A friend of mine was recently talking to me. She was telling me how that her liberal arts program of study will now take an extra semester to finish. Further, she has been in school for almost four years now full time. Further, the last semester she has been taking 18 credits, which is the maximum allowed for her school, unless she can get permission from the dean to take more credits. Yet, she will have to take another full semester of classes, at 18 credits, after the four years, in order to graduate.
She is worried about her loans as well. She will not get a Pell Grant. Further, since she goes to a private school, all her loan money will be going to towards tuition. She has nothing left over for housing or food. In fact, she tells me that she will actually owe some after her maximum government loans are taken out in order to pay tuition.
I recently was talking to an aunt of mine who went to a private school many years ago. This aunt is a Baby Boomer. Wikipedia defines baby boomer as:A baby boomer is a person who was born during the demographic Post-World War II baby boom between the years 1946 and 1964, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The term "baby boomer" is sometimes used in a cultural context. Therefore, it is impossible to achieve broad consensus of a precise definition, even within a given territory. Different groups, organizations, individuals, and scholars may have widely varying opinions on what constitutes a baby boomer, both technically and culturally. Ascribing universal attributes to a broad generation is difficult, and some observers believe that it is inherently impossible. Nonetheless, many people have attempted to determine the broad cultural similarities and historical impact of the generation, and thus the term has gained widespread popular usage.
United States birth rate (births per 1000 population). The red segment from 1946 to 1964 is the postwar baby boom.
Baby boomers are associated with a rejection or redefinition of traditional values; however, many commentators have disputed the extent of that rejection, noting the widespread continuity of values with older and younger generations. In Europe and North America boomers are widely associated with privilege, as many grew up in a time of widespread government subsidies in post-war housing and education, and increasing affluence. As a group, they were the wealthiest, most active, and most physically fit generation to that time, and amongst the first to grow up genuinely expecting the world to improve with time. They were also the generation that received peak levels of income, therefore they could reap the benefits of abundant levels of food, apparel, retirement programs, and sometimes even "midlife crisis" products.
One feature of Boomers was that they tended to think of themselves as a special generation, very different from those that had come before. In the 1960s, as the relatively large numbers of young people became teenagers and young adults, they, and those around them, created a very specific rhetoric around their cohort, and the change they were bringing about.
[5] This rhetoric had an important impact in the self perceptions of the boomers, as well as their tendency to define the world in terms of generations, which was a relatively new phenomenon.
The baby boom has been described variously as a "shockwave" and as "the pig in the python." By the sheer force of its numbers, the boomers were a demographic bulge that remodeled society as it passed through it.
The term Generation Jones has sometimes been used to distinguish those born from 1954 onward from the earlier Baby Boomers. (Source: Wikipedia.org)
***
My aunt told me that her tuition at a private four year college was free of charge. Further, she told me that she was done with her four year program in three and a half years. I could not help but shake my head at this. Of course, when tuition is free they will rush you out. When you pay close to $35,000 a year, they will try to keep you forever.
The truth is, four year college programs are taking people far longer than four years. Further, people are told that it is alright to change their majors halfway into the program. In fact, they are told that it is not only okay, it is normal. I know of some people who change their majors like they change their underwear, once every few months. It's quite crazy.
Shouldn't college take less time if it is more expensive? Young people are getting screwed over with high tuition costs and at the same time being told that they have to spend another six months to a year in school in order to finish their program of study. If you drop out you'll be another person with 'some college' experience, which society tells you is bad. If you finish that degree you started, you will be another college graduate in a world saturated with grads. Colleges want you to finish and they will milk you like a bovine every step of the way.
Boomers tend to have no clue the price of an education these days. They went for free, yet think at the same time, we should all be able to pay our loans. Some may say: go to a public college. That's not cheap, either. In fact, some public schools charge more than private schools used to charge a couple of decades ago. Maybe less.
Further, we are told that since there are so many regular four year graduates out there that we need a graduate degree. Like undergraduate schools, law schools are taking anyone with a pulse. LSAT scores, once necessary to enter law school, have been relaxed. Now a GMAT might get you into some schools. The barriers to entry are being knocked down all in the name of the almighty dollar. A legal education is not about creating lawyers. It's about making money -- for the schools. As I speak, a handful of schools are preparing to become accredited. Chances are that they all will be. Further, there are talks of ABA law schools popping up in other countries, such as China. Outsourcing law schools? Is this for real? (Law.com -- Law Schools in China?).
Higher education reform will have to happen. But who will pay the price? The boomers? Unlikely. It will probably end up being those who are being pumped into the educational system right now. It will probably be us who are taking out six figure loans in order to finish our education. It will be those who were conditioned and fed that education was the path to the American dream. And while it could be argued that nobody had a gun to our heads, and that we have free choice (which is true), the punishment is quite harsh. Why should schools be allowed to create four year programs that run on for five years and charge insane amounts of money for it? Why should there be more law schools than the legal economy can support? Why should legal education be outsourced just as e-discovery?
