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Comment by lee_ars

21 days ago

> At least for me, it's not that reading bores me - there just isn't enough time and benefit to it, especially for novels and literature. Literary books aren't going in my CV, nor providing any insight into how to write better code. When 1200 people compete for 1 open internship position, can I really afford to waste my time like this?

The disconnect here is that your professors are assigning you work like this because the purpose of a university education is to broaden your horizons, challenge you, and force you to think about _how to think._

The fact that you're treating it like trade school is your problem, not the university's.

> I distinctly remember being penalized for any insight that didn't fit marking criteria back in high school english lit.

Good for you. High school writing has nothing to do with university-level papers.

> Well, most lectures just aren't very helpful. They move slower than if we just read the docs. Some lecturers are also just incompetent with barely any understanding of what they're teaching in the first place...

Your issue, again, is that you're arrogantly assuming you don't have anything to learn from things you personally haven't prioritized. A major role of a university education is to beat that idea out of you by showing you how wrong you are. Pity it isn't sticking.

> ...though this probably wouldn't be as big of a problem in better universities like Ivy Leagues where the author works

What the actual fuck, dude? Ivy League? Right in the second paragraph: "I teach at a regional public university in the US."

I went into this article kind of annoyed at the stereotyping of "these kids today," but way to go reinforcing the article's points. Damn.

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lee_ars

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paulpauper  20 days ago

The disconnect here is that your professors are assigning you work like this because the purpose of a university education is to broaden your horizons, challenge you, and force you to think about _how to think._

this would be fine if it didn't cost as much as a new car and my career did not depend on it. I can broaden my horizons for free at library

PhunkyPhil  21 days ago

> The fact that you're treating it like trade school is your problem, not the university's.

When (for many people) going to college almost necessarily means accruing 5-figure to 6-figure debt at the infancy of their careers, they sure as shit better have some sort of marketable skill to justify and remedy that debt coming out of it.

I understand the sentiment of higher education being useful for broadening one's horizons, challenging you, teaching you how to think etc; but you should be arguing in the _positive_ for these things to be available to everyone without a paywall.

  • sarchertech  20 days ago

    Federal loans are enough to pay for a state school (especially if you do your general education at a community college). Income based repayment means you’ll never pay more than 10% of your discretionary income for 20 years (income above 1.5x the poverty level for your family size). If you never make more than 1.5x the poverty level, you’ll never pay back a dime.

    College is financially attainable for just about anyone.

    • PhunkyPhil  20 days ago

      > Income based repayment means you’ll never pay more than 10% of your discretionary income for 20 years

      So a 10% hit to your income for at least 20 years isn't significant? What percentage of someone's student debt works under income based repayment?

      > If you never make more than 1.5x the poverty level, you’ll never pay back a dime.

      So... your suggestion is to live just above poverty so you won't have to pay student loans?

      > Federal loans are enough to pay for a state school (especially if you do your general education at a community college)

      Sure, there exists ways to go about getting a degree which doesn't _have_ to have a massive financial burden for decades, but what percentage of degree holders (Or, those who have student loans) took this path? Is this a pragmatically fair expectation for 17/18 year olds to make?

      How do you resolve the "while the total average balance (including private loan debt) may be as high as $41,618"[0]

      [0]: https://educationdata.org/student-loan-debt-statistics#:~:te...

      3 replies →

    • acureau  20 days ago

      Completely false. I went to one of the cheapest accredited colleges around, I received the maximum pell grant, and my federal loans covered about 65% of the tuition. I worked full time through college to cover the remaining tuition and books.

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