Campus Culture and iStanford
I gave an interview for New York Magazine this week that received a lot of attention.
Colleges and universities are scrambling to figure out what to do next year if students can’t come back to campus. Half the schools have pushed back their May 1 deadlines for accepting seats. What do you expect to happen over the next month?
There’s a recognition that education — the value, the price, the product — has fundamentally shifted. The value of education has been substantially degraded. There’s the education certification and then there’s the experience part of college. The experience part of it is down to zero, and the education part has been dramatically reduced. You get a degree that, over time, will be reduced in value as we realize it’s not the same to be a graduate of a liberal-arts college if you never went to campus. You can see already how students and their parents are responding.
P.S. The second episode of my Vice TV show continues this topic. Also, we’re doing a new two-week intensive Strategy Sprint, where you can get MBA insights without the MBA price tag. Starts June 16, and seats go fast.
Thoughts on building fully VR school on Epic Games Unreal engine (like a university in fortnite)
Why not just online classes with VR as a practical part only?
Luxury cosmetics, especially fragrances are reaching such a gross margin too, Prof.
I’m a retired 78 yr old former trial attorney who also started and ran a retail/whole sale internet Corp for over 16 years. I watch and enjoy listening to mr Galloway on Ms Rhule’s show. I still like to think and grow.
It’s people like who inspire inexperienced youth like me to keep moving forward
Agree with your thoughts and perspectives for the future of education. This ‘model’ has already been proven with some b-schools in their experienced MBA programs. Here in Chicago, both Booth and Kellogg have thriving programs that are not the full-time on-campus experience. For most the degree comparison is close (I’d say 60-75%) but still a much lower cost alternative with enhanced degree perception vs a fully-time program from a ‘lessor’ school.
You’re flirting with being Jim Cramer – don’t go there! You can create drama without SCREAMING! Screaming is to presentations as toilet jokes are to standup comedy. – Mandatory public service is a great idea and it should be a place where they live because neither kids or parents want to be together in that year. – Education in the trades should be supported and presented as a viable optoin. But “trades” should be defined far beyond the building trades and include the service industry “trades”. – A “trades” education still needs to provide the basic “liberal arts” understanding of the foundations of American society, and a decent personal finance education.
excellent article and perspective on Change.
We have a rising junior at Kelley Business School at IU. I still believe in the campus experience for maturation and socialization. When I checked with the school first, they will allow a gap year even at this point in the curriculum as I do not see how campus life can return to any semblance of normalcy by August nor the semester abroad program being operational for next spring. I love the “Corona Corps” idea – how do we get this started – I would love to help!!! LAP
2 thoughts: 1st. The admissions process is something that is really underrated. When I talk with my parents, both retired, and in their sixties, they can’t seem to wrap their minds around how hard it is to get into A, or even a B tier college. 2nd. For the more business type, I could see a udemy course, or a youtube training session to make classes more ‘MTV’ esque as you put it. Exciting things leading up to water breaks. Bolstering graphics, and exciting imagery. A well-thought-out, well-marketed class could sell well.
I would rather have a trade than any liberal arts degree from the most prestigious university. I have worked at the electrical trade for over 50 years and never lost a day’s work. Practical knowledge will always win out over strategies and admission goals. When your power is out and your toilet is overflowing you don’t care about admissions and waiting lists. If your kid isn’t going into science, engineering, or accounting/economics, you are wasting your money on “premier colleges”. Send your darling to a community college and let them study for a more practical coding, criminal justice or physical therapy certification.
RE: Vice. Interesting that Heather McDonald totally schooled you on kids that don’t belong in college. So much so that you had to shut her down with a fast cut and switch. A year of “corona corps” is not going to make a kid yearn for a life of talking rather than doing. She started to make that point. You should have let her talk.
And how about this: make student choose on line classes form different top Univeritas like MIT + Berkley + Stanford + Illinois + HEC Paris + you name it… for college degree. Only do labs physical. Put fraction of the price and get students to choose the best of the best classes. Or is it just not what you know, but who you know?
I agree 95% with this article. My question is how does Professor G’s new venture fit in with this? There are three pillars of a college 1) Actual Learning 2) Social Interactions 3) Alumni 1) Cloudera, EdX, etc. have commoditized this. 2) This is where the admissions vetting comes into place. However if I understand correctly a yokel like me join. My wife went to MIT and you can see it with her former labmates. 3) Alumni, I paid 20% of my MBA with my former employer paying 80%. My first job after my MBA, my boss’s boss happened to go to my college and gave me the benefit of the doubt. Not sure if there were be Prof G proteges or alumni that would want to connect with any yokel with some $$. If Prof G started a VC lite, I’d put in 100K in that fund. He could present the same material and any would be entrepreneur would be an idiot not to pay 20K to go through it, especially when he could invest in them.
I think this absolutely the direction higher education is going. With a high school senior “graduating” this year, she will be going to community college as paying full tuition for her to take classes from her bedroom makes zero sense. However, the idea of tech giants further entrenching themselves in our daily lives makes breakup near impossible. The flip side – best rundle ever.
How is it possible to be enthralled with the writing and substance of an author and his work but fully repulsed by him when he espouses the same views in via video? That is the entirely unique experience of Scott Galloway to me and it is driving me nuts. I need to resolve this dissonance.
What about Podcast? I’m a Pivot junkie so that’s how I see the man, myth, and legend
I have to say this gently, because I agree with the “no malice” part of Scott’s product description. I think Scott is taking advantage of the surprise value of unexpected ideas. His presentation is a cousin of the “Shock Jock” style in radio. That kind of dramatic material can be exciting. One feels as if something important has occurred. Sacred cows have been sacrificed on an altar of truth. Fun to read. But then the video form allowed you to see the person behind the disruptive writing. You might not find the shock method so impressive in that form because you can see that he is putting on a show. I do not agree with the “no mercy” part of Scott’s pitch. As Brian Wilson says, love and mercy is what we need tonight. Each of us is only here for a short time. I might be wrong about all the above, so please have mercy on me, and on others who make mistakes. Everyone needs that. Especially yourself.
A lot makes sense — the main value being certification and experience. Isn’t there a third part to the value propositicion — R&D, which may not be equal in size of value but what many of our universities are known for worldwide?
don novella as Lazlo toth had in one of his books a college degree program. For 5000$ he would teach you in 5 minutes everything you would remember 5 years after you got out of college…. if my memory is right
The Lazlo Letters! Yes! A brilliant and spot on reply to all this worship of higher education.
Great point about schools being great at marketing themselves as something prestigious and really all you are paying for is the certification and the bragging rights. I went to one of those famous schools, and honestly thought it was a total waste of time. I learned most of my engineering skills reading on my own and googling online. So why not make education online and give more people an opportunity to learn?