Today it hit me. I knew college was retarded long before I decided to begin. But, today, it really hit home: college is a joke.
The other day, when meeting with my worthless advisor (the higher education equivalent of a military recruiter: useless, tells lots of lies, but supposedly there to help you), he asked me why I failed a class last semester. I said I’d be honest and, even though I know it’s not what he wants to hear, the teacher sucked. Half of the class had dropped by three weeks in, of those that remained, the majority failed. I wasn’t making excuses; the professor was a genuine tool. “Impossible,” he tells me, “If he was that bad he wouldn’t have a job here.” Really? I’m pretty sure the collective student body of every school in this country would laugh until they pissed themselves if they heard him say that with a straight face. Horrible professors are the norm, not the exception – especially at state schools. Everyone knows this. “I understand what you’re saying though,” the closest any administration member will ever get to admitting how horrific their faculty really is, “but you’ve got to learn to work around it. If you have a bad teacher, you have to learn to teach yourself or make up for it some other way.”
That’s when it hit home, more so than it ever has before. We’re paying these schools thousands, ten-of-thousands, or even hundreds-of-thousands of dollars if it’s a big name private school. Contrary to popular belief, higher education is a service that is purchased by students, and a d*** expensive one at that. There’s a general belief in our society that college is a necessity. This belief leads to schools feeling like they’re doing us a favor, rather than the other way around. Not only the administration, but also the students themselves have lost sight of the fact that they are PAYING for a SERVICE and they are NOT getting what they paid for.
What are we getting for our money? We’re getting piss-poor service: generally terrible faculty that thinks they’re beyond reproach and an administration that doesn’t give a d***. We pay big money to be told, “Learn to deal with it,” when the service sucks. Somehow this has become okay, and no one gives it a second thought. Yet, it doesn’t fly in other industries. It’s like hiring a contractor to remodel your house. When the work is done, the roof leaks, there are holes in the floor, and half the appliances don’t work. The contractor’s only response is, “Hey, stuff happens. Can’t get the best workers every time; you’ll just have to learn to live with it.” …and you’re supposed to be ok with that. Better yet, it’s like paying for golf lessons and getting a coach that can’t speak English (Darius), spends the first 58 minutes of each hour long lesson talking about Cape Cod (Colgan), laughs at you because you can’t hit but makes no effort to show you how (Andre), and is proud of the fact that he sucks as an instructor and brags about how he doesn’t have to care what you think because he’ll never be fired anyway (Coe). …and all that is supposed to be okay. Don’t bother asking for a refund. After all, they’re the ones doing you a favor by taking that money off your hands. Learn to deal with it.
Tyler Mattas, CCSU ’11
Business Administration