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oundaries we work so hard to enforce in high school.
In the post-industrial age of connection, though, the slotting and the scarcity are far less
important. We care a great deal about what you’ve done, less about the one-word alumnus label
you bought. Because we can see whom you know and what they think of you, because we can
see how you’ve used the leverage the Internet has given you, because we can see if you actually
are able to lead and actually are able to solve interesting problems—because of all these things,
college means something new now.
95. The coming meltdown in higher education (as seen by a
marketer)
For four hundred years, higher education in the U.S. has been on a roll. From Harvard asking
Galileo to be a guest professor in the 1600s to millions tuning in to watch a team of unpaid
athletes play another team of unpaid athletes in some college sporting event, the amount of
time and money and prestige in the college world has been climbing.
I’m afraid that’s about to crash and burn. Here’s how I’m looking at it.
1. Most colleges are organized to give an average education to average students.
Pick up any college brochure or catalog. Delete the brand names and the map. Can you tell
which school it is? While there are outliers (like St. Johns, Deep Springs), most schools aren’t
really outliers. They are mass marketers.
Stop for a second and consider the impact of that choice. By emphasizing mass and sameness
and rankings, colleges have changed their mission.
This works great in an industrial economy where we can’t churn out standardized students fast
enough and where the demand is huge because the premium earned by a college grad dwarfs
the cost. But...
Stop Stealing Dreams Free Printable Edition 66