A Sucker is Born Every Minute.

At the nation's universities and colleges, they're counting on it.

I spend way too much time reading articles about colleges. Articles that aren't always the most positive or encouraging:

Do well, get in. At least that’s what middle-class Americans dreaming of their children’s social advancement have been told.

In truth, the SAT, which is thankfully being phased out at many schools, has had the opposite effect. Far from opening the doors of elite schoools to outstanding students from ordinary backgrounds, it has wound up giving an objective patina to an unjust process. In some ways it is the great subterfuge. That’s because SAT scores correlate highly to family income - an average of 12 point increments for every $20,000 of income, which this year amounted to a 130 difference on critical reasoning, 80 points on math and 70 on writing between the lowest income and highest income groups. While correlation isn’t always causality, economics professor Jesse Rothstein of Berkeley has called it a proxy for other demographic components and for high school resources. And, not surprisingly, Professor George Kuh of Indiana University, has found that the US News list of best colleges has an almost 100 percent correlation to SAT scores, which means that the so-called best schools could just as easily be ranked by family income.

So here’s the bottom line for all those exceptional middle-class and lower-class high school seniors who will doubt their own worth when the near-inevitable rejection letters arrive: The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in you. The fault lies in the system, and the system isn’t going to change, because it benefits the people it is designed to benefit - people who understand how much a real meritocracy would threaten their power.

Articles I always end up forwarding to our oldest who is talented, smart and pretty with a pretty good head on her shoulders. Everything a parent wants in a child about to embark into adulthood, right?

Then why should I be so put off that she has her mind set on attending a four-year school for her chosen major in the arts? I'm fairly certain that higher education isn't required for this career path. I've even binged it, and found that all the same people who are luring kids to college for this art major are the same ones who stand to make piles of money for teaching kids the same thing they could learn, if they really HAVE to go to college, at the respectable two year institution down the street.

Don't get me wrong. College is at times absolutely essential. But -- she isn't aching to be a doctor or a lawyer or a teacher. She isn't going to invent the next 4396508 filter for the Space Station's coffee maker. What she really wants to do is something that requires practical experience out in the real world. Not something she's going to learn as much about sitting in a classroom at a desk. For four years. I've already given her alternatives and ideas. She seems pretty set on her choice and having the 4th best art school in the country accept her portfolio is a huge confidence booster. But really? $120,000 to learn how to do something she could learn in a couple years as an intern or apprentice?. And student loans aren't just bills you can ignore by not answering your phone. They're immediately due to start being paid when you graduate, IF you graduate, and they follow you until you die.

Kind of like this guy:



Scary, right?

And don't get me started on the service requirements this President is pushing on college students.