does at least).

by Anonymous 42 minutes ago

Irrelevant, as well as false (the school's aim is to make money).

by No-Gap 17 minutes ago

Its to make money in the US not everywhere. And focusing in just one thing its bad for your education.

by Anonymous 11 minutes ago