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Comment by VikingCoder | Hacker News Reader

If the student loan default rate is high, they are accepting too many. That's a metric that would work today.

A metric that might work in the future is to look at employment and job satisfaction.

> You just need to trust people to act vaguely in their own interest, and society's interest, most of the time and to trust that things will work out.

Sure. And I want free college, and progressive taxation.

I also advise that we do a far better job of publishing and thinking about career opportunities and satisfaction. Maybe even to the extent that schools should seriously consider whether it's responsible to accept X majors.

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> If the student loan default rate is high, they are accepting too many.

It's fun to think about how screwed up a society would become if it did simpleminded, authoritarian things like reduce the number of seats for education students because teachers defaulted on their student loans at a higher rate than business students, and opened up a corresponding number of spots for business students. There are so many factors affecting that default rate other than society's need for graduates of a degree program...

Here's an idea: make sure people who are intellectually capable of succeeding in a degree program can choose the major they want. Support them financially if they need it. Full stop.

> I also advise that we do a far better job of publishing and thinking about career opportunities and satisfaction. Maybe even to the extent that schools should seriously consider whether it's responsible to accept X majors.

So much of what you're talking about already exists.

> So much of what you're talking about already exists.

That's why I said "do a far better job of ... thinking about"

Schools don't necessarily know your major until your junior or senior year.

Are you proposing a system where a school would accept you, decide there were too many of your preferred major, and kick you out or choose another?

The other option would be to force 17/18 year olds to choose their future careers while in high school.

> a school would accept you, decide there were too many of your preferred major, and kick you out or choose another

That happens all the time.

So, yes.

I guess the difference is that the school was previously limiting you based on their resources, which is understandable. It would be a totally different thing if they said "You can't go nursing school because there are currently too many nurses and it might be hard for you to find a job, even though our classes are half full."

Presumably their class sizes would also be a responsive part of the system (so they wouldn't be half full).

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