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I also imagine this is a highly bimodal distribution skewed downward even more by the fact that there are far more adjuncts barely scraping by than fully tenured professors who usually make at least a fairly comfortable living. But the academia ladder is certainly not an easy one to climb.
Yes. Not everyone is successful. This is true of all careers.
Adjuncts are merely instructors. They are not on a career track at a university. Often, they have another job... typically in the industry.
I don’t think that’s true at all. While my classes included a couple of less than stellar professors, I thought that most of my teachers were great, and I went to a large, flagship-level, public research university that was plenty respectable but hardly prestigious.
Yes and no, depending on the field. This is most accurate to the extent that local colleges and universities carry significantly more weight within their immediate geographic regions.
Can you elaborate? What did I say in the thread that you linked that you don’t agree with?
I think my disagreement is quite clear in my posts in that thread. I’m not trying to antagonize you (and am only going further down this road because you asked). But I think this is why I (and perhaps some other posters) take some of your posts with a grain of salt.
I have no problem with you personally and only wish you the best. But there’s a bitter edge to your perspective that you seem to conflate with universal negative tendencies and experiences in higher education.
I think my disagreement is quite clear in my posts in that thread. I’m not trying to antagonize you (and am only going further down this road because you asked). But I think this is why I (and perhaps some other posters) take some of your posts with a grain of salt.
I have no problem with you personally and only wish you the best. But there’s a bitter edge to your perspective that you seem to conflate with universal negative tendencies and experiences in higher education.
But it still ignores money, which I think is a mistake.
Sounds like there was some sort of deal going on between those colleges and your kids’ high school.
In any case, location is a legitimate criterion for students to consider. I wanted a college that was too far to come home to for a regular weekend, but close enough to come home to for a 3 day or longer weekend. But keep in mind that in my case, that zone includes many colleges, so I really was not limiting myself much in that way.
No, because my understanding was that college professors were poor teachers at nearly every college, and by then I understood that employers only care about the piece of paper, not where it was from.
Money is a two-part equation- how much you spend to go to the school and how much you can expect to earn when you get out. For example, my sister’s best friend majored in engineering and had the option between a full scholarship at Flagship State U or a scholarship that allowed her in-state tuition at one of the other State U’s known for having an excellent engineering program. She chose the latter, did a 6-year coop program where she was working every other semester, and I think she was basically able to cover a lot of her expenses during the time she was actually in the schooling portion. She had a specific interest and was able to pursue it. I’m not sure that would have happened at Flagship State U and certainly wouldn’t have happened at Hometown Directional U.
I have a coworker who chose a specific private university for a couple of reasons. I think he came out with some student loans, but he absolutely doesn’t regret it. It’s a school that is known for the student experience and fantastic alumni network and by all accounts, he had a wonderful time there. I’ve certainly met a lot of people through the years who will only hire people from X or Y school, so a lot of times where the paper is from is just as important as actually having the piece of paper. A lot of times, it’s a simple as going to Flagship State U… it doesn’t have to be an expensive degree. For example, there was one family in my block growing up that was hugely into Flagship State U, which is one of the big football schools. One of the daughters got into sports management that way and I think did recruiting for Flagship S U for a while and maybe went onto doing stuff for other teams. I think another friend’s husband went there as well and ended up working on one of the state’s Super Bowl organizing teams.
Why is it that it seems that the groups that want to skip reading and writing courses in college are almost always engineers and, to a lesser extent, people in Business Administration?
IME as an Accounting major, because humanities-type courses tended to be very reading and writing heavy, and grades were based on less tangible metrics. For example, in my accounting and accounting-adjacent courses (finance, economics, business), as long as I was able to conceptualize the coursework, I easily passed the tests. Contrast that with say, a history course, it could take weeks to churn out a good research paper, only to lose points because some of the footnotes were wonky and the thesis statement didn’t wow the professor.
Ironically, I ended up changing to a humanities major, but that’s a whole other story, and a choice I have yet to regret.
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