LEE KRAMER'S ROOM: With Views

[janice shell]

You obviously can't get a Masters or a Doctorate from a community college but there's nothing wrong with starting your journey there.

As long as they are accredited you can transfer to a place to seek the higher knowledge or the degree that you want.

No, you can't. You have to APPLY to graduate and/or professional programs. By that time you must have a four-year degree. The application process is quite competitive at the best schools. And since there aren't all that many jobs available to people with, say, Ph.Ds in history, it IS important to go to one of the best schools.

However, one of the things I've been trying to point out is that the kind of liberal (in the non-political sense of the word) education offered at the schools you scorn is not job training, nor is it intended to be. It's about learning stuff across a fairly broad area. Students are encouraged to explore things they know nothing about. They choose a major after their second year. That hasn't changed.

Most kids don't know what the hell they want to do after high school and sure, there's others that do but they get full rides to anywhere they want to be.

Not at all. The people who get full rides are the ones who need them, and who are also smart, and come to the table with good marks, good SAT scores (for schools that are still using them), good skills, and a variety of other things applications committees are interested in. Among them would be various kinds of "diversity". Having non-academic interests and activities is also helpful.

College is FOR people who don't know what they want to be when they grow up. It's a transition from childhood to adulthood. A lot of people arrive thinking they DO have a career already chosen. I was sure I'd be a lawyer. But I, like a great many others, changed my mind.

Things were a lot easier back then. Anyone whose grades qualified could go to a state university, and work his or her way through, if necessary. Indiana University cost $500 a year for tuition, room, and board for in-state residents. Today, that's $23,430. Not so easy to save from a summer job.

https://studentcentral.indiana.edu/pay-for-college/cost-of-iu/estimated-cost.html

Obviously, something needs to be done about college debt. Young people shouldn't start their lives in the hole by tens and tens of thousands. I don't have any answers for that, except to note that it's probably a good idea to start college funds when kids are babies.

And yes, I think trade schools are a good idea, for people who want to acquire the skills they need to begin the work they want to do.

BUT I will remind you that YOU began this conversation by announcing that the Ivies are staffed by, and educate, Trumpist wingers. That is just NOT TRUE.