Showing posts with label college advice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label college advice. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 8, 2025
Friday, August 11, 2017
Making Your Education Career-Ready
In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I offer tips for how to make your or your loved one's higher education career-ready.
Thursday, August 10, 2017
7 Tips for College and Graduate Students
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
The Parent's Role in their Child's College Search
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
What Every College-Bound Student & Parent Must Know...And Probably Don't
This animated discussion between a parent and college counselor reveals what parents of college-bound students must know and probably don't. An enhanced transcript appears below the video.
B: My son will be applying to college soon. I'm scared.
M: Scared?
B: First, I'm scared about the cost. It was really hard even to find the sticker price on the colleges' websites and when I did, I nearly had a heart attack.
M: I don't mean to scare you more, but the amount most colleges post omits thousands of dollars that the average student ends up spending each year?
B: The college's admission counselor...
M: You mean salesperson.
B: Don't be cynical.
M: Many college admissions people, including the campus tour guides receive sales training. They are salespeople. For example, how often will they suggest that your child attend some other college?
B: Anyway, the admissions counselor told me not to worry, that most people don't pay the sticker price.
M: Sounds like a rug dealer.
B: He said there's financial aid.
M: Did you ask him for an estimate of what the college would cost you, given your income and assets and your child's academic record?
B: That's a good idea. I will.
M: Be sure to ask for an estimate for the total cost for at least four years.
B: Why?
M: Because some colleges use the drug dealer scam: They give you a big discount in Year One to get you hooked and then jack up the price each year after.
B: That's disgusting. I'm also scared because I read an op-ed on cnn.com called "College is a Waste of Time."
M: That's just the tip of the iceberg. This year alone, there were similar articles in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Atlantic. And prestigious book publishers like Knopf have published books with titles like Crisis on Campus, The Five Year Party, No Sucker Left Behind: Avoiding the great college rip-off, University Inc: the corporate corruption of higher education, Academically Adrift: limited learning on college campuses, and Higher Education? How colleges are wasting our money and failing our kids.
B. And I keep hearing how even if you graduate...
M. And nationwide, more than half don't, even if they take six years!
B. You're kidding?
M. I wish I were. Dept. of Education statistics. The Education Dept. also reports that if your child graduated in the bottom 40% of his high school class, his chances of graduating from a so-called four-year college is only 1 in 4 even if he takes 8 1/2 years!
B: All that tuition. All that time.
M: All that assault to their self-esteem.
B: But even if they drop out, they will have learned a lot, right?
M: Wrong. According to the aforementioned book Academically Adrift, published by University of Chicago Press, which summarizes extensive nationwide research, of those who defy the odds and graduate, 36% grow insignificantly in reading, writing, critical thinking!
B: No! But even if you don't learn a lot in college, these days, with this terrible job market, you need the degree, the piece of paper.
M: Awfully expensive piece of paper. Sticker price for even just four years at a brand-name private college, even if you don't count all expenses, is over $200,000 per child! And that doesn't count if it takes the student five or six years.
B: But the colleges are always saying that college graduates, over their lifetime, earn a million dollars more.
M: You've heard the expression, you can lie with statistics. Well universities are pros at it.
B: What do you mean?
M: The lifetime that colleges report is in the past. Today, we have an oversupply of college graduates at the same time as employers are hiring fewer college graduates: they're offshoring and automating as much as possible. And when they hire, they use temps and part-timers as much as possible.
B: But college grads still get better jobs. Right?
M: On average yes, but according to the U.S. Department of Labor, of college graduates under 25, 44% are working at jobs that don't require a college degree or aren't working at all. Also, remember that the pool of college graduates are brighter, more motivated, and have better family connections than the pool of those who didn't attend college. You could have locked them in a closet for four years and they'd have earned lots more money than the pool of students who didn't go to college, which today is just a small percentage, the bottom of the academic barrel. And those college-caliber students wouldn't be locked in a closet: because they are brighter, more motivated, and have better family connections, they'd get launchpad jobs where they could learn on the job and get paid for it rather than pay all that tuition and be taught all the irrelevancies they teach in college: stochastic processes, the causes of the Peloponnesian Wars, the intricacies of Shakespeare.
B: Yeah, I remember Father Guido Sarducci saying he's thinking of starting a college where a degree would only cost $100 and would take only one hour: He'd only teach what students still remembered after they finished college.
M: Good comedy indeed contains grains of truth.
B: Are you telling me my kid shouldn't go to college?
M: I'm saying you should not assume college is the right choice. For many people, an apprenticeship, the military, a short-term career-preparation program at a community college, or on the-job training, for example, at the elbow of an ethical and successful entrepreneur, can be a wiser choice.
