Why did 17 million students go to college?

[jlai]

But all of the other experiences in other subjects give you insight and material for the creative process. I don't think any major or subject exists in a vacuum. They all support each other. That is why I feel it is so important for students in more traditional academic pursuits to take some art related classes. It encourages a different way of thinking and self expression.

I'm all for inter-disciplinary. I'm just against the "over-credentialization" and "academization" trend where we ask every student that study every subject under the sun to use an academic approach. A long time ago universities were mainly for law, classics, religion, etc. Now we let univs teach every thing under the sun but leave little room for the less academic types to excel in a profession without doing college first. I have seen nurses and teachers (not in the US) who were forced to go back to get their bachelors despite being exhausted to death and having a family to look after. Many of them have had years of experience, know their job inside out but were told you're nobody unless you have that piece of paper. So they write papers that are good enough to pass so they can get their diplomas. Their papers provide little insight and often not very readable. (I've read a lot of them for my freelance work; that's how I know.)

I love diversity in professions--not just cultural diversity but educational diversity. Ideally most professions will have some people who have uni education, some with less education but have tons of expeience, and some with experience from abroad that can offer new ideas and different approaches to doing things. Right now, fine arts is one of the few areas where people without a degree have a shot. I only wish we could have different ways to accommodate different types of learners who aren't academically oriented.

[vesperholly]

I am guessing that your course schedule was far more rigid than mine. As I said, there were no computers when I was in school. So, I did not have the computer courses to take that you probably had. I had to take certain studio courses in order, but I didn't have to parallel that with the computer.

We weren't allowed to use computers until junior year. Before that, we were given sheets of paper with different sizes of the lettering that we were assigned to use. I spent a lot of late nights at the campus Kinkos.

For example, my intro to typography class had a project that we were to design posters for a art show called "3 Women's Works", and each poster had a specific typographical focus - left align, center align, text focus, image focus, etc. I think there were 5 or 6 separate ones. There were headlines, a few images, and dummy text blocks. Every letter, rule and box had to be cut out and pasted up with Studio Tac.

I still find it fascinating and totally fun. I'd love to go back and take the classes over again, now that I have worked for about 8 years in the field. If I were physically located near my school, I'd get my masters. I learned so much.

[cruisin]

For example, my intro to typography class had a project that we were to design posters for a art show called "3 Women's Works", and each poster had a specific typographical focus - left align, center align, text focus, image focus, etc. I think there were 5 or 6 separate ones. There were headlines, a few images, and dummy text blocks. Every letter, rule and box had to be cut out and pasted up with Studio Tac.

No Letraset? It probably doesn't exist anymore. We didn't have Studio Tac, we used double side rubber cement and Sprayment. Can't believe we used so much spray adhesive and didn't even think about it. Pretty much set all type with Letraset, then photostatted them up or down. Using a proportion wheel, we figured out how set the original, to run it around what we ultimately put in position. That was how we did lay-outs in the industry. Then we sent the lay-outs to a type setter for photo typography. We got galleys back and created the mechanicals.

[PRlady]

I'm not a graphic designer but I've been hiring them for 25 years. Not being very visual myself, I'm highly dependent on the people I hire, for annual reports, brochures and other branded products. And logo design, my personal nightmare in an NGO setting where everyone has an opinion, and sometimes two or three.

The best designers I've worked with had the brains and background to understand, not just what looks good, but what works to communicate a particular brand and message. Meaning you can't work with my current group without realizing that our stuff has to resonate in the Jewish community, can convert to Hebrew (which goes right to left!) and communicate a serious-but-hopeful message. We hired our current designers not just based on their design skills and portfolio but because they could work with a multicultural and very opinionated, consensus-building organization to get the branding done, and they succeeded.

So a graphics designer with a course or two in organizational management and communications wouldn't be a bad idea.

[cruisin]

So a graphics designer with a course or two in organizational management and communications wouldn't be a bad idea.

And, as I did, some psychology and sociology. As you know, it is important not just to identify your market, but to understand it. PRlady, I give you a lot of credit. When I worked in advertising, creative was not "expected" to have marketing input. Foolish, we needed to make people want something, yet were not supposed to challenge the account management people. Always a battle, and we were usually right (according to focus groups). Such a waste of time.

