Going exclusively to online college is the problem.

In thinking of the recent controversy about the mosque in NYC that's somewhat near the location of the former World Trade Center, it occurs to me that I generally find most of the people who are being so closed-minded about it, and trying to oppose the constitutional rights of others based on a feeling, are the same people who are generally doing stupid things. Their queen is the one who thinks "dethaw" is a word (yet at the same time, thinks she's an author.) I also find something else common among these people. None of them went to college. OK, so they've all done some online coursework, but the more I think about it, the more I really believe that exclusively online college, with absolutely no on-campus attendance ever, doesn't count. Sure, you'll read some textbooks, take some tests, and on a good day, maybe retain some of the information, but that's really not the college experience, is it?

Sure, I learned a lot in college. I had no idea I was great at physics until I fell in love with it at the university level. I relished relativity, suffered through circuits, and took whole courses in what most of the world would consider minutiae. I learned the theory of engineering design from the engineer who revolutionized the offshore oil drilling industry. I learned Calculus from a 29-year-old genius who was covered in tattoos and piercings from head to toe, and is by far the most brilliant mathematician I have ever met. I learned Differential Equations and Complex Analysis, from your stereotypical batty old math professor, who drove us crazy with his expectations, but in such a way that we all remember him fondly. A recent Irish immigrant with a major case of ADHD taught me how to program computers. I learned the history of the state of Georgia, and went to lectures given by historians around town because I was required to do so. I took film appreciation from one of Francis Ford Coppola's college classmates.

Even more importantly than any of that, was the motley band of misfits who were there with me every step of the way. They came from all over the world, were of every race, religion, political leaning, and background. They taught me the most. A totally important part of going to college, is being around many other people in a setting that encourages everybody to kind of learn about each other. I mean, when you're thrown into study groups to spend hours and hours together, trying to succeed in the #4 engineering school in the nation (the rankings came out just today. We're still #4, although Cal Tech tied us for it this year.) you learn about each other. You learn that things aren't always what they seem, that everybody's just as weird as you are, just in different ways, and that when you look beyond external factors, like who dresses how, who's got what accent, and who prays to what, we're really all pretty similar to one another.

This is totally lost in this generation of people who have never set foot in a lecture hall. I can see doing parts of your coursework online if you have to for some reason, or to do grad school online after doing undergrad on campus, but to just do absolutely nothing but online coursework, I believe, does a great disservice to a person because it lacks, in my opinion, more than half of what the college experience is. The very experiences I call on in my day-to-day life, are the ones that the online-only types lack, and frankly, it shows. I don't think one can truly claim to be an educated person if they have not gone to college on campus, because they're missing out on some of the most valuable parts of it. They seem to regard these things as unnecessary, or maybe "nice to have", but having gone to college on campus myself, I know that the life lessons, the experience of meeting so many different people, and the random interactions you have with so many people from so many different backgrounds, are actually invaluable. When people miss out on that, it really shows.