The Five-Year Party : How Colleges Have Given Up on Educating Your Child and What You Can Do About It.
Title:
The Five-Year Party : How Colleges Have Given Up on Educating Your Child and What You Can Do About It.
Author:
Brandon, Craig.
ISBN:
9781935618249
Personal Author:
Physical Description:
1 online resource (179 pages)
Contents:
Praise -- Title Page -- Dedication -- Introduction -- 1 - How Retention Replaced Education at America's Colleges -- 2 - Maximizing Profits at the Students' Expense -- The Lies Told Along the Golden Walk -- Nips and Tucks for Tired Colleges -- The "Arms Race" to Add Campus Frills -- High Salaries and Elaborate Perks for Party School Administrators -- Endless Tuition Hikes, and How Party Schools Get Away with Them -- The "Unholy Alliance" with Predatory Lenders -- Selling Out to Credit Card Companies -- Study Abroad Scams -- 3 - How Education Became Optional -- Dumbed-Down Classes -- The Professor as Entertainer -- Grade Inflation -- The Disengagement Compact -- How Much Do Students Really Study? -- The Glorification of Stupidity -- The Tragedy of the 10 Percent -- 4 - Party School Perils -- Where Binge Drinkers Rule -- Managing Binge Drinkers -- Even Nondrinkers Are Victims -- Racism, Sexism, and Homophobia -- Date Rape -- Hazing and Gang Rape -- "Spontaneous" Student Riots -- Untreated Mental Illness -- 5 - An Obsession with Secrecy -- The Code of Silence -- The Strange History of FERPA -- Why the Report Card Never Arrives -- Secret Treatments for Mentally Ill Students -- The Destruction of Campus Discourse -- How Party Schools Deliberately Cover Up Campus Crimes -- The Clery Act and Unreported Statistics -- Why the News Media Ignores the Problem -- Campus Journalists Denied Information -- 6 - When the Party Ends and the Tab Comes Due -- The Student Loan Trap -- The Glut of Party School Graduates -- The Bleak Lives of Party School Graduates -- Has the "College Premium" Disappeared? -- College Graduates Who Refuse to Grow Up -- 7 - How Parents Can Cancel the Five-Year Party -- How to Protect Your Child -- Policy Changes That Will Help Shut Down the Five-Year Party -- A Call to Action.
Appendix - The Red Flag List: How to Spot Party Schools and Subprime Colleges -- Acknowledgements -- Endnotes -- Index -- About the Author -- Copyright Page.
Abstract:
Colleges look much the same as they did five or ten years ago, but a lot has changed behind the scenes. While some mixture of study and play has always been part of college life, an increasing number of schools have completely abandoned the idea that students need to learn or demonstrate that they've learned. Financial pressures have made college administrations increasingly reluctant to flunk anyone out, regardless of performance, although the average length of time to get a degree is now five years, and for many students it's six or more. Student evaluations of professorsoften linked to promotion and tenure decisionshave made professors realize that applying tough standards, or any standards, only hurts their own career progress. For many professors, it's become easier and more rewarding to focus on giving entertaining lectures and to give everyone reasonably good grades. The worst of these schools are the "subprime" colleges, where performance standards and accountability have been completely abandoned. Students enjoy a five year party with minimal responsibilities while their parents pay the bills. These schools' investment decisions (first-class gyms and dining centers) are all geared to attracting students that want to have a good time, and their brochures all emphasize the fun aspects of the college experiencethere are very few pictures of students actually studying or in class. And after graduation, former students are frequently unable to find work in their chosen fields, thanks to their school's reputation with employers, and unable to afford the payments on sizeable student loans. The subprime colleges, which "teach" a significant percentage of college students, are only the tip of the iceberg. All colleges, even the most elite, have moved in this direction to some extent. If you are a parent sending your child to college, The
Five-Year Party will give you critical information you need about what is really happening at your child's college, and what you can do to ensure help your child gets a real education.
Local Note:
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2017. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
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Electronic Access:
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