Makes me wonder why nobody is addressing the elephant in the room: why are there "spots" in the first place?

People who want to achieve higher education, and have proven that they'd have a good shot at succeeding (e.g. through high-school grades or entry exams), should have access to it.
As long as you have "spots" that need to distributed, there will always be discrimination.

If there are too many people for the universities to handle, then your government seriously needs to invest into education more.

Higher education is basically all on the backs of the individuals at this point in the United States. Even going to a state school you're going to end up over 20k in debt for just the tuition. It's a ridiculously inefficient system and when you try to tell people that every other country finds the money and it will cost a fraction of what the overall return to the economy will be they just scream "BUT WHO PAYS FOR IT!?!?!?!??!?!"

This post was edited by Thor123422 on Jul 22 2020 01:21am

American universities are really different from the ones in the NL or GER. You have the Ivy league universities and a handful of other prestigious institutions, if you make it to one of those and have chosen a somewhat useful major, then you're all but guaranteed a lucrative career and a good life. The big rest of their colleges has a pathetic academic level though, their undergrad courses are often times on a level similar to our A-levels. Graduating from one of those run-of-the-mill colleges doesnt mean a ton, neither in terms of the education that you acquired, nor in terms of career prospects.

So there is a much higher spread between the good and the mediocre universities in the US, and the spots on the elite institutions are naturally limited.

And is this because the USA wants education to be a profitable industry, or because they think that this type of disparity in quality of education is good for society?

I think it's a disparity that has grown naturally over time, and once it was established, those who benefit from it held most of the power and have no interest in changing things.

That's how I see it as well. That does mean that it remains the elephant in the room though, and that this is what needs to be fixed. Any debate about discrimination and slots would be unnecessary if the education system was not built towards exclusivity in the first place.

It's a business model to Rake in money. Universities are just churning dividends for financial institutions no one really cares about education.

This post was edited by addone on Jul 22 2020 04:39am

In my opinion this really depends on the college/university you choose. I could have gone to my state university for free, and the education would have been useful for what I was using it for (to get a foot in the door for a job).

I went to a private university instead and I found the education incredibly valuable. I have friends who practiced bad course selection and/or dropped out in mountains of debt, so it really comes down to the individual.

You don't need to go to an Ivy in order to get a good education, but you can't go to a degree factory either.

most universities are money laundering systems for the state the occupy.

Credentials help a lot. Lots of expensive letters after your name. Get the interview.

This post was edited by Skinned on Jul 22 2020 08:55am