Is Xavier broke?

[boozehound]

I think that college costs to much and adds too little value.

Does the military still pay for college? How does that work? Sometimes I think just going to the military for four years and getting paid might be a better experience than racking up $160k in debt for a degree of debatable value. Of course if you had to go to Afghanistan that would suck, but you could join the Navy or Air Force and probably not sweat too much of the combat zones.

Air Traffic controllers make good money, and they retire in their 50s with benefits. Getting an air traffic controller gig in the military would be a seemless way to transition into one in the private sector when you got out, and I doubt it is all that dangerous.

Sometimes I think we tell our kids they can be anything they want, so they go to college for four years and rack up debt with no direction, and get a degree of questionable value with no technical skills. Maybe if they spent a few years in the military they would have a better idea of what they wanted to study.

I have no idea, but the herd mentality scares me. College is too expensive and I don't see the value of paying liberals $40k a year to indoctrinate my kids with their multi-cult garbage.

The military does still pay for college and generally requires 4 years of service in exchange if I am not mistaken. It is a great option for many kids, because they are still getting paid to serve. Honestly I think serving a 4 year stint in the Military before College would have been good for me, personally. I could have used the extra time to grow up before attending school. I probably would have taken it more seriously. There is a risk involved, but as you stated there are a variety of functions that you can do that aren't likely to place you in harm's way.

I'm not sure how I feel about the true necessity / value of a 4 year College. Honestly probably a lot of people would do just fine in business, or a varity of fields, with no college at all. Those would be the people the DC referenced as having a genuine intellectual curiosity. They are going to learn and excel because that is what they do.

Probably the biggest value I see in college right now may the the signaling effect. You show perspective employers that you are motivated able to learn by attending a College and getting decent grades. You would still have a similar ability to learn without having attended College but that isn't initially clear to perspective employers. That is even moreso for MBA degrees. While I did learn quite a bit getting my MBA, I have probably learned as much reading Businessweek for a few years.

[xudash]

OTR, with all due respect, you could not have picked a worse thread title for this thread.

If by "broke" you mean financially, then no.

If by "broken" you mean with respect to business model, then I don't think X is broken in that regard, but that it's being pro-active in recognizing the looming changes and challenges facing higher education, and that it is beginning to formulate a response to that accordingly.

I have felt for years that, while ND benefitted from the likes of Father Hessburgh, Xavier was stuck with Father Mulligan, who didn't know his arse from a hole in the ground when it came to the importance of understand the importance of fund raising. Had we had more fiscally savvy Jesuits back then, the endowment issue, which is an issue for Xavier, would not be so.

[Mel Cooley XU'81]

College of Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Fraudulent contradiction in terms.

If a kid is an innovator and/or an entrepreneur -- he should go do it.

[zanesxu]

College of Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Fraudulent contradiction in terms.

If a kid is an innovator and/or an entrepreneur -- he should go do it.

Great point here... as a grad with an Entrepreneurial Studies major, someone who started a business while at X, and someone who has sat on the Entrepreneurial Center board, the key is forcing / requiring students who want a degree from this major to actually start a business in college, not just write a business plan. If the venture fails, it will still be more rewarding than becoming really good at writing an executive summary... imho...

[Masterofreality]

Great point here... as a grad with an Entrepreneurial Studies major, someone who started a business while at X, and someone who has sat on the Entrepreneurial Center board, the key is forcing / requiring students who want a degree from this major to actually start a business in college, not just write a business plan. If the venture fails, it will still be more rewarding than becoming really good at writing an executive summary... imho...

I think a lemonade stand in front of Fenwick would be a great moneymaker.





(Easy, just kidding)

[paulxu]

A draft beer stand, with constantly rotating micro-brew products, would be a no-brainer.

[coasterville95]

So Paul is advocating putting the keg on a turntable? Ok, that's eccentric but well try it. :).

[nuts4xu]

A draft beer stand, with constantly rotating micro-brew products, would be a no-brainer.

If they could staff the beer stand with scantily clad co-eds, it would make tons of money.

[Kahns Krazy]

OTR, with all due respect, you could not have picked a worse thread title for this thread.

...

Free cocaine and blowjobs would have been a worse title for the thread, because there is no information about either in here.

[Kahns Krazy]

College of Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Fraudulent contradiction in terms.

If a kid is an innovator and/or an entrepreneur -- he should go do it.

Great point here... as a grad with an Entrepreneurial Studies major, someone who started a business while at X, and someone who has sat on the Entrepreneurial Center board, the key is forcing / requiring students who want a degree from this major to actually start a business in college, not just write a business plan. If the venture fails, it will still be more rewarding than becoming really good at writing an executive summary... imho...

I disagree to some extent. The real world school of failure is available to anyone at anytime. Learning how to be more successful by understanding how others have suceeded with well thought out plans is very valuable, even to an entrepreneur. Even with that background, the opportunitiy to learn from failure is still there for the taking, but the learning from failure should be magnified, reducing the chance for repeat failure. No need to ignore the lessons others have already learned from their failures.