Recent graduates complain of not getting their money's worth, professors complain of students' love affair with technology and lack of interest in formal, conceptual training, and design firms complain that recent graduates know neither their tools nor their design.
Nobody seems happy.
I, too, have noticed over the years that, slowly, a new type of design graduate was emerging from our colleges and universities. Today's new students are generally not interested in reading or writing and simply aren't able to master the vast array of tools needed to perform today's design jobs. Despite these deficiencies, students are heavily in debt from their design education. Perhaps it's always been this way, but it seems more prevalent than ever. The most successful design programs that produce the most successful graduates generally have strong design co-op programs.