Kids Don't Learn Much in First 2 Years of College

Yet another reason to skip college: You probably won’t learn all that much anyway. A new book reveals that almost half of the undergrads in America learn basically nothing during their first two years, USA Today reports. Even after four years, 36% of students had made few significant gains in learning. That’s because academics aren’t made a priority, according to Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses, whose findings stem from the transcripts, standardized tests, and surveys of 3,000 full-time college students on 29 campuses.

Rather, teachers are more interested in their own research, and students are more interested in their social lives. And it probably doesn’t help that students spent 50% less time studying than those from a few decades ago: On average, today's college kids spend 75% of their time sleeping and socializing, and just 16% in class or studying. Even so, the average GPA was 3.2, showing that “students are able to navigate through the system quite well with little effort,” says the author. Click for more reasons you shouldn’t send your kids to college.
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