B: But my kid has good grades and test scores, he loves learning, and is eager to go to college.
M: Then he probably should go, but please pick wisely.
B: How do you do that?
M: First pick say ten colleges that enroll many students with grades and test scores similar to your child's and that are well-located.
B: Then what?
M: This is critical. Please do it. To narrow your list, ask each college these things: Given my family's income and assets and my son's high school record, what am I likely to pay in cash and take on in loan over the four years my child is there? What would I pay in year 5 and beyond?
B: What if they don't tell you?
M: That's a sign the college is more expensive than you think or that the college doesn't care enough about students to provide even that basic information: the true cost of attendance.
B: I guess that makes sense.
M: Here's the next thing to ask: What's the average amount of growth that your college's graduates with a high school record similar to my son's make in reading, critical thinking, etc?
B: Do they have that information?
M: Many colleges do, and if they don't care enough to monitor student growth, that's another sign you don't want your child there.
B: What else should I ask?
M: For students with high school records like my son's, what's the 4- and 5-year graduation rate? Also, ask for the results of a student satisfaction survey, the summary of the accreditation visiting team report, and the percent of graduates in your son's intended major who are professionally employed within a year of graduation.
B: That information would seem so helpful to prospective students. I wish all colleges would post it on their website.
M: They don't want to because, per all those articles and books I cited, the results would embarrass them. That's why I'm trying to get Congress to pass a law that would require it.
B: That would sure put pressure on colleges to improve. That would not only provide better education, it would help America remain competitive in a global economy in which India and China are taking so many of our jobs.
M: That's why I'd love it if more parents would demand answers to those questions: Tell or I won't apply!
B: That's a great idea! I'll tell each college: Tell or I won't apply! Hey, if I want a written copy of those questions...
M: I call it the College Report Card.
B: If I want a copy of the College Report Card, where can I find it?
M: The College Report Card is free on my blog, which can be reached from my site: www.martynemko.com.
FOR YOUR CHILD, FOR ALL OUR CHILDREN
by Marty Nemko
by Marty Nemko
B: My son will be applying to college soon. I'm scared.
M: Scared?
B: First, I'm scared about the cost. It was really hard even to find the sticker price on the colleges' websites and when I did, I nearly had a heart attack.
M: I don't mean to scare you more, but the amount most colleges post omits thousands of dollars that the average student ends up spending each year?
B: The college's admission counselor...
M: You mean salesperson.
B: Don't be cynical.
M: Many college admissions people, including the campus tour guides receive sales training. They are salespeople. For example, how often will they suggest that your child attend some other college?
B: Anyway, the admissions counselor told me not to worry, that most people don't pay the sticker price.
M: Sounds like a rug dealer.
B: He said there's financial aid.
M: Did you ask him for an estimate of what the college would cost you, given your income and assets and your child's academic record?
B: That's a good idea. I will.
M: Be sure to ask for an estimate for the total cost for at least four years.
B: Why?
M: Because some colleges use the drug dealer scam: They give you a big discount in Year One to get you hooked and then jack up the price each year after.
B: That's disgusting. I'm also scared because I read an op-ed on cnn.com called "College is a Waste of Time."
M: That's just the tip of the iceberg. This year alone, there were similar articles in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Atlantic. And prestigious book publishers like Knopf have published books with titles like Crisis on Campus, The Five Year Party, No Sucker Left Behind: Avoiding the great college rip-off, University Inc: the corporate corruption of higher education, Academically Adrift: limited learning on college campuses, and Higher Education? How colleges are wasting our money and failing our kids.
B. And I keep hearing how even if you graduate...
M. And nationwide, more than half don't, even if they take six years!
B. You're kidding?
M. I wish I were. Dept. of Education statistics. The Education Dept. also reports that if your child graduated in the bottom 40% of his high school class, his chances of graduating from a so-called four-year college is only 1 in 4 even if he takes 8 1/2 years!
B: All that tuition. All that time.
M: All that assault to their self-esteem.
B: But even if they drop out, they will have learned a lot, right?
M: Wrong. According to the aforementioned book Academically Adrift, published by University of Chicago Press, which summarizes extensive nationwide research, of those who defy the odds and graduate, 36% grow insignificantly in reading, writing, critical thinking!
B: No! But even if you don't learn a lot in college, these days, with this terrible job market, you need the degree, the piece of paper.
M: Awfully expensive piece of paper. Sticker price for even just four years at a brand-name private college, even if you don't count all expenses, is over $200,000 per child! And that doesn't count if it takes the student five or six years.
B: But the colleges are always saying that college graduates, over their lifetime, earn a million dollars more.
