Ben Yount on the Jay Weber Show transcript 7-26-24 7:10am
You don’t have to go to college. Even if you get in. Especially if you didn’t really apply.
The UW is scamming kids in an attempt to get more tuition money.
From the Journal Sentinel:
Incoming high school seniors, check your inboxes: You may have just gotten into college without even applying.
Ten of the state's public universities will send acceptance letters starting next week through a new "direct admissions" program. Eligible students at participating schools will be automatically admitted to universities based on their grades and coursework at the end of their junior year, essentially bypassing the traditional application process.
The intent of the program is to reach students who haven't considered college or never would have applied on their own. Direct admissions may also help improve declining enrollment, a problem plaguing most Wisconsin universities.
The quotes came from my piece at The Center Square:
“Incoming high school seniors in every corner of Wisconsin will start receiving admissions offers from the University of Wisconsin under the Direct Admit Wisconsin program,” UW President Jay Rothman said. “Those offers will tell participating and qualifying students which of our 10 participating universities has admitted them starting in the fall 2025 semester.”
Qualified students must be on track for graduating, and have enough high school credits in math, English, science and other high school classes. There is, however, no required GPA.
“These students have already demonstrated through their junior year of high school that they have the ability to succeed at one of our universities and to put themselves on a path to a better life and a better career,” Rothman added. “All they need to do now is select a university and stay on the road to graduation from high school in spring of 2025. It's that simple.”
All you have to do is graduate high school.
In other words, if high school English was tough for you, you’re going to love taking it again at UW-Oshkosh. Only this time, you get to pay for it.
The JS tried to offer a little context:
The program launches this year amid a slide in Wisconsin's college-going culture. The percentage of high school graduates going directly to college fell from 62% in 2016 to 52% in 2022, according to state Department of Public Instruction data.
More than half of Wisconsins' public high schools are participating in the first year of the direct admissions program. Altogether, nearly 350 public and private schools in the program serve about 50,000 students, Rothman said.
50,000 students. That’s a lot of kids. And a lot of tuition.
And that’s the point.
Despite Jay Rothman’s flowery words about the ability of a higher education to open-up the middle class, the University of Wisconsin needs students. Any students.
In the middle of the homework reading for the Study Committee on the Future of the University of Wisconsin System is a primer on the UW’s finances.
Tuition, at $1.7 billion, is the largest single source of money for the UW. Tuition dollars are 24% of the university’s budget. More than state money, and more than federal money.
Tuition pays about half the bills at any given university.
If you have fewer kids, you have fewer tuition dollars, and that means cuts. Why else has the UW closed its branch campuses? They are losing money hand-over-fist.
The University of Wisconsin is not admitting anyone and everyone to be altruistic. They are desperate, and they are praying on vulnerable teenagers for money.
Think that’s harsh? You’re wrong.
Since the federal government took over student loans, no one is turned away. If you have a 1.9 GPA and you want to go to UW-Stevens Point, the federal government has the $7,000 in tuition, plus the other $13,000 for room and boards, books, and the like. You can pay that back once you get your degree and start making those middle class big bucks.
And that where direct admit goes from being a greedy idea from the UW, to cruel.
The University of Wisconsin knows that the majority of kids who enroll will never graduate. Ever. It’s a feature of their business model, not a flaw.
In the same e Study Committee on the Future of the University of Wisconsin System homework is a report on graduation rates.
The best UW school is UW-Madison at 76%. The second best is La Crosse at 54%. The rest all have graduation rates between 25% and 44%:
That means somewhere between 75% and 65% of students at Oshkosh, Parkside, Stevens Point, Green Bay, Platteville, Superior, and Stout are paying for something they will never get.
If 75% of the people who paid for gas at Kwik Trip didn’t get a drop in their tank, how long would it take for the attorney general to shut them down? If Burger King sold you a meal deal where three-in-four people never got their burger, fries, and a drink do you think people would still go?
No.
Yes, there is always the ‘personal responsibility’ part of college.
But is that in these direct admit letters?
We have warning labels on pillows, and trigger warnings in college classrooms. Is there any warning for the 50,000 kids who are going to get an invitation to the University of Wisconsin next week? Is the U telling any of these kids that there is a better than average chance they they will take on student debt they cannot afford, to take classes they do not need, to never get the degree that’s being promised?
College is a scam. Half the people who get degrees will get degrees that are worthless, or get jobs that don’t require degrees.
That’s bad enough.
But targeting teenagers with a slick sales pitch just to make sure the associate dean of diversity at UW-Stout gets to keep her jobs is downright disgusting.
photo credit: Fox 6 News / Milwaukee
story credit: jsonline.com
audio version of the segment here > UW Direct Admit program is a scam