College Experiences

Miscellaneous General
1

The purpose of this thread is to share experiences from every-day college life with regards to politics and economics. I will start the thread by giving my experience as example.

Context: “It’s depressing how undervalued teachers are in our society, after all, they are the ones changing the world.”
Response: “[Teachers] are actually giving YOU the tools to change the world. You must be open to what they are giving to you, otherwise it dosen’t really work.”

My first thought was the paradox of value; there are too many teachers.

2

I learned that it’s expensive depending on how many credits you are taking. The slave wages I make at the theater I work at don’t allow me to take more than 1 or 2 classes a semester unless I actually want to save all my money, so I take one expensive engineering class a semester, maybe the government will alleviate me from this pain.

Other than that the engineering teacher I have is probably one of the best teachers I can say I’ve ever had. I’m in my 4th semester with him right now. I had some history teacher that went into the JFK assassination one class, and he actually taught some interesting stuff on government (type of things that made the liberals and conservatives both cringe). I remember one class (can’t remember exactly which era we were in, probably 30’s-40’s, if not later), and he actually went into that when the government lowered the taxes business boomed, and business could actually reinvest in themselves and expand business and employment went up, which was contrary to what the government believed.

Other than my own personal experience attending community college, I learned that a lot of people aren’t fit for college, and I find it humurous when the A+ students in high school are dropping out of the college they went out of state for.

3

School is full of socialists.

The people who study political science at my colleges know almost nothing about political science.

The economics is wrong.

I had to teach a 2nd year student bedmas. How did they even get into highschool?

4

Sometimes I regret choosing not to go to university a few years ago, but I probably would have never found Mises.org if I did. Deus ex machina, I suppose [8-|]

5

Double Post

6

I regret going to college actually. Super freakin’ expensive with snail-paced learning enviroments! But I need my credentials.

Speaking of credentials, I understand why so many teachers are socialist/regulationist. From my experiences in class, they are basically trained to be (and even then it isn’t enough for their professors). I also realized why historians tend to be biased/incapable of agreement -basically again, they are trained to be.

But I also saw that lyndon la rouche is becoming more popular around campus, which is good because obama is just too popular.

7

I’m a student at a private college and I believe I can account for why the price is so high, and why we don’t have more schools and more teachers.The system needs to change, and I believe that nothing can bring it the change that is necessary better than the free market.

There are many entrepreneurs that want to start a college simply because it is extremely profitable and it is perceived that schools earn more than a fair return. This is ECON101, and a natural process that has been keeping markets in equilibrium since the dawn of civilization. Unfortunately, new firms can’t enter the market due to extremely high barriers to entry created by the government in an attempt to “protect” what they believe we should be taught. The same can be said about teachers. There are plenty of people out there with valuable information that aren’t qualified to teach at these universities simply because they do not have the credentials that the government deems necessary to teach.

Right now, schools don’t simply consist of students and teachers. Supported by tuition, exploitation, and your tax dollars in countless ways, schools almost necessarily have sports teams, on campus housing, cafeterias, and countless other services. Some colleges, such as mine, make paying for these services mandatory, which is nothing short of exploitation. I’ve been fighting unsuccessfully with the school to get out of my meal plan and living in the dorms, because I don’t want to and simply can’t pay the ridiculous prices for them. In a free market, they could never get away with that, because they would lose so many students such as myself over it. I can’t simply transfer to a different college. I would have to give up all my credits that won’t transfer, and would probably find myself fighting the next school exercising their monopoly power.

Another thing responsible for high tuition, is, of course, loans. Extremely low interest rates and the availability of loans for students has vastly expanded the demand for them. This is why we are experiencing such a shortage, and it also makes it possible for students to pay these ridiculous fees to attend college. Rather than requesting the schools run more efficiently, government tosses more money their way in one way or another and sends the price up some more.

I could rant all day about why I hate the school system, how it is exploiting students, how it is becoming more of a part of the problem than the solution, and what government is doing to make it all worse. If only the Mises institute could offer me a degree [W].

8

I go to a research school… its bad because the professors don’t care about the students.

I don’t know why they cant form some independent research institute. The professors just want to research they dont want to teach. I dont understand why it all has to be wrapped into one bundle.

Note that most research money comes from government, but in my particular department, most of the money actually comes from private corporations.

9

I loved my college experience, but it didn’t have anything to do with going to school. Sometimes I can’t believe I even got a degree considered how few classes I attended and how little reading I did. My private high school was much more challenging than the public university I attended.

10

I’ve had too much of the college experience. Two bachelors, a Masters, and now finishing a Ph.D… equates to a lot of schooling.

However, the last 3-4 years have been the most rewarding, because I found a niche that I truly love and enjoy. I feel incredible lucky for having the opportunity to immerse myself amongst scholars and students who are downright passionate about what they study. I’ve meet too many professors that aren’t passionate about their fields. Well, in theoretical physics/chemistry and chemical physics you’ve basically have to be crazy to study this “stuff” so you have no choice but to love the physical sciences.

Overall, I’ve felt that the college experience (learning-not partying) all boils down to your own perceptions and the amount of time you’re willing to invest in learning. It’s not enough to pass courses and receive high marks. It’s better to thoroughly learn the material so it will give you a lasting impression in life. This is when college truly shapes a person as he/she ventures into the world.

I didn’t learn this as an undergraduate but I had no choice in adopting this philosophy in graduate school.

In addition, now that I’ve become a libertarian I wish I would have studied economics and political science while an undergraduate. It doesn’t matter, because once you’ve understand the libertarian doctrine you begin to have an insatiable appetite to learn more.

Thank God for the Mises Institute.

11

I was in a poli sci class and we were going over different economic theories. Mercantilism was brought up and the class had a good smashing of how idiotic it was. Five minutes prior they had been discussing how the evil capitliats weren’t patriotic enough and a law needs to be passed to ensure “American” jobs stay in America. I simply don’t understand how people can doublethink without noticing it. It bothers me.

On a good note, I’ve found that despite the needless amounts of time I have to spend in GD courses, I still have plenty of free time. Which I mostly spend in the library reading Austrian works (or goofing off reading collected volumes of Peanuts). I’m quite honestly amazed that my school has such a substantially large section on Austrian economics. Oddly enough though Rothbard’s works are all in storage and I’ve had quite the trouble trying to check them out.