1. Most colleges are organized to give an average education to average students.

…

Stop for a second and consider the impact of [lack of uniqueness]. By emphasizing mass and sameness and rankings, colleges have changed their mission.

This may very well be true. I just did some quick research and discovered that the percentage of students 18-24 enrolling at U.S. universities from 2000 to 2008 had increased 4.1% (3M more students). One can assume that the percentage difference increases the further back one goes. With more students enrolling each year, it could be that standards and personalization in many schools is being watered down. Costs are another issue:

2. College has gotten expensive far faster than wages have gone up.

[Massive debt] leads to a crop of potential college students that can (and will) no longer just blindly go to the ‘best’ school they get in to.

Godin goes on to explain that universities are manipulating statistics to get a higher ranking in places like U.S. News and World Report. I think he’s absolutely right here:

Why do colleges send millions (!) of undifferentiated pieces of junk mail to high school students now? We will waive the admission fee! We have a one page application! Apply! This is some of the most amateur and bland direct mail I’ve ever seen. Why do it?

Biggest reason: So the schools can reject more applicants. The more applicants they reject, the higher they rank in US News and other rankings.

He goes on to lay out that the correlation between a college degree and success is becoming more tenuous. So what is the solution?

The solutions are obvious… there are tons of ways to get a cheap, liberal education, one that exposes you to the world, permits you to have significant interactions with people who matter and to learn to make a difference. Most of these ways, though, aren’t heavily marketed nor do they involve going to a tradition-steeped two-hundred-year old institution with a wrestling team. Things like gap years, research internships and entrepreneurial or social ventures after high school are opening doors for students who are eager to discover the new.

Godin links to three colleges (St. Johns, Deep Springs or Full Sail) which are doing something completely different and seem to be doing it right.

As for me, I don’t see a complete meltdown; I think universities will adjust to the exigencies of the time. But the adjustment is going to have to be a major one because the cost of university education and its diminishing status and uniqueness is correctly a recipe for disaster.

Photo by dbking

In the past three years, the number of Chinese applicants to Georgetown University’s freshman class rose from 95 to 208. At George Mason University, the total went from 54 to almost 100, and at George Washington University, it increased from 170 to 350. Brown University’s applications went from 166 to nearly 500, and Stanford University’s, from 268 to more than 400. At the University of Washington, the number soared from about 250 three years ago to nearly 1,600 this year.

And don’t expect this trend to abate anytime soon. Say what you will about the economy; U.S. colleges are still considered by the Chinese as #1 in higher education.

“People just think the education offered in the U.S. is undoubtedly the best in the world,” said Betty Xiong, 20, a U-Va. junior from Shanghai.

• Spend twenty hours a week running a project for a non-profit.
• Teach yourself Java, HTML, Flash, PHP and SQL. Not a little, but mastery.
• Volunteer to coach or assistant coach a kids sports team.
• Start, run and grow an online community.
• Give a speech a week to local organizations.
• Write a regular newsletter or blog about an industry you care about.
• Learn a foreign language fluently.
• Write three detailed business plans for projects in the industry you care about.
• Self-publish a book.
• Run a marathon.

Basically, Godin is suggesting that graduates better themselves in a meaningful way while waiting on that top job. The listed activities can only enhance job prospects in the future. Read the post here.

Visiting Xi’an, capital of central Shaanxi Province, from Friday to Sunday, Wen said employment was one of the government’s priorities for the sake of the country’s economy and for the future of individuals.

“College students, laid-off workers and migrant workers waiting for jobs are my biggest concern,” Wen told job hunters at an employment center.

He encouraged graduates from universities and colleges to find work in grassroots regions, and called on employers to create more jobs.

Read more.

Minister of Education Zhou Ji had predicted that the overall number of applicants would exceed 10 million – last year’s total was 10.5 million – but figures from local governments suggest the number of students taking part may be far fewer.

Still, can you imagine those numbers!

The exam has long been considered a life-changing opportunity for high school students seeking a better education and, in turn, a better job. But the economic crisis has had an impact. “Since the financial crisis last year, the grim employment situation has broken the ‘employment myth’ for those with a college degree. Some students changed their minds about getting a good job through higher education. They simply quit (from taking the exam),” said an anonymous recruitment officer with the Beijing Institute of Technology.

As I wrote here, the pressure for admission is immense as there are millions of applicants for positions at only a relatively few top-tier universities. The official line is that the drop in applications is due to the economy; I’m wondering if hopelessness about being admitted is a contributing factor.

Read more here.

The student’s nightmare began when he was a fifth grader, when his father began to keep track of his academic ranking in the class.

Ranked only within the top 10, he was frequently subjected to ridicule by parents and relatives.

“If you fail to enter a key university, you had better kill yourself, and I would not drop a single tear …” he quoted his father as threatening.

Like nearly all students of his age, he was put on a quasi-military regimen.

A college can provide a brief respite from pressure, but soon the specter of employment expectations will begin to loom.

This approach to education is not limited to China, but is evident throughout most Asian countries. I think it’s clear that the effects of such an approach to education are having and will have deleterious effects in the long run; the question is whether Asian nations believe the trade-off is worth it.

Cartoon by Zhou Tao