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To add, if a person is genuinely interested in a social science (art, history, theology, English, etc) he can pretty much learn a lot of that on his own. It is pretty tough to learn engineering, physics, math, or chemistry on your own, without the labs and guidance.
I don't think this is as true because of the enormous amount of informational resources we have today. The Internet is a very powerful tool. I could very easily buy a math book at half.com and use Google as a supplemental resource for finding tutorials to problem sets, etc. But, as a math major or an engineer, I can see why one might want others to believe this. It only helps to protect the belief that the skillset for their particular profession is somehow more unattainable than other professions.
To add, if a person is genuinely interested in a social science (art, history, theology, English, etc) he can pretty much learn a lot of that on his own. It is pretty tough to learn engineering, physics, math, or chemistry on your own, without the labs and guidance.
Graduate level psycology also requires "labs" with subjects in order to develop a thesis or disertation.
Graduate level psycology also requires "labs" with subjects in order to develop a thesis or disertation.
Depending on the program, undergraduate level does, too. And those courses that don't have labs may have discussion classes where students go over problem sets or review a particular topic that was touched on in lecture. Of course, I can only speak from my own experience. Where I went to school, there was at least one discussion class per course (and sometimes more). These were typically smaller classroom settings where students would delve more deeply into a topic(s) that was lectured on by the professor.
I'm beginning to feel this disenchantment with coporate life. I used to love it. Now as I spend my days cutting-n-pasting from one Excel spreadsheet to another, I feel my life wasting away.
I think a lot of the OP's rant, which I see little related response to here is that a "professional" nowadays often means working far beyond 40 hours/week with no extra pay (except for bonuses, which can be substantial, but in this fiscal environment, that is vanishing too) on a regular basis and little of the "perks" that the "extra hours work" of professionals were when many of us were growing up.
30, 40 or 50 years ago, we were all told/saw how blue-collar, workers had lots of "hard work" (because it was often physical, or outdoors, or in rough/tough enviroments) and had to work lots of extra hours to get decent pay and how "professionals" had pretty leisurly jobs with high salaries. Managers basically sat and supervised the workers and had meetings, and their "overtime work" not paid for was going on trips in planes to hotels or golf outings with clients and while on the plane or in the hotel your time not at the convention or meeting was "leisure" paid for by the company. And while medical residencies and surgeons still had long, brutul hours and jobs, graduating from that tough residency was your family doctor who had his or her nice quiet office where they saw patients from maybe 10-6 with one day/week of evening hours to cover the working people. Lawyers often worked a lot of extra hours even then, but not their every waking hour like most do today.
But nowadays "office professionals" mean spending 50, 60, sometimes even 70 hours/week in a drab office (often without a window) looking at a computer screen or being on the phone. And modern technology means you "work" on the plane or in the hotel if your office budget even allows that business trip (or the "business trip" is now a video conference in yet another windowless room). Shrinking budgets mean less or no golf outings or company parties, or client dinners. And the concept of "salary" has been so abused in this new environment that many blue-collar workers would far surpass the pay of some white-collar professionals if they worked the amount of hours (and related overtime pay) that many "salaried" office workers do.
So I think that's the point. It's one thing when you have some accomplishments, but your reward is you can enjoy life a little from time to time, but even when I hit 40 (not long ago) I started to wondering if I want to spend every minute of my life doing Excel spreadsheets and Power Point presentations, etc. and too much of office life is like that now.
Graduate level psycology also requires "labs" with subjects in order to develop a thesis or disertation.
That's true, but the context of this thread seemed to be undergrad to job transition. Regardless of major, coursework and research at the graduate, doctoral, and post doctoral levels are very demanding and can be rewarding.
If you have any doubts don't do it- find a trade, be a teacher, or a nurse, or something. Think its a ticket to a job? its a ticket to coping. Sure there are plenty of people who don't have a problem with it, but if you aren't one of them, please resconsider. You only have one life.
I should be a proud business owner in about a year or 2. One thing I said about the business that I buy is, It will not be a suite and tie environment at all. I cannot stand the "professional" life or look. I did 12 years in that world and I felt like the most unauthentic person ever. I cannot stand networking with suits and ties and the chipper voice tone. I want to show up wearing a NY Yankees hat and Timberland boots. I want folks to not even know I am the owner.
For every college educated person that wishes he didn't go to college, there are 69 non-college educated people who wish they had.
It's easier for a college educated person to find a job that doesn't require a college education than it is for a non college educated person to find a job that requires a college education.
As far as college is concerned, it depends on the major. Which will result in more lifetime earnings, Art History from Harvard, or Electrical Engineering from Cal State Northridge?
The Art History major, because he/she rubbed shoulders in classes/extracurricular activities alongside the people that are going to be running the country in the near future. Either that, or he/she went on to law school or business school, like a large portion of Ivy graduates do.
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