Watch the video first.
I think the point at the end, about "flunkout intro classes", is that it's not that we don't want students. It's that we want properly prepared and motivated students.
Well, shit. I flunked out of Intro Chemistry my freshman year of college. Well, to be fair, I failed the first exam, and the professor (who was also the department head) told his classes that if we failed the first one, we wouldn't be able to catch up enough to pass the other three. He urged those who earned Fs to drop the class, so I took his advice.
If you read the post about my military dreams being crushed because of knee problems, well, here's the rest of the story. I matriculated at a small state military college expecting to DOUBLE MAJOR in--oh geez--physics and aerospace engineering. There was a 5-year program in cooperation with the large state tech university, in which the first three years would be the core curriculum and most of the physics majors classes at the small university, then the physics labs and engineering classes at the tech university. Two degrees in five years, if all went well. This was going to get me into pilot training for the Marines (I'd hoped).
I simply was not prepared for all of these things at once: being away from home for an extended time, keeping up with a boyfriend (at the same college), untreated depression and anxiety issues, physical pain that never went away and didn't seem to have a fix, a full-immersion military program that dictated every minute of free time, and the ironic freedom of no one forcing me to go to class. I slept through a lot of classes. Eleven pm to five am was simply not enough sleep for me, and I developed issues with falling asleep and staying asleep. Once I got into therapy for depression, I was given sleeping pills as well, and in the long run I think those made it worse.
Ack, I'm drifting. What was my point? Motivated students. Those who want to put in the time and effort to learn, to experiment... and then to innovate and make millions of dollars. They just don't come from America anymore; they're the Indian students, the Chinese and Middle Eastern and European students who come to American universities to study. And like Dr. Kaku said, then they go home. And they take their innovative minds with them.
Well, what if I were one of those motivated students? I know I'm not dumb. I know--I think--I could do the coursework well enough if I were self-motivated enough. Typing that last sentence, my mind drummed up a list of obstacles: if I didn't have so many routine life distractions like taking care of the baby and worrying about bills, if I had the money to go back to school full-time, if I had reliable transportation, if I could take advantage of extra resources when I have trouble learning something, if I could manage to avoid flunking a class, if I could manage to keep my grades high enough, if if if.
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