How not to get a job - update

As you should know if you have followed my blog for a while, I always try to give a measured view when I comment on things. You may recall I recently blogged about the case of the college grad suing her college for her tuition fees back because she couldn't get a job. In the interest of giving both sides of the story, I thought I would direct you to this article defending the student in question.

I actually suspected that an article similar to this one showing that a degree from Monroe College isn't worth the money its printed on (paraphrasing heavily here!) would come out sooner or later. Not because I'm familiar with Monroe College but because I know that no matter what happens, you can guarantee that someone will come up with an opposite viewpoint (and wouldn't the World be boring if everyone agreed with everyone else?). It was for this reason that I specifically added the disclaimer that I didn't know how Monroe College markets itself or what it had agreed with the student.

Given that I was expecting this article, it probably won't surprise you to learn that I stand by the statements I made in my previous blog post. I deliberately worded my comments in the last post so that they would stand regardless of how poor Monroe College actually is (or not - to be fair, I have no idea about the quality of Monroe College).

Anyway, the point of this post isn't to brag about my superior intellect but to give you both sides of the story and to respond to one of the points raised in the article.

The very point of an institution like Monroe is to improve its students' standing in the work force, but the irony is that in comparison with traditional institutions, Monroe seems to do quite badly at helping graduates make a living
How is this relevant? In any ranking of education institutions, you will always have those which aren't doing as good a job as others. The point isn't whether Monroe College is doing a good job (or even if the course there is worth the money) – the point is whether you can get a degree there or not and if yes, whether having a degree will improve your chances of getting a job.

As I mentioned before, all a degree does is give you a chance that you wouldn't have without the degree. Just in case its not clear, I should also add that this statement is just in relation to your chances of getting a job. I know that the process of going to college to get a degree is about much more than just getting a job.

The article makes a big thing about Monroe College being more like a “vocational school” rather than a full blown college. It paints this as a rip-off as, by billing itself as a college, it can charge students higher fees over a period of 4 years as opposed to having shorter courses like other vocational schools. In fact, it seems that Monroe College actually charges higher fees relative to even other colleges.

Again, I don't see how this is relevant. Granted, I agree that Monroe College sounds like a rip-off but so what? I'm assuming the student knew about the fees in advance. From my point of view, it looks like she paid her money, did her work and got her degree. The degree gives her a chance to get jobs which she wouldn't have a chance otherwise – which is apparently what she wanted in the first place. Where is the problem (other than that she doesn't have a job yet!)?


Well, it appears the problem (according to the last paragraph on page 2) is how Monroe College advertises itself. Again, I should stress that I haven't actually seen any ads for Monroe College. However, just from common sense, I can guess that they talk about how good Monroe College is and why you should go there. After all, I don't see them paying money to advertise how bad a college they are. Regardless, unless Monroe College lied in their ads, I really don’t see how this student has a leg to stand on.