Paul Kedrosky
UCLA has received 169,800 applications for fall of 2023 admission. That simply boggles my mind. And, of course, given the perversity of higher education as luxury good these days, the more selective it becomes, the more selective it will become, as people are drive to apply to school that gives them a cache of exclusivity.
Apr 1, 2023 at 2:12pmWeb
Show threadClinical RawlsianApr 1, 2023

@paul The University of Toronto, which Malcolm Gladwell has described as the "crown jewel" of Canadian higher education, has an enrollment of nearly 70,000 students (in a country with a population of 38,000,000 versus 332,000,000 for the US).

It's amazing how different higher ed looks when high quality colleges are viewed as a public good to be shared with as much of the population as possible rather than a luxury good to be hoarded by a lucky and/or priveleged few.

Show threadWilliam GunnApr 1, 2023
@paul At that volume, there's got to be multiple layers of filtering before any human eye sees an application, implying an industry of people who know how the filters work & sell that knowledge to parents, most of whom don't even know to look for these services or think they're scams (and probably a bunch are).
Show threadPaul KedroskyApr 1, 2023
@williamgunn That is exactly right, hence, as you say, the huge industry in crafting applications that can transit those algorithmic filters.
Show threadWilliam GunnApr 1, 2023
@paul So how would someone, with no insider knowledge, sort the actual scams from the relatively more legit sellers of this knowledge?
Show threadPaul KedroskyApr 1, 2023
@williamgunn I don't know, honestly, despite have two kids in UC schools. That I have no idea how that happened is ... weirdly stressful.
Show threadWilliam GunnApr 1, 2023
@paul It's perhaps more stressful that I have about 4 years to try to figure it out & smart people like you didn't figure it out. 😬
Show threadGerard MacDonellApr 1, 2023
@paul It is tempting to blame the education industry, because it can at least be identified and maybe acted on. But I think this is due mostly to the culture. I put one kid through college. I told her just to skip the whole BS. Next up my 11 y/o. Training a 17 y/o to seek status and the affirmation of conventional morality is probably one of the cruelest burdens a parent could impose.
Show threadPaul KedroskyApr 1, 2023
@GerardMacDonell Well put, and exactly right.
Show threadGerard MacDonellApr 11, 2023
@paul I have been in social media long enough to know what "exactly right" means. You already had the thought! LOL. And top of the evening to ya!