[vesperholly]

No Letraset? It probably doesn't exist anymore. We didn't have Studio Tac, we used double side rubber cement and Sprayment. Can't believe we used so much spray adhesive and didn't even think about it. Pretty much set all type with Letraset, then photostatted them up or down. Using a proportion wheel, we figured out how set the original, to run it around what we ultimately put in position. That was how we did lay-outs in the industry. Then we sent the lay-outs to a type setter for photo typography. We got galleys back and created the mechanicals.

I used Letraset but only for projects in my later classes, when we had to assemble things. I did stink up my dorm hallway with spray adhesive when I was mounting projects.

[cruisin]

I used Letraset but only for projects in my later classes, when we had to assemble things. I did stink up my dorm hallway with spray adhesive when I was mounting projects.

Did you ever have to work with color-aid?

[Tinami Amori]

On a different note: The Rise of the 'EduPunk.'

While the concept of a self-educated citizenry circumventing the traditional system of higher education may have sounded far-fetched a decade ago, the fact that the likes of Spilde gave it more than lip service marks something of a shift.

I think it can work very well if one has the discipline and dedication to do the work.

It works for me to sit in California and go to the office each morning in Asia, Russia and Europe in the same day during each respective work time…..
If one learns on line and then passes a standard test, why not.

Few elements of learning will be missing from such form “attendance”.
- Learning to cooperate in a group setting/team work.
- Personal interaction with teachers, ability to ask questions and have “logic of solution” presented to you by a specialist (unless you can do the same on Skype-school).
- Live discussions with class mates, hearing others’ questions, opinions, solutions.
- Practicing discipline/deadlines/time-constraints: being in class on time, turning in homework on time, solving a problem in an assigned time…

It’s easy for older people, who live and swear by education, hold in high regard the importance and need to learn and study and expand the knowledge base, to say “this will work”. Because it would work for such adults, (most of us on FSU), because we have our formal education, we value it, we had our “boot camp” of discipline, and class-room interactions, and communications with professors, and all that college live entails…

But will it work with the same efficiency for someone young and inexperienced? Someone who has no history of university discipline and has not yet experienced the benefit and actual need for learning?

Will he/she get up at 8 am each day and got into the on-line classroom and stay there for whole 50 minutes fully concentrating on the subject, 3-4-5 sessions in a row?

Maybe….

[cruisin]

Enjoy:
http://www.sapdesignguild.org/resour...phenomena.html

http://www.bu.edu/lite/lite1/color/vonbezold/index.html

More fun: http://www.sapdesignguild.org/resources/glossary_color/

vesperholly, look familliar? http://web.missouri.edu/~hoarda/colo...ld_effect.html
http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/b...=9780300115956

[sailornyanko]

I really think that high schools and colleges should do career counseling with students when they're high school seniors and college freshmen. Have students take tests and self assessments so that they can get an idea of what track to take in college (and beyond) instead of wasting time trying to figure it all out along the way.

Very good point. My HS forced everyone to take a vocational exam (which cost 50 bucks, ouch) in the 11th grade so that in your senior year you could be assigned in a classroom focusing on specific subjects more akin to your abilities.

In Mexico the 12th grade is separated into 4 different classrooms called areas. Area 1 and 2 have almost the exact same subjects which are hard sciences but Area 1 has architecture and Area 2 has Biology. Area 3 is a sort of blend of a bit of everything from Accounting, Business Administration to Economics and Area 4 is for humanities.

When I did the exam my aptitudes went for Mechanical Physics. I always wanted to study a hard science major as a kid, but my grades in math and physics were always "barely passing". My school wanted to force me into going to Area 1 but I convinced them I wanted to go to Area 2 to take more Biology courses and got away with it. I ended up in the end studying a major totally related to the Area 2 field after all!

If your HS doesn't offer a good vocational exam, I think there's decent online exams that give you a good idea what your aptitudes are.

[jlai]

Does everyone need a college degree? Maybe not, says Harvard study.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Educati...-Harvard-study

Gee, I could have told them that!

[Prancer]

I must say, this is a way of saving tuition money that has never crossed my mind: Students Marry Strangers for Lower Tuition

[GarrAarghHrumph]

I must say, this is a way of saving tuition money that has never crossed my mind: Students Marry Strangers for Lower Tuition

I have had some students ask me if getting married would help them re: financial aid. But I haven't known of one to marry a stranger... yet.