1. Many subjects – especially technical ones involving computers – can be nicely taught via computers. Even the D. of Ed. says online courses are highly effective.
Yet, there is very limited scholarship or grant funds for online courses or certificates (often more useful than degrees for current technology).

2. If you are among the 60% that don't graduate (which doesn't mean that your 4 years of school was worthless) there is NO recognition of the value. One course short of the degree is as worthless as having never gone. Try to go back – even after many years of professional experience – and they want you to pay through the nose in time and money.

CONSIDER:
A – State universities should be in the business of setting and monitoring standards for other providers. If the other providers meet the standards they should be able to award their students a State university degree.

B – We need a BA equivalent to a GED. Maybe a BS as well.

C – Encourage online learning. Support it, supervise it. Let educators package lectures (eg: The Learning Company), have peers certify them and let Students get credit for listening and passing tests or participating in seminars.

However, this notion is similar to the idea that customers of a gym should not have to pay for their memberships if they do not get in better shape. Or patients should not have to pay for dental care if they get cavities.

But I digress. The greater proportion of Americans going to college today means that college students are more representative of the population than ever before. A college education was once restricted to the elite. The authors of this article imply that graduation rates, grades, and other "measures" of colleges have lowered in recent years. But, they do not account for the differences in who goes to college these days.

As to the percentage of students graduating withing 4 years, that is an arcane idea coming from the magical times when students could go to college full time without simultaneously holding down a job or raising children. The majority of students today are non-traditional. Graduating in six years is much more the norm. It's a reflection of our society, of the competing time demands of today's students.

I agree that colleges need to be accountable because of the expense. I don't agree that the measures proposed in the article are of any use in achieving that goal.

Yes, there is a lot of drinking, slacking off, watching TV, etc for most college students. However, real colleges do require a lot of writing and professors require that you actually show up to class or receive a lower grade. College is not for everyone and it is not necessary for many non-professional, but respectable and decent paying middle class jobs.

I am scientist and there is no way that I would be one without college (and grad school). Having a science degree, I do actually use my college education on a daily basis. Furthermore, I think that there are only a few exceptional individuals out there (if any) making contributions to science without a college education. Not to leave out the liberal arts, my wife was an English major at a state school and she is very well compensated because she writes good and stuff, unlike me : )

MEN BE GOOD AT WHATEVER IT IS YOU DO TO BECOME THE BEST AT WHAT YOU DO TO BECOME SUCCESSFUL

Some Tom Leykis wisdom for everyone here.

What % of graduates are fully employed in their field within a year of graduation? Perhap 6 mos, and 3 mos too?

What % of graduates go on to get additional degrees?

Average income of graduates? Within 12 mos of graduating.

A native-born American, to an English speaking couple, practices "English," for something like 18 years before he matriculates.

A native-born American, to an English speaking couple, practices "the scientific method," for somthing like 0 minutes before she matriculates.

Some lucky ones – as I was – began practicing science as a profession whilst still in high school, and I therefore found Chemistry to be "easy, and rewarding."

I have been rewarded with plentiful, challenging work for more than 20 years, because I challenged myself in a complex field that, literally, was not open to everyone – a certain level of perserverence and intellect is required (to say nothing of objectivity).

Our students choose the easy way out (even at $50K per year in tuition and even more in lost opportunity) and then lament the absence of jobs on the other side. The time for that analysis is BEFORE one accepts a career path – not after that path has failed.

Extra onions, no lettuce, please, Mr. Joyce.

If you don't know how to read, write, and teach yourself what you need to know by the time you get to college, it's already over. And for every job in the world, what you really need to know to do it well isn't taught in any college course.

Colleges are expensive because administrators have confused the real role of a college (to keep the kids occupied and maybe teach a few of them some math) with a glamor contest: who has the biggest student union building? The shiniest swimming facility? The greatest landscaping? Robotic laundry machines in all the dorms? Five flat screen TVs in every classroom? And, most importantly, the biggest "development office" staffed with PR professionals to remind alumni of how much they owe the college for getting them to where they are today…as in, maybe a cool $200 mil for a new Comparative Literature building, complete with cappuccino bar and climbing wall.

