advertising in education
...lows them to get what they need and a little in excess, too. College students want and get what they pay for, even if that includes new dorms, renovated or new student unions, and new athletic facilities. Instead of focusing on their academic accreditations, colleges tend to zero in on the social aspects that come along with the university. The Ivy League schools seem to be the only ones that zero in on education and not sports and social life. Edmundson thinks that students chose a university because it is attractive, not because of the education; therefore they don’t come prepared to learn. Location of universities depends largely on what the surroundings have to offer: successful sports teams, new facilities, local entertainment, and shopping. No university is going to be located in the boondocks because that would severely damage their appearance and reputation. If this were true then not many people would want to attend there. University “marketing departments” are very wise as to how they attract the student. If this is the way universities are attracting more students then by all means they should keep up the good work. The students that universities tend to target are those who are smart and rich. Edmundson writes that he doesn’t ever remember teaching students “from truly poor backgrounds”(41). To attract these types of students universities try and outdo each other. Just as the universities have to compete with each other so do the departments within the school. Since technology demands are taking over the job market humanities are not getting as many students as they used to. More students are taking business, economic, and technology classes rather than humanity classes. Edmundson writes that the university is there “with a tendency to serve—and not challenge—the students”(44). To draw in more students humanities have relaxed requirements. However, business administration and computer science departments can be more selective because the number of students exceeds the demand. Edmundson also makes a good point with the fact that computers are becoming more a part of the everyday class. For instance, math and chemistry classes at UGA are using computers for test taking. That is only one proof of evidence that classes are becoming very impersonal. Other evidence lies in the fact that the classes are beginning to exceed two and three hundred students; most of these classes split up into smaller lecture groups led by the teaching assistants. This is far fetch from the way that classes used to be taught by using the Socratic method. When using this method there was frequent interaction between the professor and student. Thus the Socratic method is prohibited because of the largeness of the classes. Oftentimes today’s college students take it for granted that their parents “owe” them a college education. Thousands of UGA students who are Georgia residents take their HOPE scholarships for granted, as do t...