Originally Posted by
HogDawg
Maybe we're seeing the end of the world as we know it. Ya know, there's a lot of unintended consequences that can come from dire situations like this. With forced "on-line learning" due to COVID restrictions, absurdly high tuition costs, zero "on-campus" social experiences and a serious lack of tax revenue at the state and local government level due to CoronaVirus to pay for everything, public colleges may find themselves at risk of being a luxury of the past. State governments may decide --or may be forced due to lack of tax revenue-- to get out of the "college" business.
We all love LA Tech. That's why we're here. And for most of us, attending Tech was a wonderful experience in our life. But things are changing. I know for a fact that most of the high tech companies who are doing all the hiring are much less concerned with where your degree came from than they are your professional certifications, your progress and your specializations. These companies --some of which are the largest in the world (think Amazon, Google, Microsoft, major defense contractors, Big Pharma, etc...) are happy to pay for your professional certs and other professional ed needs. Most have classroom environments on their campuses that are 10X better and more intense than a typical college classroom. And these classes are being taught by young engineering professionals, experienced finance professionals and others who are DOING IT EVERY DAY, and live on the bleeding edge of technology & change. Imagine this environment, as opposed to some tired, old, tenured, liberal, college professor who hasn't worked in the his chosen field for 15 years, and is only interested in espousing his socialism beliefs to a captive audience of young people 3 times a week.
Fact is, most of these companies would prefer to build and train you like they want, so they can employ you and hopefully earn your job loyalty. With this in mind, why would a student who has a choice, choose to pay (or borrow with student loans) 100K to 200K to get a "dinosaur" education and no guaranteed job? At some point people have to ask themselves, is the old school college model really working? I'm concerned that it's not, and people are finally waking up to it. After this COVID experience, I think we're going to see major changes in higher education, and how we prepare people for employment.