Do you think that some people just don't belong in college?

It's not popular to say on a liberal board, because by our nature we like to think that everybody in this country has the potential to achieve upward mobility. In other words, to really believe that no child should be left behind.

The reality, however, is something different. There are far too many students that I see who are not yet emotionally or academically ready for college. These are the types of kids who think of college as just an extended version of Spring Break, with no parents, no responsibility and as little of academic life as possible. They regularly miss class, don't do their assignments, sleep in class and makeup bullshit excuses for everything. Rather, I would suggest that some of these kids might be better served by taking a year or two off, earning some money, seeing the real world, and then going back to school after they have grown up a bit.

Other kids that I see, however painful it is to admit, are just not all that bright, and should not be in college. Perhaps this is a failing of our public school system, which is a tragedy, but universities and colleges cannot be expected to do the work that public K-12 schools should have been doing in the first place. That dumbs down the academic rigor of the institution. And yes, there are some students who just are not all that sharp, and often flunk out of school anyway.

I personally know a lot of people like the kind you're explaining.

On the other hand, I know of quite a few students who routinely get on the Dean's list with 3.5-4.0 GPA's and everytime I see them, they're slacking off and they never study, and just watch TV or play Halo all day, but somehow they keep cranking out A's. Those are the students I can't quite understand. All the while I'm busting my ass and I have poured out most of my own blood sweat and tears to get onto the Dean's List for the first time ever last semester.

High school dropouts can become millionaires and, therefore, move upward without going to college.

:)

education obtained and income. While it's true that Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard etc. this is the exception rather than the rule.

People who play in the NBA and NFL make more money than the average MBA, M.D., and Ph.D. as well, but when you take into account all the people who became athletes, didn't get their degrees but also couldn't make it into the pros as an athlete, the average person with a graduate degree does much better, even including the pro athlete millionaires.

Me, I took enough classes to complete two majors and get two degrees. Adjusted for inflation, I make about what my mother was making when she retired, and my job doesn't directly utilize my education.

A guy in my graduating class who got a four (4, IV, *FOUR*) on the ACT test and couldn't get into college on a bet or with bribery, even if he had wanted to go, invented a thing that is now sold in Bass Pro Shops and other sporting good stores all over the place and is a multi-millionaire. Nice guy too, so I'm happy for him, but it's still a bit frustrating when I think of it.

all expenses paid vacation. And, you know what? If I didn't get my 4 year college degree (as impractical as it is) I wouldn't even have the equivalent of a high school education. Seriously. I don't really feel guilty "taking the slot" of a more academic student when I realized, much later in life, that I'd been cheated out of a decent education in high school. My Spanish teacher was busy reading the real estate ads, while we read to ourselves. My Math teacher practically gave me the answers so I could pass the aptitude tests to graduate. I could go on and on. My point? You never can tell, or judge, what a student might get out of going to college. And, until k-12 teaches the basics, a lot of kids have no other option if they want to learn anything of substance.

if he/she wants, the law of large numbers says that at least *some* people out there will choose a different path. And that's fine with me...your life, your choice.

Most people just go there after they get out of high school, because that's what one does. It's the grade that comes after 12th grade and they just keep going.

I've been a college teacher since 1998 and I will tell you, without a doubt, that a good number of people do NOT belong in college. (Plus, I'll bet that many of my students would agree with that statement.) It's painful when you get those students in class - for them and for the teacher. I wish potential students (and parents) would be more mindful of making the college decision before "just doing it."

Some people simply do not belong here. They can't handle the responsibility, either academically or socially living on their own.

I'm not sure why it should be painful to admit that some people are just not all that bright. I understand the sentiment, certainly. This is more of a rhetorical wondering than anything. We are all born with and develop different abilities. We seem to have no trouble admitting that some people just are not good at athletics. Why shouldn't the same be true of acamdemics?

Part of the trouble rests with the definition of what college is supposed to do for us. With the current state of higher education, many people, including some educators themselves, see it purely as a road to employment, sort of an advanced vocational school, and in suggesting that some are not able to make it in college, we seem also to suggest that are not worthy of employment. I'm more "old-school," pardon the pun, in my view. The purpose of college should not be simply to teach a trade. That's what actual vocational schools are for. Note here that I'm not placing colleges and vocational schools within a hierarchy of worth, rather noting that the two types of schools have or should have different goals.

just have different interests. At times I wish I had had the interest to enter a trade like contruction, when I see some of the general contractors in my valley who make very good livings. As do many electricians, plumbers. I know many of them went to trade schools, which is college for a certain vocation. And that's great.

To each his or her own.

College often isn't all it's cracked up to be, especially at the outrageous prices these days.

I'm intelligent, more than most of my college classmates. I really dislike school though, but I'm good at self-educating. I also have ADD and that makes classes harder for me and those teaching me.

I dropped out after the college I was attending (because it was cheap) took away my financial aid after my father died. They looked at the money and decided I could pay full tuition (expensive private school). I was in the honors program there, so I transferred to a local state school who told me that my major was taken care of, along with my advanced electives (I had taken honors courses instead of "Gen Ed" classes. They just wanted me to go back and take the two years of Gen Ed classes, which was stuff that I already knew, took, etc. I quit.

I like working. I don't like school. I do plan on finishing it eventually. I always joke that I'll finish when I'm 30. I'm going to bartending school in a couple weeks. There seems to be more money in that than a "real" job these days. Hell, one of my friends has two masters, but she makes way more money bartending than she would as a social worker. I'm social and nocturnal. It seems to make sense.

And I don't mean because they aren't smart enough or anything. I'm a vocational rehab counselor, and sometimes my clients have to be retrained. Most of them go to voc-tech schools, but some of them just can't hack it, because they aren't into the academic thing. In those cases, if possible, I try to find on-the-job training opportunities for them, and they do just fine.

As a result I screwed around for several years and I'm just now finally finishing up at 26 years old.

Simple as that. Truly this is indicative of a larger parenting problem in the United States. Parents here are more self minded than in other nations, I think. Have them, raise them (sort of), buy them what they want, then kick them out and make our nation's colleges mold them.

We place too much responsibility for our lives on our nation's institutions instead of taking personal responsibility. This is just another example of that.