Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Not only that but some people have no interest in engineering or whatever. I know it might be hard to believe but not everyone gets a "in demand" degree just because its in demand or pays well.
I wish more people felt they didn't have to major in engineering in order to be employable. My boyfriend served in the Army for 8 years and is now working towards his bachelors. He started at a local community college and most of the students he met there have the intention of going into engineering. He wants to become a physicians' assistant and is double majoring in biology/chemistry. He has been telling me about a lot of these engineering kids who are taking remedial math courses and having trouble with it, have failed chemistry two or three times, and still have the nerve to tell him with a biology/chemistry degree he won't get a job.
It is one thing if you want to be an engineer, but another to push yourself towards something you may not be suited for if you cannot pass the requirement courses just because you feel it is the ONLY answer to getting a job. One path does not fit all and what is in demand right now may not be (or maybe not AS in demand) in four-five years. I saw it happen with my undergraduate course of study. In 2006-2007, there was a high demand. In May of 2008 when I graduated, not quite so much. Luckily, I studied something I enjoyed/found interesting or the initial struggles may not have been worth it. I took a job as a file clerk and then made a few strategic jumps to a job I love.
It's possible to value higher education while understanding that the system has deep flaws that need to be corrected. I think the media hype over "College graduates working at Starbucks!" is what has fueled the new conventional wisdom that all higher education is inherently bad and only designed to rip you off. The truth is that many paths to success in this country are only attainable through higher education. Of course you can be VERY successful without a college education, as many entrepeneurs are. It's also true that you can make a very good living through trades and other vocations. But writing higher education off as some scam industry is really silly and has gone entirely too far.
Not all of higher education is a scam. But MOST of it is.
They're selling millions of people a fantasy (a very expensive one) and that's all they're doing.
Any person who will need to work for a living - as opposed to just become "enlightened" - will be forced to consider the practicality of his degree. If you are phenomenally good in any area, you can certainly pick that area - because (some) money will naturally follow, regardless.
Most people, however, are not phenomenally good in ANY area so if you get a degree in "Women's Studies" but do not plan on becoming a social scientist with a PhD and tons of publications in top journals, then you need to pick another field. Perhaps one where even the lowest performing specialist will get compensated pretty nicely.
It's that simple.
Leave Art History, "Equestrian Studies" and the like to Kate Middleton & Co.
Trouble is that many such practical degrees are difficult to get through because they generally require a lot of advanced Math.
Remember?
That "thing" you were NOT doing enough of at home so you could have a lot of time left over for the extra-curriculars that would make you "well-rounded"; in fact so "well-rounded" that you did not learn enough math so you wouldn't be scared by that STEM field in the first place.
All those "soft" areas are gorgeous, luxurious, silky things to study. I would never claim otherwise. This is why Kate Middleton majored in one of them. The bad news is most people are NOT Kate Middleton, so the clever one understand that they will need the grit to put up with a STEM field.
The rest get largely worthless degrees and they end up with largely worthless jobs - best case scenario.
I'm talking about degrees like arts, music, sociology, psychology, gender studies, and general studies. If people aren't going to get engineering degrees or go to medical school, why even bother? It just seems like a big wast of time when you'll just end up working at Starbucks anyway.
You cannot possibly be serious. The arts require years of training. The same is true of music. Sociology and psychology are both valuable disciplines that have practical applications in the real world. And all four of those fields can be quite lucrative if one follows the correct career path. Hell, my degree was in English and I make way more than my counterparts who majored in a lot of career-driven fields.
Okay, I'll grant that degree programs such as gender studies and general studies are indeed gigantic wastes of time. But as someone who earned (Yes, earned) his degree in liberal arts and is a couple of years away from retiring at the ripe old age of 54, I can pretty much say that you are young and foolish with very little understanding of what really matters in 95% of all career fields: Hard work, a willingness to learn, and people skills.
In fact, if you strut around this way in the real world thinking that anybody who didn't major in whatever you did as having a useless degree, prepared to have your world rocked and never really advancing beyond your first job out of college.
So you're saying that maybe...just maybe....the economy had something to do with all of these college grads working at Starbucks? Shocking, I know. And a much more boring story than "STUPID OVEREDUCATED MILLENIALS WORK RETAIL!!!!"
I know, right? CLEARLY it's because HUMANITIES DEGREES ARE WORTHLESS!!!!!!!
Quote:
Good for your sister. A far more interesting and inspiring story about perservance than what we're typically fed these days.
Yes, and OH MY GOD, having to get up at 4 a.m. to get to her store to open it was NEARLY A GULAG-LEVEL IMPOSITION ON PERSONAL WELFARE, HAPPINESS, and QUALITY OF LIFE. Whatever, jobs were scarce, she did what she needed to to get by, rather than stomp her feet and cry that she was sold a bill of goods when she went to college. Not every recent grad is an entitled brat, despite what random posts would have us believe.
Any person who will need to work for a living - as opposed to just become "enlightened" - will be forced to consider the practicality of his degree. If you are phenomenally good in any area, you can certainly pick that area - because (some) money will naturally follow, regardless.
Most people, however, are not phenomenally good in ANY area so if you get a degree in "Women's Studies" but do not plan on becoming a social scientist with a PhD and tons of publications in top journals, then you need to pick another field. Perhaps one where even the lowest performing specialist will get compensated pretty nicely.
Interesting...my college roommate actually did get her degree as a dual major in women's studies and political science. It led to an interest in housing and health care for underprivileged women and children in poverty. She worked in property management initially after school, and eventually shifted over into a health care administration focus, working with the same population. She did eventually get an MBA, but it was years later...was able to work in her chosen fields with a tangentally connected major for a couple of decades, easily. She got to study things that interested her, and find avenues to put them to use within a practical context. The things she learned while obtaining her degree were very practical, for her. What matters for many is how you put your knowledge to use, not what your degree program is labeled.
She's not Kate Middleton, either, with the luxury of studying what she liked, rather than something that others likely rolled their eyes at as "impractical." Just an average, intelligent, motivated young woman like many others. Not some huge anomaly that "managed to find legitimate employment DESPITE holding a women's studies and political science degree." She studied what she wanted to study, and found a way to put her knowledge to practical use. Not a complicated thing. You don't have to be the future Queen of England to make a living after studying something you enjoy and are legitimately interested in studying .
The op is a testament to todays "what's in it for me/I want what I am entitled to" generation. It's true we have to be pragmatic about degrees, but knowledge is never a waste.
I'm talking about degrees like arts, music, sociology, psychology, gender studies, and general studies. If people aren't going to get engineering degrees or go to medical school, why even bother? It just seems like a big wast of time when you'll just end up working at Starbucks anyway.
I got an Associates Degree in General Studies and it worked great for transferring into my Bachelors program. Everyone has different needs and desires when it comes to their education.
A "worthless degree" is better than no degree at all which would be the alternative in many cases.
If I want to get a job in business, the logical thing would be to get a degree in something like Accounting, not Political Science. In the old days you could be a liberal arts major and graduate and go into business as a management trainee and they would train you. Not anymore.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
