[tallon]

Half of all college students don't finish their 4-year degree in 5 years, and it's not due to cost. Even countries like France, Netherlands, etc which have lower costs for college, place you in a track when you're in your freshman year of high school. This track determines if you're going to college, a trade, or somewhere in between, and it's hard to switch from lower to higher tracks. College should not be a goal for 100% of the population like we have now, there should be a greater push for trades like chefs, electricians, HVAC technicians, plumbers, woodworking, metal working, glass blowing. You're an apprentice, you get paid a livable wage, and you have 0 student loans.

[henryfjordan]

You're describing a caste system, except instead of having your life determined by your lineage it's determined by some standardized tests given when you are 14 years old. It might work for some societies but that flies so directly against the "American Dream" that it will never work here.

[t0mas88]

In reality it isn't as limiting as you think in the Netherlands. You get different levels of education based on previous school results, but after finishing "mid level" highschool you can continue and take the last two years of "upper level" highschool if it turns out you developed more and are now a better learner at 17 than you were at 14. In total that takes only 1 year extra, because "upper level" is a year longer by default.

Same in college vs university, you can continue from the lower level program into a masters degree as long as you pass the acceptance test or have the required grades.

[SkyBelow]

> Even countries like France, Netherlands, etc which have lower costs for college, place you in a track when you're in your freshman year of high school.

Imagine trying to do this in the US. I wonder to what extent colleges are free in places where there is stricter criteria to get into college.

[blat001]

We also need to consider modernizing our "trade" skill list.

Based on the success of bootcamps etc.... I do wonder if software engineering would be better as a trade skill rather than university

[dsfyu404ed]

>Based on the success of bootcamps etc.... I do wonder if software engineering would be better as a trade skill rather than university

There's plenty of data plumbers (myself included) who are writing a check a month to pay for skills they don't use but a lot of them don't have degrees in the first place. That blurry line between corporate IT and software development is where people would probably benefit most from trade programs.

Edit: Apparently a lot of people took offense at this comment and I'm not sure why. Please explain.