No college? Good luck.

Courtesy of Andrew Sullivan...

The recession is hitting those with less education much harder. The unemployment rate for those without a high school diploma is three times the rate for those with a Bachelor's degree. The eye popper for me is this quote from David Leonhardt:

"The pay gap between college graduates and everyone else, for instance, reached a record high last year. Four-year-college graduates made 54 percent more, on average, than people who attended college but did not graduate. Fifty-four percent!"

The sad fact is that this will force many who are "not college material" to make an attempt, perhaps the third or fourth attempt, at college. In the end they won't get a degree but will be saddled with tens of thousands in debt.

I genuinely liked the student population at Hamilton. Generally speaking, they were students who didn't go to college right out of HS... got pregnant... went to college but drank too much, flunked out and now realize the need for a college degree, etc. Most had jobs while going to school. It was great teaching where students had real life experience to add to the classroom.

But then there the students that just couldn't cut it. They'd try... try very hard and still miss 22 out of 25 on a multiple choice quiz (law of averages says they should have done better by guessing.) Rather than refund their money and wish them well Hamilton/Kaplan would switch them to an easier program. One student who failed each and every weekly quiz in my management class was transferred to the Medical Assisting program where she (miraculously) graduated near a 3.0.

That's not progress; it's a diploma mill. Those of us on faculty would repeat the stories of our successes as a way to make ourselves feel better for those we knew were screwed.