The Substandard Collegiate Experience
These words rolled off the tongue of Scott Galloway in the most recent Pivot podcast episode. For a split second, I held my breath. What was he really eluding to? That college online is substandard? Or that we are now focusing our attentions on colleges we used to view as substandard? I guess it’s open to interpretation.
Let’s be real, no one is a fan of the idea of virtual college. If you are enrolling in college for the first time in the fall, you are particularly allowed to be put-off by the notion of still going to that school, but not in stepping foot on campus. It’s one thing to take an online class by choice in a world without COVID-19. It is a completely foreign idea to experience everything college solely from a virtual world. Although colleges and universities will tell you the sole focus of higher education is the act of working towards that expensive piece of paper called a diploma, that is only a smart part of the collegiate experience.
If we look to Hollywood on how college is portrayed, the focus is certainly not on academic. If you are short on Netflix idea, here is a highlights reel, in no particular order, to catch you up to speed on how wild college can be:
Again, academics are not the focus in these movies. They depict the social experiences that students can live to regret. Now that is worth spending a pretty penny to partake in. How are they going to be able to participate in raging Greek parties when they are completing all their college coursework from their childhood bedroom? Gone are the days when you go to college to find your future spouse. Not saying it is not still a possibility in the 21st century, but I highly doubt you win someone over by sending them a private message in your Zoom class. People do enroll in college to expand beyond their high school community. They go to meet new people. They go to make new friends. They go to start a new chapter. They go to college because that is what society has driven them to believe they must do.
Now, we’re all set up for the letdown. All those dreams and fantasies about tailgating at football games, doing research in the engineering department, or 2am Dominoes orders to the dorm room, they will remain as dreams and fantasies. We will clinge to the hope that one day, post-COVID-19, we can settle back into the collegiate experience that we had hard about and loved.
So, going back to Scott’s comment. If he was speaking to students attending local community colleges instead of four-year universities as substandard options, I’d say that’s garbage. Fortunately, community colleges are set up for all types of learners. They have the online platforms already up and running successfully, and they focus on supporting accommodations and learners from home. If anything, this pandemic may spotlight how badass community colleges can be. Now, if he was referencing attending a four-year university online as being substandard, I am listening. If the school did not have an online learning platform or flexible faculty, I would totally agree that this education could potentially be substandard. Not to mention, you are still paying a substantial amount of money for the prestige of taking classes at the school when you are on campus. Something seems off there to me.
If you are reading this and you are siding with the idea that “hey, maybe taking classes online from the school I was excited to attend feels substandard…,” then I say to you: don’t go. Just do not pay for it. Pay for something that does not feel quite so substandard.
For questions or comments contact Joanna.
