Is it true that nobody fails anymore in Colleges?

Post Reply New Topic

I was watching this video on the college admissions scandal. I'm not wanting to start a topic on the scandal itself, but what Alan Dershowitz said got me really curious, when he said that nobody fails in college anymore at 2:51 into the clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Auvd9daACGg

Is that true though, that in colleges that no one gets bad grades? Kind of wonder if I actually did well then.

I've seen far too many people fail with bad grades to believe that "nobody fails or gets bad grades anymore". That's just a talking point drummed to death to get people to believe that college doesn't carry the weight that it does.

People get bad grades all the time. People fail out of classes all the time. People fail out of programs all the time. The idea that "nobody fails" is laughable. I watch it happen every semester. I've failed and had to re-take a few classes myself.

Sure, maybe some electives like music appreciation or creative writing might have a pass / fail setup - but you'll notice one of the options is still "fail". And people still fail those, too.

So I'm gonna call the claim that "nobody gets bad grades or fails classes anymore", false.

I flunked out of school in 2015 due to depression. People certainly fail and drop out. Only 75% of students at the school I attended finish with a degree and that's the best in the state.

My ex nearly flunked out of college.

I flunked out twice, so yes. Being mentally disabled did not help.

I got back in twice and ended up graduating, but yeah. The idea that college is now some purly liberal, participation-trophy driven, feel-good year-round summer camp is just baseless complaints about "dang college these days! Back in my day..." etc etc

I went to some design schools. It was hard to get in, but borderline impossible to fail after that. However, in this field, it doesn't matter so much, because future employers or clients will look at your portfolio and no one ever asks to see your grades. But over the last decade, every single design school I attended was enforced by the government to take on up to three times as many students. Education suffered, but also, due to the lack or lowering standards of pre-selection before the course, students are getting significantly worse. However, Iam ready to admit that art and design schools are a very special case.

I dropped out because I got too depressed and couldn't get out of bed anymore lol. So I'm going to say no, just my anecdotal experience.

I've failed a few college classes because of my anxiety and executive function issues getting in the way of submitting or completing assignments. I've ended up bouncing around to different colleges and I've very nearly given up, but I'm getting close to getting an associates finally. I think that at some colleges there is an issue of requirements to pass a class becoming less rigorous, but that's not true across the board.

Someone I knew at my work failed college. Only class she failed was English because she was not good in it but did fine in her other classes. So she was not able to graduate and get her degree. She was pretty pissed about it because she wasted her money and was now in student debt. Just a good reason for me to not ever try college, it's too risky. If I need extra help in school and work modifications, why would I expect college to be any easier? And I hear it's harder to get accommodations. I doubt they will modify my work. That is what having a disability is, it impacts your ability to have jobs and employment, it gives you limitations. My co worker also had a disability.

Havent taken college courses in twenty years.

But it was certainly possible to get bad grades, and to even fail, back then. Not difficult to do.

So it is hard for me to believe that its changed that much since then.

There is a name for this .. *diploma mill*.

As long as you pay , you get a degree.

I know that standards have changed because the type of work I did with a national diploma in those days is now the sort of work done at degree level, and in some subjects, like one about tourism where my Mum helped a Chinese student by proof reading her thesis in which she ended passing with distinctions (She was tallented), but my Mum called me and showed me the standard of work they were doing for their masters degree and it was the type of work I would have expected to be studying when I was 16. We both looked at each other and were puzzled what the education system was coming to! (The ladies intelligence was far higher then the work she was doing. She needed help because her writren english was not up to scratch and therefore needed my Mum to rephraze things etc)).

It was said in recent years that if one wanted an easy degree, to keep off the traditional scientific degrees like engineering etc, and to study some of rhe newer more obscure subjects.

She needed a tourism degree because she wanted to work in tourism in Britain for the Chinese people who were coming over here, which is why she came to Britain to get her degree. She actually ended up working in the university because she found the university which takes on a lot of Chinese students was doing a poor job at communicating and looking after them when they applied etc, so at first she volunteered to be a mediator and was so successful that she not only vastly boosted the numbers of students heading to the university here from China, but also ended up with a job which due to her success,was extremely well paid!
The last I heard from her, she was married and had bought a house outright, but then I had my brothers ex. GF took my phone (Without my permission) and sold it, so I lost my contact details for this lady along with a few others.