Posted 1/27/2012 10:57 am
These schools are stupid. It's like the newspapers putting everything online for free and then wondering why their revenues dropped 80%.
In Australia you can pick programs that will award grad cert, grad dip and then masters. That gives you the option to bail early but still get some paper.
Plus do you really think everyone that wanted to get into MIT and could would say "oh, I can get a certificate for free, I won't enroll for a real degree".
AYRTS? IA?
The only one hurt by this are 2nd and 3rd tier schools. 3rd tier schools shouldn't even be operating.
The elite schools (like Harvard, MIT, Stanford, etc) already give free tuition to families making less than $60,000.
The elite schools know that the more students they have, the more donations they will receive when those students go out into the world and make money.
So by giving free degrees & certificates to smart qualified people, elite schools like Harvard, MIT, Stanford, know that they'll be getting larger donations from more people in the future.
Newspapers don't get $100 million donations from subscribers.
Most American kids are too busy getting drunk at frat parties & NCAA football games, and watching MTV Jersey Shore.
Indian & Chinese kids will study their asses off, pay $1000 for a MIT certificate, and send out their resumes to Microsoft & Google. American kids will spend $100,000+ on Chico State degrees in hip-hop poetry, and their resumes won't be nearly impressive.
Posted 1/27/2012 1:55 pm
The top schools may not be threatened in terms of money, but their exclusivity is the source of their power in society. Harvard is elite; McHarvard, not so much.
The ultimate value in the Ivy League and top-tier schools is as a titling insitution, to certify your rank in society. The actual intellectual activity that goes on at these schools is a dim and distant second place in importance to that.
