A Better College

Using "college" here as an umbrella term for all institutions of higher learning, including Universities, Technical Institutions, etc. "So upgrade your gray matter, cause someday it may matter." - Deltron 3030

Businesswise

There is a necessary evolution of the American higher education system. I'm talking colleges, universities, institutions of higher learning. Were you aware that more often than not these businesses (and they are businesses, all of them) are run by a de facto dictatorship where the higher echelons of people running the whole thing either are hereditary or got their jobs by getting college degrees in "Business Administration" if you're lucky or "Leadership" if you aren't? And that most of these idiots consistently run their businesses into the ground in terms of inefficiency but keep the whole thing going despite their ineptitude with the necessity of people needing to go to college to get a job, so they can jack up the costs for the students and let the students and student loan companies keep footing the bill? There is a better way. Have you heard of a B Corp? Have you heard of an employee-owned company? Bob's Red Mill did it. So can you if you are a college professor sick of this. That way the bottom line can include actual learning instead of nothing but profits and networking. There are other business models that you can look into also, but I'm not savvy enough to know them - but business professors no doubt are. - 1/7/26
I've noticed a trend in these places of higher learning. Most of them maybe offer some business courses online, maybe a class or two in other categories, but they do not have their entire curriculums online - and of those that do, it isn't worth it. $20K for an Associates degree in Business, without learning about business taxes? Hell no! The offerings are actually pretty slim. I understand that in-person learning and in-depth hands-on internships are required for truly learning a thing (see first point in Contentwise section), but honestly, most colleges don't even offer that in person, so why are they denying the people online what they do offer? It is a void in the marketplace. - 2/16/26
Speaking of online college, a massive amount of homework is yes, needed and valid. But not of necessarily the paper-and-pen sort. Practical experience. Field trips. Go out and see this type thing. I'm not actually certain how to meet the needs of anyone with a partial or full disability that limits spoon levels here, but I think that each teacher needs to have what it takes to figure it out. This among other reasons is why colleges need to hire good ones. - 2/16/26
Also speaking of online college, there is absolutely no reason for textbooks in every single field of study to be online for free to all, or easily bought as ebooks directly from the author. Again, massive void in the market. We have the Internet, and we have sites like Project Gutenberg, Neocities, personal blogs, and software that effectively converts your files into ebook format. Libraries now offer ebooks in easily readable format. Ipads and Kindles exist. The Big Four publishing companies and Amazon no longer have to be your only options. The opportunity is there. If you happen to be a college professor sick of the corruption in your field of work, consider: write a textbook and maybe publish it like this. On your own website, try to sell ebooks for it as a side hustle. See how that goes. - 2/16/26
However you can, tackle the corruption and nepotism in universities, colleges, and other institutions of higher learning. There are a wide variety of pretty terrible things people do to get and stay in power in these places. You may wind up needing to just make your own institution of higher learning. I believe a bunch of teachers from any school could do something similar for any online college or school. Make one of these and make it affordable and accessible not just for a traditional 4-year track but also for courses in anything a person could want to learn for a better quality of life, such as night school classes for say, household repairs, or flexible hours mostly-online some-in-person courses for a traditional degree spread out over more years as a person works a job and/or raises a family, and hey, an income stream. And that's just two ideas. You can scoff at convenience all day long but it's also known as accessibility. - added unknown date
To avoid students winding up in that scenario from The Graduate, any college of any quality has to grasp this basic principle: your students need to actually learn what the degree says they are learning - including the "why" behind it so they aren't just living for the $, find good jobs and a good career when they get a degree. And they need to be supported well enough in order to get said degrees without dropping out. If your college doesn't go to every effort to ensure every student learns what they intended to learn and more, graduates, then that each graduate gets a genuine good education, a job, and a career, it is not financially viable. You'd be amazed at the number of colleges that don't do this - or maybe you wouldn't. - 2/16/26
The dessert after the meal or the cherry on top for a good college would probably be if it teaches you enough to help you continue to teach yourself in that discipline for the rest of your life through books, experiments, resources, contacts, and so on. Or if it provides continual after-graduation opportunities to collaborate with other alumni and/or staff to do research or projects together. That would definitely be a good addition to earning a diploma. - added unknown date

