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Go for it. Also, while you're at it, attend an ivy league school and rack up $100K in student loans.
An engineering or nursing degree from Cal State Nowhere (after two years at Beer Bong Community College) is far more valuable than a degree in Softology from some expensive well known school with or without a good football team.
You clearly don't know anyone who went to an Ivy. Aside from the fact they have far more generous aide packages, Finance and Management Consulting start at higher levels of pay than engineering or nursing. Those firms recruit overwhelmingly from Ivy’s and seek the critical thinking and writing abilities of their liberal arts graduates. Mid-career it's not even comparable. The English major from Yale is killing it compared to the vocational groups.
You clearly don't know anyone who went to an Ivy. Aside from the fact they have far more generous aide packages, Finance and Management Consulting start at higher levels of pay than engineering or nursing.
You clearly didn't read my post. Of course Finance and Management Consulting are in demand - I don't think anyone considers them soft. The implication is softology majors from ivies are less useful than engineering degrees from rinky dink universities.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Considering Coming Back
The English major from Yale is killing it compared to the vocational groups.
You clearly didn't read my post. Of course Finance and Management Consulting are in demand - I don't think anyone considers them soft. The implication is softology majors from ivies are less useful than engineering degrees from rinky dink universities.
Ya right.
So you think when I say "finance and management consulting" I mean degrees? Um, no. I'm talking about the firms that hire exclusively from the most elite schools (in 2005 Goldman targeted just 37). The 2005 Goldman breakdown:
Percentage of 2005 entry-level hires with degrees in the following areas of study:
I would like to have a meaningful discussion about the "entitlement" generation and the problem with many young people pursuing degrees that are not marketable.
Young people today seem to think that Degree = Job and with the increasing number of people going to college the job market is more competitive than ever. What can be done to encourage young people to pursue degrees that will land them a job after college? This issue does not seem to be covered enough. These conversations are not being had at the high school level. I think parents are partly to blame because a lot don't realize how drastically the job market has changed over the years. High schools don't encourage kids to take something marketable, they encourage them to take something "fun" or "interesting". Colleges don't care what you take as long as they get your money.
There are too many kids graduating and crying they can't get a job because they got a BS in Psychology. What can be done? Discuss...
The majority of my workplace (not including myself, I have another supposedly useless degree that has proven to be wholly useful) has their degrees in psychology...it's the main background sought in my particular branch of my field. So I suppose usefulness is fairly subjective according to one's aspirations and goals.
I also don't think that it's true that "this issue has not been covered enough." I notice it being constantly discussed, actually (with varying degrees of misinformation and bias), to the point of broken record status.
When I was in high school 7 years ago I was lucky enough to have my parents push me towards a career field that was in demand.
I was lucky enough to have parents who encouraged, prepared, and empowered me and my three siblings to make our own critically thought out decisions regarding our schooling. I had friends whose parents pushed them toward a major course of study, even to the point of out-and-out dictating it. I can't imagine.
A given career being "in demand" (which in and of itself is subject to drastic changes in trend, anyway...many of the "hot" fields when I started college were no longer "in demand" five years later; they were flooded) is great, but it doesn't really matter if one doesn't possess aptitude or interest. It doesn't matter how "in demand" various tech sector fields and subfields are, for instance, if I dislike working with computers, don't know or care to know anything about programming or design or networks, it's not the right field for me. If there is a huge shortage of early childhood educators, and that's seen as the go-to field, hypothetically, that's great, but it doesn't really apply to people who dislike children and are poor teachers. Often, fields that are "in demand" are in demand because they require a specific skill set that not just everyone possesses, or because they are fields that are of niche interest, and aren't going to be just everyone's cup of tea. Some degree of interest and skill is obviously necessary for a successful career path. Just because something is an in-demand profession, it doesn't make it the "right" profession for a given individual.
Last edited by TabulaRasa; 03-27-2013 at 11:39 AM..
ok, as a ba in philosophy, this is perhaps the only question i'm qualified to answer.
why?
when i was coming up, i was told college was necessary. it was expected of me regardless of what else i did.
in college, i was interested in everything. i took upper level classes in everything from accounting to psychology...
then, i entered my third year, and i was tired of it all. so i looked into which degree would lead to graduation the quickest.
it was between biology and philosophy. of the two, philosophy asked the questions i was asking myself, so it didn't feel like work. i wanted to write those papers...i wanted to read those books. it was interesting and fun to me.
fast forward to just before graduation, it hit me that i was going to have a tough go of things. so, i can understand now why perhaps it wasn't the smartest choice...but, i was doing what i wanted to at the time, and not really worried about it.
but, no, i never really went to college to get a job. college was, more or less, my high school. i went because i was supposed to.
if it leads to a job, that's great, but if it doesn't...well, plenty of ways to make money without being employed.
So you think when I say "finance and management consulting" I mean degrees? Um, no. I'm talking about the firms that hire exclusively from the most elite schools (in 2005 Goldman targeted just 37). The 2005 Goldman breakdown:
Percentage of 2005 entry-level hires with degrees in the following areas of study:
Of course financial services isn't going to hire engineers.
Apples to apples, liberal arts do not earn what engineers earn.
Not sure what point you are trying to make.
Based on what? I'm guessing you don't know or are not familiar with some of the practical liberal art fields and what people with talent can make in those fields. Far outweighs engineers.
Of course financial services isn't going to hire engineers.
Apples to apples, liberal arts do not earn what engineers earn.
Not sure what point you are trying to make.
My point is that your assertion that, "An engineering or nursing degree from Cal State Nowhere (after two years at Beer Bong Community College) is far more valuable than a degree in Softology from some expensive well known school" is incorrect.
As much as I don't want to agree (in part) to the OP, I do.
My and and a lot of parents (I know) didn't graduate from college. They said verbatim, "We don't care what you get your degree in as long as you get one."
My Dad thought that business was a "safe" degree, and ironically when the crash happened, it wasn't.
Lucky for me I'm employed with my Philosophy degree, but even before the crash I had a tough time finding a job, only because I didn't have direction and some sort of experience.
Sure a lot of it (at the time) was my fault, but I think there is some blame to go around to the High Schools and Counselors and business like behavior of colleges to just churn out more degrees. But the economy was also to blame. We shouldn't have to give up "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit." This is America and we don't have to pump out STEM drones.
At my current job I tell students that there are plenty of other opportunities, like the trades, like maritime programs, like community college certificates, but most importantly internships and some form of experience. That experience leads to networking and IMO is the most important part of finding a job.
In the end, get a degree that you're interested in, but have a plan. Get some experience and work hard. If you do that IMO it doesn't matter what you get your degree in.
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