The quote about students taking 20 percent more classes then they are required to take to completed their degrees is a rather weak supporting detail for the use of Degree Compass. Believe it or not many students take more classes on purpose for various reasons such as exploring opportunities and career paths or just for fun. College is suppose to have an element of exploration and fun. Some of these explorations end up in the student declaring a minor, a second degree, or strengthening a resume/portfolio. Not all students are in college to go from point A to point B via the shortest and cheapest path. Many if not most see the value in the experiences the college period in their life can offer.

First, with respect to instruction, courses are taught differently by different instructors: they may assign different readings, structure assignment differently, have greater or lesser emphasis on certain assignments, focus on different concepts, etc. How could you possibly integrate those predictive insights, on an ongoing basis “mathematically” without prior knowledge of how incoming instructors will teach a course? This is particular pertinent in an age of higher eduction in which the majority of courses are taught by itinerant graduate student and non-permanent contract faculty.

Second, the idea that success might be increased by picking the right courses algorithmically places far too little emphasis on the greatest predictor of success, which is obviously going to be the student’s commitment to learning. The costs of tuition, the need to work part-time (or even full-time as an increasing number of “full-time” students do today), and access to support resources are all strong socio-economic factors in student success.

Third, gathering metrics based on grades and transcripts just means you perpetuate the insidiousness of credentialism – just getting a degree for the piece of paper without due concern for the skills the student is meant to acquire. Anyone who has successfully completed a degree knows that you don’t necessarily learn the most in the courses you receive the highest grades in. Sometimes it’s the tough instructors who teach you the most, even though you don’t earn the highest grades in their courses. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that more ‘bird courses’ and greater access to them will result in a higher “success rate” if your only measures of success are graduation and grades. It doesn’t ensure better learning, and isn’t that what *higher learning* is all about?