Does education pay?

It does, at least according to a recent article in the Chronicle.I have this argument discussion with my friends all the time. I went to college. I went on to get my MBA. And is my job any more secure than my high school buddy who graduated 12th grade and went to work as a mechanic? Probably not. Tuition keeps going up. Income levels do not. Student loans are being defaulted on at an alarming rate. So, what’s a college degree worth? THAT is the question that higher education has to ask itself. We hear extreme stories, on both sides of the coin. There is the homeless woman who put herself through night school and…

“Vulgar” Content

I’m working on a new way to explain our degree programs. I’ll get to the vulgar bit at the bottom. Let me tell give you the big picture, then I’ll explain what we’re doing. When I was in college for Graphic Design, during our junior year, my classmates started to say things like this: “They’re not teaching us how to DO anything — I wouldn’t know how to take a magazine from text to print… why am I even here? I can identify the anatomy of a typeface, I can draw letters by hand, but I don’t know what all of these settings are in Illustrator!” Interestingly, my friends who were studying engineering were saying…

Drake cancels Twitterview on D+ marketing campaign

Drake and Stamats were going to hold a Twitterview today about the recent “D+” marketing campaign. However, as the magic hour was upon us, this tweet came through: “Alas, due to circumstances beyond our control, we canceled the Twitter interview with @DrakeUniversity and @Stamats. #drakeu”. Cowards! C’mon! I was really looking forward to hearing the defense of the ad campaign. This was their chance to face the firing squad and stand up for their work. I didn’t like it before…but now…I’m thinking THEY don’t even like it, either.

Keep learning!

I saw a Tweet today from @CrudBasher – “Learning has to be lifelong. When lifespan was 45, K-12+4 made sense. Now lifespan is 80+. Have 2 keep learning.” So true. Go back and get your Master’s degree. Take a class at your local community college. Learning keeps the mind engaged and vital throughout your life. But also, realize that you don’t have to be in a classroom to “learn”. One of the best ways to to write down your “anti-resume”. Your “anti-resume” is just that – the opposite of your resume. Check it out: your resume is a list of everything you’ve accomplished. What you studied in college, where you’ve worked, what skills you have….

Univ of Phoenix’s latest attempt to be legitimate

University of Phoenix just released a 77-page propaganda research report that was supposed to provide bi-partisan, independent data on the for-profit vs non-profit debate. It did not. What is DID provide was more proselytizing based on the same old data that University of Phoenix has been using since the beginning of this issue. Let’s start with the title: “For-Profit Colleges and Universities: America’s Least Costly and Most Efficient System of Higher Education”. Right, got it. No bias there. Even Jorge Klor de Alva, President of Nexus and author of its first report, acknowledged that the center’s first paper comes across “like an overly pointed, policy-advocacy piece.” While “more analytical” reports are in the works, it…

And…let the technology backlash begin!

Mark James, a visiting lecturer at the University of West Florida, declared his summer course in English literature technology-free—he skipped the PowerPoint slides and YouTube videos he usually shows, and he asked students to silence their cellphones and close their laptops. Banishing the gear improved the course, he argues. “The students seemed more involved in the discussion than when I allowed them to go online,” he told me as the summer term wound down. “They were more attentive, and we were able to go into a little more depth.” From The Chronicle…what do you think? Whenever there is a lot of “fill-in-the-blank”, there is the inevitable backlash AGAINST “fill-in-the-blank”. But is it justified? Are these…

Design the experience, not just the website

You spot her. There, across the room. Your pulse quickens and you make a bee line to go talk to her. You get a number, set a date, and show up at the restaurant. She is so beautiful you can’t believe how lucky you are to be there. And, she is so dull and boring that you wish there would be a natural catastrophe because a city laid to ruin would be more pleasurable than finishing this date. Point is: what’s on the outside will attract us at first…but it’s what’s on the inside that matters (every heard that before?). As colleges get more “internet savvy” (can you sense the sarcasm?) I see a lot…

Dogs in dorms.

I’ve written before about how the Millennials are in for an unpleasant surprise when they get into the real world. But, not so much if they attend Stephens College, MIT, SUNY Canton, Eckerd College or Washington & Jefferson College. To make the “transition” easier, these colleges are now allowing students to have dogs in their dorm rooms. Gawker.com really sums it up best in their title, “Dogs in Dorm Rooms: The Only Way College Could Get Grosser”. I mean, really? Unwashed laundry, keg stands, unwashed laundry and now DOGS? The other issue is that it plays even more into the notion that these Millennials have to be coddled and protected. “I recognize this as being…

What your school can learn from money managers

Fascinating stuff. Forbes has an article about how certain schools are operating more like and information-driven company than a run-of-the-mill school. Just like the hedge fund you’re invested in, these schools are using data to analyze and adapt – doing more of what works and cutting what doesn’t. Read it. And think: what would you do differently at your school if you had the data to back it up?

Does anyone else think that Lloyd Thacker is a hack?

I don’t get it. Why is Lloyd Thacker such a big deal? I mean, OK, I understand that he struck out on his own to follow his beliefs that the admissions process is too commercial. That’s cool. And I’ve never heard him speak but I’m sure he’s very charismatic. But, I’m just sayin’…he made a name for himself by raging against the machine, right? But now he’s partnered with the College Board and Consumer’s Union (which publishes Consumer Reports) so isn’t he now part of the exact thing he said was bad? Not to mention the $150,000 colleges donated to a website which is “not likely to materialize”. Huh? How is that OK? The article…