Reply to Are college freshman struggling more now than decades ago?

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Are college freshman struggling more now than decades ago?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My thoughts:

- [b]More kids than ever in college. Many shouldn't be there. That creates misery.[/b]
- They have been achievement factories since they were born. Pre-k admissions, k admissions, signing up for every single AP, professional-level sports commitments, ECs, volunteering, "research" at 14 years old. There are no children just out playing in mud or biking in the neighborhood all summer. They are no longer allowed to be kids. Nevermind getting in trouble with the law - your life is over if that happens to you.
- We are an insanely individualistic society. Dorms and common spaces are not social, communal places any longer. Kids gravitate toward "like" and don't pay attention to anything else around them. There are no doors open, baking cookies, everyone watch a soap opera in the tv room kind of environment. You need to know your niche from day 1 and jump in. If you don't, you will be left behind. 
- We are less and less social. Studies have shown kids don't hang out with peers as often as they used to. They sit on their phones and don't participate in a more natural way (it's all about the resume, or organized things). Loneliness is rampant.
- It's too expensive to attend, which causes parents to expect a return on investment and be over involved.

I feel absolutely horrible for kids today. I really wish parents would stop with all of the overachievement/developmentally inappropriate resume building. I wish schools would not allow more than 3-4 activities to be entered into the common app. No more tragedy porn essays. More education and [b]encouragement/celebration of[/b] the trades and other non-college careers.

[/quote]

2013 was the peak year for college attendance.  There are 1 million fewer college students, including at 4-year residential colleges, compared to 2013.

It feels more frantic because everyone now seems to want the same 100-150 schools.  Behind the scenes, you have places like Indiana University of PA or Shippensburg that are 40% smaller.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics