COLLEGE AS IT USED TO BE

----"Going to college" in the olde days was a rare and special thing. It was for the very few. The oldest sons and sometimes daughters of rich men were sent to college until it was time for them to return and help run their fathers companies. The younger kids got degrees in other well paying professions. Children of parents who werent rich yet still monied enough to own a store or smaller business could go to a local college. But most people were working-class or poor and their kids didnt go to college even if the working-class parents made middle-class level wages........ .......... ........ VERY studious kids whose parents didnt have an above average amount of money could hope for a scholarship. But they were very, very rare. THERE WERE NO COLLEGE LOANS IN THOSE DAYS. Obviously, it was a good and lucky thing to have been born into a middle-class family in those days but such families could not have put their kid through college without the costs driving them down to below middle class. They copuldnt stay middle-class while ALSO putting someone through college. In my case I was always in the number one class in grades that contained fourteen classes. But being in the #1 class of 14 wasnt enough to be sure of going to college. And that was less than a 1/14th chance as the higher classes had fewer students. I worried for 12 years whether I'd be able to get in even though I was always in the top class each year............ .......... .......... The reason for this was that colleges LOST MONEY for each student they accepted. We were constantly being informed that the Tuition they charged covered only HALF of what each student cost them. So each college LOST an amount equal to what each student paid to get through those four years. And the ones who flunked out or dropped out were total lost causes money-wise that a successful alumni would have to make up. So colleges accepted ONLY those whom who could be reasonably expected to become successful enough to give back MORE than their tuition after graduation. But even then about HALF of students never made it through. That means the collges had to hope that that each alumnus would give back an amount equal to what he paid to get through PLUS the same amount again for the guy who left before graduation...... That was what college was like from the earliest times until sometime in the 1970s........ And we sure heard all of this over and over all those years from first grade to 12th grade to scare us into doing well at all times and to put studiousness above childhood fun......... ........ .......... And as THEY were doing US the favor by accepting the few of us we had to obey whatever rules they chose to place over us. And they also had "LOCO PARENTIS" laws on their side that said they served as our parents until we turned 21....... .......... So they could DEMAND 7:30 am classes for all, Saturday morning classes for all, curfews to be back in the dorms, many more in-class hours for each course credit, much more required reading in each course, no grade inflation, and easy suspension or expulsion and thus be tossed to the draft board. WE HAD TO GO HAT IN HAND TO THEM WHEN THEY PAID HALF OF EVERYONES WAY AUTOMATICALLY (Unlike now when they sit up and beg for the loans the government gives the students)............. ............ ___________ ___________ ___________ BUT things tend to balance out and it had its upside as well. Supply and Demand worked for "going to college" as well. College was much more special then as few people could go. It was designed for the more upper class who wouldnt put up with middle class (Much less working class) standards..... UNDER CONSTRUCTION 9-2-99