Yelp for College

Good article on what is messed up with undergrad education in America. Year after year, kids get into the college of their dreams only to feel let down and cheated. It would have been tolerable had it been a free or heavily subsidized education - that takes the edge off the disappointment. 

People make the most of what they have been given. Its like buying clothes from the final sale rack. You can't expect many miracles and need to make do with what you scrounge up. Such is not the case for the American undergrad student so it stings. The article, summarizes their plight quite succinctly: 

Universities aren’t like restaurants that rely on repeat customers: pretty much nobody gets two bachelor’s degrees. If you choose the wrong place, as many students do, it’s not easy to signal your dissatisfaction by transferring to a competitor. Besides, every year, colleges are practically guaranteed a fresh supply of high school graduates and adults looking for new skills. The result is a profiteer’s paradise: millions of highly motivated, naive, overwhelmed consumers loaded up with armfuls of government money. 

The woes of the hapless students does not end upon earning their bachelor's degree. Should they be disposed to further their education, new traps await them there too - designed to extract yet more money for very questionable ROI. Interesting case in point cited by the article 

..master’s programs are a black box—there is no requirement to publish any admissions data. This means universities can dramatically lower their admissions standards and enroll thousands of highly profitable students without sullying their brand. The University of Pennsylvania, for example, offers a master’s in “Applied Positive Psychology,” which is essentially a $66,000 Ivy League degree in self-affirmation. It has “no specific prerequisite courses” and applications are accepted from anyone with a minimum 3.0 grade point average.