By David G. Firestone
By the time you read this, I will be on a badly needed vacation. This will be a rehash of a script that I wrote for Driver Suit Blog Radio. Enjoy!
Last year, I went down an odd rabbit hole. One of my coworkers took her family to Seattle for spring break. She was talking about her vacation in the break room, as you do, and she mentioned how nice The Evergreen State College campus was. I thought that the name Evergreen State College sounded really familiar, even though there was no logical reason I should have. So, after work, I went home and looked up Evergreen State College, and it came to me.
In 2017, there was a series of protests there, which were handled badly by all involved, and that’s all I’m going to say about it. But looking deeper into this college, I had to start laughing. According to Wikipedia:
“Founded in 1967, it offers a non-traditional undergraduate curriculum in which students have the option to design their own study towards a degree or follow a pre-determined path of study. Full-time students can enroll in interdisciplinary academic programs, in addition to stand-alone classes. Programs typically offer students the opportunity to study several disciplines in a coordinated manner. Faculty write substantive narrative evaluations of students’ work in place of issuing grades.
“Evergreen was one of many alternative colleges and programs launched in the 1960s and 1970s, often described as experiments. While the vast majority of these have either closed or adopted more mainstream approaches, Evergreen is pursuing its mission, although enrollment is declining.”
There is a reason these “alternative colleges” failed. They tried to change the system, but the system always wins when it comes to education. The people who want to change the system can’t work within the system, so they think that the world needs to change, instead of themselves. Well, the world sees right through it, and colleges like this are seen as a joke.
If you need proof this “college” has no real credibility as an institution, here it is. Evergreen State College is NOT open enrollment, yet they have a 99% acceptance rate. 99% is seen as the consensus, since some sources state 99.5%. If this was an open enrollment community college, this wouldn’t be too shocking, but this is supposedly a post-high school college. For all of the students who enroll, 99% of them get accepted.
Now let me explain why this removes any credibility this school may have. There is an argument that every student should be given the chance to go to college. My version is that the students who could make the most of an opportunity should be given one. The D- student who spends more time in detention or deans office than class shouldn’t be given that chance. This school is for liberals who have no other option, working or military service included. There are no real standards for admission.
Also, the “design their own study towards a degree” thing isn’t a great move. You basically are giving the students the very false impression that they can dictate their own ways to success. Also, the fact that “faculty write substantive narrative evaluations of students’ work in place of issuing grades” thing takes even more credibility away, since the A-F grade standard has been a thing in the US for over a century, and is the accepted standard. It’s basically a college for students who can’t handle working within accepted standards, and this isn’t an impressive look for potential employers.
But in thinking about this, I had an epiphany. This school accepts 99% of all students who enroll. How bad of a screw up do you have to be to get rejected? How bad of a student, or a person are you where you are in the 1% of students who have applications rejected? This school ignores all standards, yet 1% of applications are in the reject basket.
To put this in perspective, Harvard University, which has real standards, accepts 5% of all applications. This means it’s five times easier to get accepted to Harvard than it is to get rejected by The Evergreen State College. Just take a few seconds and let that register…I’ll wait.
The school and those who attend can’t understand why this college is slowly fading, yet the fact that nobody could possibly take this school seriously, given the complete lack of standards or real direction this school has, should be obvious! Seriously, even some of the most liberal, against the grain small liberal arts college still use the A-F system, yet this regional college thinks they have a better system than the accepted standard.
Again, this school is for students who don’t have any other options, since anyone who can go to a better school does so. If you are enrolled, it’s a good school, if not, it’s a joke. Working in the system gets you credibility. Redesigning the wheel will get you nowhere, and nobody will respect you. The system isn’t going to change to please a regional college in Washington State, so they need to adapt, since the rest of the world won’t.
Next Week I will feature a lottery ticket video.
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