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I don't believe having a bachelors degree = a well-rounded person. I think 20 year olds could learn much more from traveling, meeting different kinds of people, and real world experience.
Actually, I think those that go from private school, to college and then a nice comfortable office are less well-rounded than those that went to a public high school to college or those that worked through college.
I think a lot of people would agree with you, but private school vs. public, and working while in college vs. not working (very few these days have the option of not working in college) isn't the subject of this thread, nor did anyone say anything about private K-12, or not working while in college. By all means, feel free to start a thread on the topic, it would be interesting.
Most 20 year olds in the US can't afford to travel. A BA helps produce well-rounded people because unlike real-life experience, a BA offers a wide variety of science classes (geology, oceanography, physics, etc.), and arts and humanities classes, not to mention languages (ethnomusicology, anthropology including specialized courses, wide variety of languages, wide variety of history classes, and so on) that cumulatively people are unlikely to get on their own, especially in the breadth offered at larger universities.
It shouldn't be an either-or proposition between "real life experience" and schooling. Ideally, it would be both-and. I'm not sure how it would be possible to avoid "real life experience", frankly. Whether you go to a 4-year college or not, sooner or later, you're going to get plenty of real life experience.
Last edited by Ruth4Truth; 05-05-2013 at 08:09 PM..
I went to college to get an education, so that I could be at a higher vantage point from which I could explore an expanded range of career opportunities.
I got my bachelors to get a job. I got my masters because I love learning and after 3 years of not being in school I needed to go back. I was bored and I felt I wasn't utilizing my brain to it's fullest ability.
I went to college to get an education, specifically to get a scientific education. All my life I loved science. When I was very little I wanted to be an astronomer. Later I wanted to be a physicist. I didn't even think about getting a job until much later.
Since I went 40 years ago the reasons to go to college, and the outcomes expected, have changed.
Back then the degree, in whatever, mattered except in a very few areas like engineering. Employers generally thought that if you had a degree then they could teach you what was needed for their industry. Even in engineering some companies would take someone and train him.
Today the type of degree is what matters. The days where where a company would hire a Liberal Arts BA holder and teach him to be an internal auditor (for example) are largely over.
Since I went 40 years ago the reasons to go to college, and the outcomes expected, have changed.
Back then the degree, in whatever, mattered except in a very few areas like engineering. Employers generally thought that if you had a degree then they could teach you what was needed for their industry. Even in engineering some companies would take someone and train him.
Today the type of degree is what matters. The days where where a company would hire a Liberal Arts BA holder and teach him to be an internal auditor (for example) are largely over.
To be fair, when you went to college, it wasn't as watered down as it is today. Many students are attending low end universities that have over-expanded with under-qualified faculty.
More emphasis really needs to be put on the quality of education on received. This means, who they studied under and what the student accomplished during study.
Education? Hmm... is that supposed to be like reading Shakespeare or Plato in my free time? Yeah, okay, cool stuff.
No, no, it's like reading about Mayan civilization or West African kingdoms, learning about Tibetan Buddhist esoteric sexual practices, how electro-magnetic fields regulate life on Earth and how plate tectonics cause earthquakes and shape the continents. That's what my college education taught me. What did yours teach you?
I certainly wouldn't have gone if it had not provided a career path;that was main concern in picking a degree.I would have rather used the 41/2 years to do other things personally than go to the majority of those classes to be honest.With the money I could have travel and had a good time at least for over a year with money to spare.
I think a lot of people would agree with you, but private school vs. public, and working while in college vs. not working (very few these days have the option of not working in college) isn't the subject of this thread, nor did anyone say anything about private K-12, or not working while in college. By all means, feel free to start a thread on the topic, it would be interesting.
Most 20 year olds in the US can't afford to travel. A BA helps produce well-rounded people because unlike real-life experience, a BA offers a wide variety of science classes (geology, oceanography, physics, etc.), and arts and humanities classes, not to mention languages (ethnomusicology, anthropology including specialized courses, wide variety of languages, wide variety of history classes, and so on) that cumulatively people are unlikely to get on their own, especially in the breadth offered at larger universities.
It shouldn't be an either-or proposition between "real life experience" and schooling. Ideally, it would be both-and. I'm not sure how it would be possible to avoid "real life experience", frankly. Whether you go to a 4-year college or not, sooner or later, you're going to get plenty of real life experience.
The issue is the type of experience is mutually exclusive. You will not get the same experience from working as you will in school.
This brings us to a major problem with college graduates, they are in-experienced. Why are they inexperienced it can be a few things: one, they never took a job in college and instead concentrated on clubs, academics and sports; two, the student instead decides to do study-abroad options; three, they might have had a job but it wasn't relevant to their major; four, internships aren't incentivized by the school and are electives that can be swapped out for other (perhaps more interesting) courses; five, it interferes with degree progress by only being able to take say two or three courses that semester; six, they could not take an internship because they had specific fiscal needs of the student (for instance time to graduate as some schools try to have 4 year rates and then have a percentage raise for 5th and 6th years, it interferes with their job, scholarship needs, they qualify as work-study and already take part in the program ect.); and seven, the internship itself did not offer relevant experience.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth
No, no, it's like reading about Mayan civilization or West African kingdoms, learning about Tibetan Buddhist esoteric sexual practices, how electro-magnetic fields regulate life on Earth and how plate tectonics cause earthquakes and shape the continents. That's what my college education taught me. What did yours teach you?
You can do some of this with electives. However unless declare a minor, wish to have larger course loads or stay longer, you will only have a handful of times to do this. For my electives I learned about post Civil War US history, early rock n roll (up through the 70's), fairy tales, simple chemistry (no lab), geology, odds, race & gender in the media and astronomy. On top of normal gen eds and business courses.
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Education and the greater view that comes with it
it's like reading about Mayan civilization or West African kingdoms, learning about Tibetan Buddhist esoteric sexual practices, how electro-magnetic fields regulate life on Earth and how plate tectonics cause earthquakes and shape the continents. That's what my college education taught me. What did yours teach you?
