2012-09-09
Explanation
This comic is a cynical take on the modern college experience, presented as a college orientation speech. A woman addresses incoming students: "Hey kids! Welcome to college orientation! I want to make something perfectly clear: you may think you'''re here to learn. WRONG." She explains that students are really there to "do whatever for 3-5 years in order to get a piece of paper that is essentially a claim check for 30% more lifetime earnings," while handing out free novelty school spirit hats labeled "UX PRIDE."
When a student asks "What if we want to learn things?" the orientation leader replies that they are welcome to, but for those who do not, the college has "invented a bunch of things to do while you wait" -- including classes in literary theory, business management, or anything that "starts with creative, ends with studies, or has for in the middle." She also mentions the option of "massively grade-inflated" courses in law, civics, or science. When a student challenges her by asking "Isn'''t college supposed to be about education?" she sarcastically retorts that in "the age of free information, you need to pay a small fortune to live in a dormitory... surrounded by drunk teenagers... so you can get educated."
The comic'''s sharpest point comes in the last few panels. A student says "Well, if college is really so pointless, maybe I'''ll just go straight to the private sector." The leader responds: "The easier college gets, the dumber you look for not having a degree." This captures the catch-22 of modern higher education: college may be increasingly about credentialing rather than learning, but opting out signals to employers that you could not even clear that low bar. The final panel shows a student asking for one of the foam spirit hats, and the leader cheerfully notes "Of course! Your scholarship already paid us for it" -- a parting jab at how tuition dollars are spent. The votey panel shows someone asking "What'''re you drawing?" and the artist responding "A back to school comic," a meta-acknowledgment of the strip'''s timing.