M: You've heard the expression, you can lie with statistics. Well universities are pros at it.
B: What do you mean?
M: The lifetime that colleges report is in the past. Today, we have an oversupply of college graduates at the same time as employers are hiring fewer college graduates: they're offshoring and automating as much as possible. And when they hire, they use temps and part-timers as much as possible.
B: But college grads still get better jobs. Right?
M: On average yes, but according to the U.S. Department of Labor, of college graduates under 25, 44% are working at jobs that don't require a college degree or aren't working at all. Also, remember that the pool of college graduates are brighter, more motivated, and have better family connections than the pool of those who didn't attend college. You could have locked them in a closet for four years and they'd have earned lots more money than the pool of students who didn't go to college, which today is just a small percentage, the bottom of the academic barrel. And those college-caliber students wouldn't be locked in a closet: because they are brighter, more motivated, and have better family connections, they'd get launchpad jobs where they could learn on the job and get paid for it rather than pay all that tuition and be taught all the irrelevancies they teach in college: stochastic processes, the causes of the Peloponnesian Wars, the intricacies of Shakespeare.
B: Yeah, I remember Father Guido Sarducci saying he's thinking of starting a college where a degree would only cost $100 and would take only one hour: He'd only teach what students still remembered after they finished college.
M: Good comedy indeed contains grains of truth.
B: Are you telling me my kid shouldn't go to college?
M: I'm saying you should not assume college is the right choice. For many people, an apprenticeship, the military, a short-term career-preparation program at a community college, or on the-job training, for example, at the elbow of an ethical and successful entrepreneur, can be a wiser choice.
B: But my kid has good grades and test scores, he loves learning, and is eager to go to college.
M: Then he probably should go, but please pick wisely.
B: How do you do that?
M: First pick say ten colleges that enroll many students with grades and test scores similar to your child's and that are well-located.
B: Then what?
M: This is critical. Please do it. To narrow your list, ask each college these things: Given my family's income and assets and my son's high school record, what am I likely to pay in cash and take on in loan over the four years my child is there? What would I pay in year 5 and beyond?
B: What if they don't tell you?
M: That's a sign the college is more expensive than you think or that the college doesn't care enough about students to provide even that basic information: the true cost of attendance.
B: I guess that makes sense.
M: Here's the next thing to ask: What's the average amount of growth that your college's graduates with a high school record similar to my son's make in reading, critical thinking, etc?
B: Do they have that information?
M: Many colleges do, and if they don't care enough to monitor student growth, that's another sign you don't want your child there.
B: What else should I ask?
M: For students with high school records like my son's, what's the 4- and 5-year graduation rate? Also, ask for the results of a student satisfaction survey, the summary of the accreditation visiting team report, and the percent of graduates in your son's intended major who are professionally employed within a year of graduation.
B: That information would seem so helpful to prospective students. I wish all colleges would post it on their website.
M: They don't want to because, per all those articles and books I cited, the results would embarrass them. That's why I'm trying to get Congress to pass a law that would require it.
B: That would sure put pressure on colleges to improve. That would not only provide better education, it would help America remain competitive in a global economy in which India and China are taking so many of our jobs.
M: That's why I'd love it if more parents would demand answers to those questions: Tell or I won't apply!
B: That's a great idea! I'll tell each college: Tell or I won't apply! Hey, if I want a written copy of those questions...
M: I call it the College Report Card.
B: If I want a copy of the College Report Card, where can I find it?
M: The College Report Card is free on my blog, which can be reached from my site: www.martynemko.com.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
College: a national treasure or America's most overrated product?
I have presented these statistics in previous writings but they're so important that I want to aggregate them for you here.Despite having been a poor student in high school, are you or someone you love considering attempting a college degree? Are you wondering whether it might be wiser to pursue an alternative such as a short-term career-prep program, an apprenticeship, the military, or on-the-job training, perhaps at an ethical entrepreneur's elbow?
Consider these:
The New York Times reports, "The National Assessment of Adult Literacy revealed distressing declines in literacy, especially among those with the most education. (emphases mine) For example, "Fewer than one-third of college graduates--down from 40 percent a decade ago--were deemed 'Proficient' in terms of literacy as defined by the ability to read and understand lengthy passages. A small but still alarming percentage of college graduates scored 'Below Basic,' meaning they were incapable of all but the simplest tasks."
USA Today reports that according to a study funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, "Nearing a diploma, most college students cannot handle many complex but common tasks, from understanding credit card offers to comparing the cost per ounce of food...More than 50% of students at four-year schools and 75% at two-year college...could not interpret a table about exercise and blood pressure, understand the arguments of newspaper editorials, compare credit card offers...Most students at community colleges and four-year schools showed 'intermediate skills,' meaning they could...identify a location on a map or calculate the cost of ordering office supplies."