Destination Infinity

"Hook a business major and you could be the next Mrs. Millionaire!"

Hook a business major and you could also be the next Ms. Bankrupt. Check the statistics some time on starting businesses. Or, for that matter, the number of millionaires and their backgrounds. It's not that hard to find.

Of course, understanding that would require a sense of numeracy, the willingness to do basic research, and critical thinking. Which, it seems, that B.A. and MS in education failed to provide.

And the truth is, a very large proportion of college courses aren't about critical thinking. They're about learning the parrot the views of an authority figure, who will punish those who fail to do so. Numeracy is not insisted on, even though it's fundamental to any reasonable definition of a good education. Nor is scientific literacy, in a society driven by science.

The value of an education as education, in many colleges, stinks. The value of that education as a financial investment is also questionable, in too many cases. Even as prices continue to rise, as they have for a long time, faster than the rate of inflation.

It's way past time that stopped. Far too many people have taken on far too much debt, to a point that changes their subsequent lives for the worse – and received very little of real value in return.

The scale and consequences are a swindle worthy of anything on Wall Street. It should be a scandal.

Community colleges are, in many ways, a better investment in America's future – and a better investment in many of our universities' current students.

For those that demand college degrees, more information about things like the college environment (graduation rates are one proxy), subsequent performance of graduates, scores on standardized tests for analytical ability, etc. should be a minimum bar for colleges' ethical conduct. Percentage of funds spent on research vs. teaching vs. administration vs. physical overhead would also be an excellent thing to provide. Not just because it shows up the administratively bloated, but ask a London School of Economics grad sometime about the real quality of the teaching.

Ultimately, 3rd party surveys of students are also going to become part of this equation. Some magazines already compile rankings, despite fierce resistance. Piecemeal attempts have also been made at many colleges to compile surveys, but those have also been resisted. As family decisions sharpen, the pressure to allow them, and standardize them, will grow.

It's too bad that colleges don't have access to GRE/GMAT/LSAT scores for graduates, since they offer information that helps gauge both skills and seriousness in graduates.

Education is an investment in yourself, it can be like buying at an IPO, you just don't know which way it's going to go.

Another point; in tution increased 7-9% per year where did the money go. teachers didn't get it, rent didn't change, Where did the money go. Get your spread sheet out and do the math. If a number increases every year 7% for 29 years…

And here are my own – warning, contains 75% original content:

1. Companies want people with degrees. Volunteerism does nothing except give it away for free. If you have a family to put food on, you can't do it all for free unless everyone else does too. And this is not a "free market", pardon the pun.

2. No argument on high schools being inferior…

3. More Indians and Chinese are _____. That's partly because their combined population is only ten times higher than America's. (300,000,000 in America vs 3 billion in China+India.)

4. Grades are supposed to show the effort one puts in. Some of us do work damn hard to get good grades, which in turn should mean an easier time to get a job that bloody well pays for everything.

5. Income/inflation ratio has shown a decrease in the dollar's purchasing power for decades. Enough graphs, charts, and even raw numbers are freely available and from obvious sources too. In short, there are plenty of times when loans are necessary for necessities to begin with.

6. FREE IS NOT A BUSINESS METHOD. I suspect everyone using the new F-word are a bunch of Linux hosers, who freely take from open source and give nothing back, and think the same can be applied to all in life. See point #1 for more.

7. It is fundamentally stupid to invest obscene amounts of money into a field being offshored or being devalued. It's that pesky cost of living vs income argument again…

8. I value education. I couldn't get educated in grade school because of the bullying, taunts, beatings, and the other **** I endured on a daily basis. Anybody who blames me for the state of education can shove it. The fact my grades skyrocketed after graduating high school (1991) only shows that a proper, conducive venue for learning really does pay off. Our media, when not our educational system, don't value people being educated. Such people are made fun of.

9. Conversely, more and more people do not give a d*** about education because there's no incentive — if CEOs can whine that lesser pay = lesser interest and that makes the front page of the poorly edited newspaper, then the working class has the same right to scream the same thing. THAT might be why students are caring less and less. No real jobs to look forward to that put what they are apparently not learning into practice.

10. Whatever. As if anything's going to change in this life.