Oh dear. Is there no hope?

[Maledicte]

I'm a college student, and this saddens me: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060119/ap_on_go_ot/literacy_college_students

And I thought college would make me smart.

[Slater]

I had a hard time reading the first sentence.

And I'm a colege studnt.

>:(

[Technomancer]

You shouldn't need a college education to any of those things, nor would you generally expect to learn them in college/university anyways. Parents and schools are failing to teach kids basic life skills that ensure at least a certain degree of self-sufficiency.

[Wise Dragon]

I had a hard time reading the first sentence.

And I'm a colege studnt.

Glad im not the only one. Man that kinda sucks; but at the same time it really is true.

[termyt]

It seemed sad until I thought a little more about it.

Colleges have never taught those skills - those are all skills expected of you when you enter college - except the reading of credit card offers. It almost takes a lawyer to that anymore.

If you don't have those skills going into college, it is doubtful you will learn them there.

While on the surface that news is depressing, there is a good side to it. College is now available to a much larger section of the populous. It used to be that only children of elite families could afford to go and survive the curriculum once they got there. Now people who are less likely to want to do the things outlined in the article have access to learning that they would not have in days of yore.

[Aka-chan]

Interesting...and a little sad. XD

[uc pseudonym]

I was generally nodding, having seen this often at my own college, until I reached the following clause:

understand the arguments of newspaper editorials

How is that even possible? If most newspaper editorials are anything like those I at times read, they really have very little that might challenge a person. Unless of course, there are newspapers with complex and eloquent editorials, in which case I would like to be shown them.

Though, in terms of college making you smarter:

Overall, the average literacy of college students is significantly higher than that of adults across the nation. Study leaders said that was encouraging but not surprising, given that the spectrum of adults includes those with much less education.
Also, compared with all adults with similar levels of education, college students had superior skills in searching and using information from texts and documents.

[Puritan]

I guess much of it depends on what college you go to and what you major in. The classes I have had to take cover all the skills you need to do those things, except understand the newspaper editorials. I agree with UC pseudonym, I find very few editorials with challenging material and arguments in a literary sense, so I would be surprised if many people who pass high-school english and keep up on current events have trouble with editorials.

However, I think this article makes an interesting point: college students are generally smarter than average, but college isn't everything. I have known highly intelligent people in college who have no common sense and would be lost if asked to do many common tasks, and have known other people who forego college and go straight to work, and if they work at it they can be very efficient at common things like these. College doesn't excel at teaching common sense, it excels at teaching specialty knowledge useful for a specific career. The rest of life is pretty much up to you.

[Ingemar]

This reminds me of a quote from a show that will remain unnamed:

"What are you doing?"
"I'm reading. I picked it up at kindergarten and it has stuck with me ever since."

IMNSHO, autodidacts have a better chance in the thinking man's world than your typical college "student." Sadly, their kind is almost nonexistent.

[Taka]

Um, am I the only one who is somewhat insulted by this? I'm not even in college yet, and I can do all these things. I always compair unit prices while shopping, I may not balance a check book, but I know how to... and all the rest of it. Geez, America must be in awful shape if thoes things are complex!!!

[chibiphonebooth]

WIERDDDD!!! i was just hearing this on the news, and then i clicked the link and its the SAME ARTICLE. WIERDDDD.

[Maledicte]

Um, am I the only one who is somewhat insulted by this? I'm not even in college yet, and I can do all these things. I always compair unit prices while shopping, I may not balance a check book, but I know how to... and all the rest of it. Geez, America must be in awful shape if thoes things are complex!!!

I know how you feel. I do that while shopping too, comparing prices and such, I didn't even realize I was until the article said so. Boggles the mind, it does, that some people just...don't.

I don't have a credit card, nor do I want one...>.>

[EireWolf]

Technomancer and Termyt are right -- college does not teach you basic life skills. Your parents should do that. If they don't, ask them to.

Mom, how do you...

• do laundry?
• write a check?
• balance the checkbook?
• use a credit card?
• cook a meal?
• understand a contract?
• buy groceries on a budget?
• by *anything* on a budget?
• rent an apartment?

These are things you will probably not learn in most colleges. These are things you will need to know when you are booted from the nest, or when the nice soft bubble of college life bursts upon graduation.

[mechana2015]

1827 students? That seems to be a dramatically small sample for a seemingly important/potentially informative poll. More people live in the dormatorys at the school I attend and our school enrollment is around 20,000! I don't see how that small a sample could come close to representing all of the college students across the nation.