Just think of how much professors have to dumb down their classes to accommodate to such students. When I was teaching, even at Berkeley, I had to dumb down my classes, dramatically. But I would not inflate grades. When I dared fail a student who truly, truly had terrible writing and thinking skills, I received a call from a dean urging me to give her a passing grade: "Society really needs more minority woman role models." I refused to change her grade. Despite my having excellent student evaluations, I was not rehired.
Dr. Clifford Adelman, senior researcher at the U.S. Office Education, reported that of freshman at four-year colleges who graduated in the bottom 40 percent of their high school class, only 1/4 will graduate...even if given 8 1/2 years!
Dr. Clifford Adelman, senior researcher at the U.S. Office Education, reported that of freshman at four-year colleges who graduated in the bottom 40 percent of their high school class, only 1/4 will graduate...even if given 8 1/2 years!
And according to a just-released study of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data by the Chronicle of Higher Education in an article called The Great College Scam,, 60% of the increased number of college graduates from 1992 to 2008 work on jobs requiring just high school!
As colleges dig ever deeper into the barrel of high school graduates to extract maximum profit and meet government-imposed and other pressures to increase minority enrollment, those colleges are shepherding students into college when they know that's not the person's wisest post-secondary choice. As bad, the colleges do not inform the students of the terrible odds against them. If a physician prescribed a treatment requiring years, a fortune, and huge opportunity costs and which had a small chance of success, without obtaining the patient's fully informed consent, that doctor would be sued and lose in every court in the land. Yet our government not only doesn't sue the colleges, it rewards them by giving students ever more financial aid, which merely allows colleges to raise tuition more!
We simply must stop allowing colleges to ruin countless students' lives. Government should withhold financial aid to institutions that produce the above results, and of course, should mandate the College Report Card I've urged for so long. Only that way, can prospective students have the information they need to decide if, for them, a college education is the national treasure that colleges tell us it is, or America's most overrated product.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
The Great College Scam
I've long written about colleges, in their greed, digging ever deeper into the applicant pool, admitting students who are not even close to ready for college-level instruction, very unlikely to graduate, and even less likely to land a job that requires a college degree.Now, in The Great College Scam, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports a study of Bureau of Labor Statistics data that proves the point most frighteningly:
60% of the increased number of college graduates from 1992 to 2008 work on jobs requiring just high school!!!
It's time for the media to expose a college education for what it is: America's Most Overrated Product.
Update: HERE'S a derivative article on the topic.
Update: HERE'S a derivative article on the topic.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Advice to the parent of an Ivy-aspiring kid
I often get inquiries from prospective clients, which in essence say, "Get my kid into a prestigious college."Here's how I responded today to one of those queries:
The path of least resistance: Let her be her designer-label self--get into the most prestigious college she can but you be very savvy about filling out the financial aid forms. Use this great book. She'll probably get as good a deal from the Ivy as from MegaState U--the prestigious privates have beaucoup bucks. Negotiate hard with those villains.
I haven't found many kids who say "I've worked so hard to get into a prestigious college" be open to often smarter options such as deferring college for a year or 40, doing interesting things in the real world. Then, if needed, she can return to college. Girls are especially likely to be enamored of the straight-to-college plan, which is erroneously perceived to be the low-risk approach. Most high-achieving girls also love the structure of school. Alas, too often, those choices are not in the kid's best developmental interest let alone long-term career interest.
Parents too are subject to the "I'll do anything for my wonderful kid" mindset-- "How could I deny her Ivy when she's worked so hard?" It's fallacious thinking but pervasive and nearly impossible to dissuade from.
Where I can, without too much resistance, add value is helping her choose a career, teach her how to maximize her chances of achieving career success, and importantly, teach her how to make the most of college. Colleges don't want to tell you how, because if more students used these techniques (e.g., get course credit for customized one-on-one courses) it would cut into universities' profit.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
More Evidence that an MBA Isn't Worth Getting
According to the just-released annual GMAC Global Management Education Graduate Survey, job prospects for MBAs are on the decline. The proportion of MBA grads with a job offer right out of school declined to 57 percent in 2009, down from 64 percent from 2008.Think about that: It takes 2-3 years of time, lost income, plus a fortune in tuition to get an MBA--usually filled with theory and real-world-irrelevant cases--and little more than half the new graduates have a job?
And if the trend continues, the employment picture for MBAs will be even worse. Before signing up, caveat emptor!
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