it amazes me how many people turn conservative on this subject. we're talking about kids trying to improve themselves
This is key to me - if these kids are going to school for 10 years part time and then graduating, that's great to me and I would take back my criticism of TSU. I just don't have any numbers that suggest that. My concern is if the vast majority of them are dropping out. I think the first step is to figure out what's happening. If these kids are dropping out as opposed to graduating over a long period, then we need to figure out why. If its a problem inherent to TSU, then TSU needs to be reformed to better educate it's students. If it's a problem inherent to the students, I think they would be better served going to an educational institution that's more at their level. I know it sounds harsh, but it doesn't benefit anyone to put students in an environment where most of them can't succeed. There's no reason that community college or trade school or maybe just a different college that has a better track record at graduating students should be looked down as "lesser" options. The end result for the majority of those kids would likely be better. In either case, if these students are coming to college underprepared, I do think a lot more focus needs to be made to provide better education at the K-12 levels. Sorry - I was using that article above that lists a few dozen southern HBCU's and has TSU as the 3rd worst (behind a DC school and one other) at graduation rates. There's a big gap from 3rd to 4th worst (15% to 22%), which is Alabama State, followed by Savannah State and Coppin State. If there are open-admissions, that's even more of a problem to me. I understand the theoretical idea of encouraging everyone to go to college. But if people haven't been properly prepared for college, that's just not a good route for them. Maybe the solution is to have one year of community college and then transfer into TSU. But to me, having a TSU where most of its students fail is the same bad policy that has an inner city school that spits outs students unprepared for college. It's sort of like a half-ass solution that's the worst of all worlds. You either need to fund it better to get the kids the resources to succeed, or you need to get rid of it and get the kids into a school that gives them the extra resources they need.
When I was in high school, I saw these "top 10%" kids CHEATING on a test. The teacher was not around because she trusted them. I was mad because I took it the honest way. Yeah I think the top 10% is stupid too. The kid could be dumb and still get in because the SAT requirement is pretty low. This could be a trap for kids to only work on maintaining a high GPA instead of actually being active in the high school experience and evolve intellectually. So when they do get into schools like UT, the material could be too hard for them to handle. Take for example a kid who only took regular classes and a kid who took AP classes. University of Houston is working hard to be a tier 1 school.
My advice to high schoolers here: Take what you can handle. You know if you are qualified for something or not. Okay, so UT and Texas A&M are well known schools, so what? Does this mean you can concentrate on your studies once you are there or you'll be partying hard because you're finally living away from your parents? When I have a kid, he's not going anywhere until he gets a degree and moves out as a professional, not some kid who thinks he's grown up.
Except from personal experience where majority of the out of state school's student aid offices that was willing to let me enroll worked with me to get the money to be similar/more manageable. To clarify, I will concede that it's not going to be all free money, some of it does come in form of student loans with really good terms (almost all will be deferred till graduation). But I have also met others that go out of state that money is not a major issue. UT was still cheaper by far, but I don't think I'd be in a significantly worse of a hole financially out of school had I gone somewhere else.