Contentwise

There is a real need to avoid the phenomena of colleges creating armchair experts. For instance, study of Communism is not at all the same as actually going to a place with Communism in its early stages, Communism in its middle stages, and Communism in its late stages. Such as a hippie commune in its beginnings, a Communist living collective in oh, maybe its 30th to 50th year, and a Communist country where it instituted this many years ago that is still not definitely lethal to visit (e.g. Russia), such as Vietnam. For another example, consider an architect who draws up plans but has never built a building from the ground up or even helped with one. Or who has never built a model building then had to live in it for several years. I understand there are different teaching styles, but in order to produce graduates actually ready to take on real challenges they need to know stuff from the bottom up, not just the top down. You can play on Solidworks or AutoCAD all day, it will still not teach you all you need for real-world chaotic conditions, especially over a period of many years. Inventions rust, buildings crumble, how do you maintain the things you built? How do you repair them after oh, 50 years? What I am saying is that there needs to be a college model based on the medical school model. Theories for a few years, then intensive hands-on internships for years after that. The United States (and possibly other very industrialized nations) has historically had a tendency of having college graduates farming out its "menial" labor to other people with less illustrious backgrounds. Problem: the "menial" labor is what keeps the whole place running, so what happens if the people at the top have no experience with it? I trust it not. It is a tower or a castle with no foundation. - 2/16/26
There is also a real need to create graduates with foresight for the future after they are gone. Don't get me wrong here I'm not completely against selfishness but it is possible to have a win-win situation of better life for yourself, for others, and future generations. I'm talking a far better understanding of what we are doing to the planet, its creatures, and each other and how to help without destroying our own lives through overwork in the process. - 2/16/26
A problem that needs solving, and I am not sure exactly how: With regards to hiring employees, you should know that colleges have been churning out crappy graduates for a very long time. Reading Etiquette by Emily Post, I had this realization. A hundred years ago, entry to social clubs was done in pretty much the same way as college admittance is now. You could only get in them by being vouched for by other people in the clubs, or by being famous, or by asking admittance of people you were already friends with who were in these clubs, and naturally you had to literally pay dues and the people in these clubs were mostly there due to being "in" the rich upper crust already. But that's a social club. we're talking now about literal education and the foundation of society based on intellect and it's still being run like a country club. You get in, you get a degree that's in terms of practicality possibly meaningless, you get richer. Net gain to society: negative. Now don't get me wrong, a college degree is still not entirely worthless. It at least shows endurance and a willingness to see things through to their finish. In a lot of cases the person does emerge with some undefined amount of useful education. But I have a personal plea for every employer: also look at a person's accomplishments. See what they've done with themselves. See where they've been, and try to see where they're trying to go. Find evidence of all that in work that isn't on their resume but that they can prove to you. Have them take you out to the house they built themselves, have them show you their current lab setup and experiments, have them cook you their specialty, whatever. But look for something that's genuine. College hasn't fully been that way for a long time and degrees aren't the gold standard people think they are. And before some crafty businessperson in another country proudly announces this is just an American problem, I'd like to point out that this is a worldwide problem for one very specific reason. These institutions graduate you in order to turn a profit and for you to also earn money first and foremost. There isn't a single one out there that teaches you things for the sake of pure advancement of science or knowledge as its primary goal, with profit as its secondary one (ok fine Sweden exists, and some other countries like that, but they have other problems like students never wanting to leave and kinda stagnating in there). Also, I have certainly never heard of any college or university in any country churning out graduates with more than just a diploma, but an entire college record of everything that student did, with the most notable highlights of their education or research or internships pointed out. That's kind of important. Know what I heard in college? "C's get degrees." YIKES - 5/27/25
What is merit? What is scientific rigor? What are ethics? How do we put as much of these as possible in a college? These are questions that every college must answer well. Some answers I can think of that lead to more questions are an emphasis on continuous scientific research and discovery - that is important. So each college must teach a student how to set up a lab/makerspace and research/experimentation lifestyle for themselves, even if it's just in one notebook or journanil, or on one laptop, or in their head - and give them some (or a lot) of guidance on using it throughout their adult lives. Yep that's right, science can and should be a lifestyle. As for ethics, in order to study ethics in a truly comprehensive way, which in my experience and opinion is one of if not the most important thing to learn in school, it is necessary to learn it from a standpoint of many, many, MANY cultures and traditions, as well as from uniquely qualified teachers. I think on that one one must not spoon-feed students a rote memorization formula of "what is right and wrong" but to teach them the consequences of their actions as they relate to life, to attempt to teach from a standpoint of the most education in ethics possible as well as compassion and understanding (which requires a great deal of life wisdom), and to introduce them to allllll the thorny issues in every area of ethics possible. There are so many (for instance: what is "innocent"? what is "good"? Do religions agree on anything at all?). It's all important. For scientific rigor, there are ways to make every single college course and subject as scientifically sound as possible, and if you haven't found them and stuffed them into your curriculum, your would-be students can probably teach themselves the subject matter better than you can. That's no joke. It's a major reason to go to college. As for merit, it is possible to polish up every college course, homework assignment, lesson, student research project, degree courseload, and everything else to be as excellent as possible. That must set the example for the students, and they also must be shown step by step how to achieve it themselves - no guessing on their part. Otherwise they have to trial and error their way into excellence after college, which will make a lot of them wonder what the point of going was. - 2/16/26
Another thing: no college should make the nanny decisions for the students. They are grown-ass adults, and if all they want to do is take repeated classes in College Homeroom to meet other students for their whole 4 years, they should be allowed to. This mandatory 101 and Core Credit bullshit is just a scam and I think a lot of people are starting to know it. Only keep those classes for each degree course load that are obviously required for necessity's sake in that career. The students can get well-rounded on their own time (and money). - 2/16/26
Presuppose knowledge in only up to fourth grade value education. Offer course load at a very cheap amount to catch up to college level in every field, and also offer to students the opportunity to take a test out of it. Ideally, offer this online in easy step-by-step online lesson format with well written ebook textbooks, or whatever else truly works. Many upon many high schools in this country truly suck. It often depends on your zip code or state to determine how well you learned anything. Yes, systemic racism is a factor in this. - 2/16/26
Presuppose knowledge in absolutely zero life skills or household skills or adulting. Parents and teachers very often just don't care. Again, offering a very cheap course load in the same manner as the previous point to catch up with this would help a lot of students who could otherwise just not get through college, let alone daily adult life. - 2/17/26
If your college can't cater to adults who have full-time jobs and children to take care of, or other life commitments and challenges, such as through online coursework, complete-at-your-own-pace online or correspondence courses, and/or night classes, it's probably not worth going to for anyone. Just catering to a younger more gullible crowd has become a major red flag for anyone looking to learn more, as well it should be. This also ties into the issue of accessibility. There are plenty of would-be students for any college who would go if they could afford it, if it was truly worth the cost and effort, if it was available to them in their area (a major reason why online college is so important), and if they could actually do the course work, but can't. - 2/16/26
Some additions that are really important short and long term to any good college: permanent access to a library for all current and former students, including an online library, and it had better be stocked with high quality books (I have seen some true horror stories on that front, oh man, a lot of these college libraries really really need to prune and weed their collections). Technical conventions and other conventions, regularly, at the college or very near it. Connections to the local community through outreach programs such as college bookstores catering to both the college and the town with coffee, pastries, and books. An updated online and in-person bulletin board. Linkups to as many non-exploitative paid work internships as possible. Affordable safe transportation for students who do not have cars or vehicles. Free parking for all students and faculty. Invention fairs, again, regularly. Way less of an emphasis on sports. Way more technical equipment and laboratories, with the teachers who understand how to properly use the scientific gadgets. I do not believe that colleges should have mental health care or physical health care within them aside from say, providing a cheaper rate for health insurance for students and faculty to use at whatever health pros they may (outside the college), as in my experience they don't ever do it right in-house. As for things like gyms, pools, golf courses, fancy landscaping - I think it's like dorms and a meal plan. Not necessary. But a nearby YMCA, town-based swimming pool, JCC or gym would be nice. One more optional extra that could help: a very well moderated (by someone or someones actually qualified for the job paid by the college) very secure (again, made secure by someone or someones actually qualified for the job paid by the college) internet forum for current students and alumni. Networking is indeed a part of college life, and this certainly would do that, but it's ripe for all kinds of misbehavior without constant vigilance. - 2/16/26

