Like many colleges and universities around the country, Trinity in Washington has been educating “non-traditional” students for decades — this is hardly a new movement! We do not use the phrase “non-traditional” any more since these students are the vast majority. Even our 18-year-old students work and have family responsibilities.
The real issue (as the essay service expert claims) right now is whether the administration’s proposed new regulations and rating system for higher education will take into account the fact that the majority of college students (75% by some measures) have non-traditional characteristics, and hence, cannot be measured by traditional yardsticks like the graduation rate that was invented in the 1990’s for Division I male athletes. So far, we’ve seen little evidence that the U.S. Department of Education knows how to change its data sets to account for the majority of students who do not go through college in traditional ways. For example, the majority of students also attend more than one institution, but the IPEDS graduate rate treats transfers as dropouts.
Recognizing the dramatic change in the student profile is one thing. Adapting the regulatory sphere to accommodate that change more sensibly is a huge task. If the regulators do not accommodate the real profile of our students, the results will be harmful to the students and the institutions that serve them well.
30 year old Millennial woman here. Graduated in mid-2008. I went into business. Not because I particularly liked it (in fact, I wanted to major in other things that I truly enjoyed, but didnt thanks to wise guidance of my parents). I went into business because it was the best shot at getting a decent paying job with decent benefits.
My parents always brought me and my brother up to realize that “Work is work. For most people, its never going to be that fulfilling, full-of-passion, change-the-world stuff. It’s going to be something that you do each day that if you’re lucky, will be tolerable most days, and will pay you enough to be able to afford to do the things you LIKE to do outside of work. If you go for a job doing something that really speaks to you, that you find thrilling or super interesting, chances are good you’ll always be working for low wages or free. Jobs generally pay more for 2 reasons–first because they require skills beyond the basic which reduces the available pool or workers and second, because its not something people would choose to do if they didn’t need to work for the money.”
Sure, I may not have tons of passion for my theessayservice job, and its not what anyone would call interesting. But end of the day, I make enough to take care of myself, stock some away for savings, have some left over to have “fun” with, decent benefits, and I can spend my free time not at the office, doing things I enjoy, because I dont have to work 2-3 jobs to make ends meet.
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Like many colleges and universities around the country, Trinity in Washington has been educating “non-traditional” students for decades — this is hardly a new movement! We do not use the phrase “non-traditional” any more since these students are the vast majority. Even our 18-year-old students work and have family responsibilities.
The real issue (as the essay service expert claims) right now is whether the administration’s proposed new regulations and rating system for higher education will take into account the fact that the majority of college students (75% by some measures) have non-traditional characteristics, and hence, cannot be measured by traditional yardsticks like the graduation rate that was invented in the 1990’s for Division I male athletes. So far, we’ve seen little evidence that the U.S. Department of Education knows how to change its data sets to account for the majority of students who do not go through college in traditional ways. For example, the majority of students also attend more than one institution, but the IPEDS graduate rate treats transfers as dropouts.
Recognizing the dramatic change in the student profile is one thing. Adapting the regulatory sphere to accommodate that change more sensibly is a huge task. If the regulators do not accommodate the real profile of our students, the results will be harmful to the students and the institutions that serve them well.
30 year old Millennial woman here. Graduated in mid-2008. I went into business. Not because I particularly liked it (in fact, I wanted to major in other things that I truly enjoyed, but didnt thanks to wise guidance of my parents). I went into business because it was the best shot at getting a decent paying job with decent benefits.
My parents always brought me and my brother up to realize that “Work is work. For most people, its never going to be that fulfilling, full-of-passion, change-the-world stuff. It’s going to be something that you do each day that if you’re lucky, will be tolerable most days, and will pay you enough to be able to afford to do the things you LIKE to do outside of work. If you go for a job doing something that really speaks to you, that you find thrilling or super interesting, chances are good you’ll always be working for low wages or free. Jobs generally pay more for 2 reasons–first because they require skills beyond the basic which reduces the available pool or workers and second, because its not something people would choose to do if they didn’t need to work for the money.”
Sure, I may not have tons of passion for my theessayservice job, and its not what anyone would call interesting. But end of the day, I make enough to take care of myself, stock some away for savings, have some left over to have “fun” with, decent benefits, and I can spend my free time not at the office, doing things I enjoy, because I dont have to work 2-3 jobs to make ends meet.