Universities LOVE rejecting your kids

Universities are filters, not bakeries.

And that leads to really [expletive] up incentives.

Parents, students, and employers are realizing that universities don’t upskill students to prepare them for work.

colleges simply act as filters

They identify high-potential people and accept them into their programs. Then, after four years, they put a stamp on them that says to employers, “These students are worth interviewing.” Not because they’ve been trained. Just because they’ve been pre-qualified.

This dynamic leads to perverse incentives for universities–if you’re a filter, then you increase your value by minimizing the chances that sub-par talent passes through you. In the absence of a fool-proof method for filtering, you achieve this by maximizing applicants while minimizing acceptance. In other words, you minimize your acceptance rate.

how #%$^ed up is that?!

Institutions that are meant to serve a public good reject tens of thousands of students that could have succeeded there because accepting these students would dilute the perceived value of their filter.

And this system doesn’t just hurt students by excluding them from life-changing opportunities, it hurts employers too.

What all employers want are fully baked cakes (skilled professionals) that are ready to eat (work) the moment they arrive. Instead, universities drop sacks of ingredients on companies’ doorsteps and say, “Here are the finest ingredients.”

“now go bake your own #%$^ing cake.”

If higher ed actually worked like a bakery by taking high-potential ingredients (students) and turning them into delectable fully baked cakes (skilled professionals), we’d all be better off. Instead, we’re stuck with prestige-optimization filters that maximize their value by minimizing access and then offload upskilling to companies.

It’s backwards. It’s broken. And it’s ripe for disruption.