Practically What You Can Do

I'm not the only person in my generation or in general that sees most colleges in the U.S. nowadays as a total scam. Will I be spending money on exorbitant housing fees for dorms, crap food, 101 courses where I learn nothing, and student drama for 4 years just so I can go into debt and maybe to graduate school, just for a higher place (theoretically) in this societal caste system by working for some multinational corporation as a drone, then get into graduate school and maybe learn stuff I can't teach myself through books (finally)? LOL no. But some of us can actually do something about this sorry state of affairs by making our own colleges.. Some people genuinely understand the afflictions of the college system in the U.S. now, in depth and in ugly full detail. The opportunity is there to fix it, but no one is taking it. Yet. On that day I'll consider attending an in person college, til then, my plan (and you can do this too) is teach myself everything I can via textbook and library book until I hit walls in every field of study - and only then seek out online education. - 1/21/26
There is so much corruption in terms of textbooks artificially inflating their price. Everyone but the publishing companies is losing out on a better educated public like this. So: consider donating your textbooks to your local library. And/or selling them at low cost to a re-sell bookstore. Or gifting them outright to a college student that needs 'em. - 2/16/26
Do I think that giving yourself a cheap college education online and with cheap textbooks is worth it? Yes, absolutely. Shop around. - 2/28/25, edited 2/16/26
If you find yourself working hard at something, go with the old foodservice maxim "work smarter not harder" and see if there's both a college education option for it and a set of library books, DVDs, and textbooks for it. The better you get at it the better conditions will be for you, your family, and whoever you're doing work for. This is helpful for anyone with not a lot of cash; you can do this research at a computer at a library and get some educational materials there as well. This is also helpful for everyone else as you can probably see the sort of sea change this would cause on a societal level. - added unknown date
I'd say prioritize your education so you start with your top priority "to learns" and work your way down the list but I also know that life happens. So consider this: wherever you are at, whatever you are wanting to learn, learn what you can when you can, however you can. Splice in some learning and experimentation in whatever you're trying to learn whenever you get a chance. I've found it's totally worth it. I also use these studying tricks myself a lot. They help. - 2/16/26

Big Brain Time

Home