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Colleges should not even offer loans for non-viable majors. Picking a major should not be like Indiana Jones picking which grail to drink from.

fossuser 7y ago
Even better would be true market rate pricing for majors. Why are all majors 4 years? Why does a poetry major cost the same as an engineering major? The universities say there's value in a liberal arts education beyond actual economic value? Fine, but someone is going to be subsidizing it somewhere - if the schools actually value it beyond the market rate and want to donate funds from more economically viable majors to it then fine, but it shouldn't be the students paying for the overpriced poetry degree. If degree costs were reflective of their true economic value then there would be less risk. An economically useless degree would at least be cheap in cost (if not in time). All majors being the same length and cost is a sign that something is broken.
matwood 7y ago
> Colleges should not even offer loans for non-viable majors. Oddly enough, a couple of the best programmers I have ever work with are now CTOs at their respective companies. One of them had an english degree and the other a music degree. Just yesterday there was an article here on HN about the importance of writing. So, which majors would you consider non-viable?
- someguydave 7y ago
  Would you agree that their college education was a waste of time and money?
  - matwood 7y ago
    Not at all. In fact the english degree is probably one of the more useful degrees to have. Knowing how to write and communicate effectively is key to many jobs, and is useful over an entire career. I should add, that he told me he even felt this way. I'm not so sure about the music degree, but I can see the general skills of being detail oriented and working with a team as an IC to create something bigger as key life skills useful in any job. Meanwhile, I got a CS degree when OO was big and nearly minored in business. I haven't looked at OO in years for programming, but the business courses I took have been key every step of my career. I wish I had taken more writing classes.

fossuser 7y ago

Even better would be true market rate pricing for majors. Why are all majors 4 years? Why does a poetry major cost the same as an engineering major? The universities say there's value in a liberal arts education beyond actual economic value? Fine, but someone is going to be subsidizing it somewhere - if the schools actually value it beyond the market rate and want to donate funds from more economically viable majors to it then fine, but it shouldn't be the students paying for the overpriced poetry degree. If degree costs were reflective of their true economic value then there would be less risk. An economically useless degree would at least be cheap in cost (if not in time). All majors being the same length and cost is a sign that something is broken.

matwood 7y ago

> Colleges should not even offer loans for non-viable majors. Oddly enough, a couple of the best programmers I have ever work with are now CTOs at their respective companies. One of them had an english degree and the other a music degree. Just yesterday there was an article here on HN about the importance of writing. So, which majors would you consider non-viable?

someguydave 7y ago
Would you agree that their college education was a waste of time and money?
- matwood 7y ago
  Not at all. In fact the english degree is probably one of the more useful degrees to have. Knowing how to write and communicate effectively is key to many jobs, and is useful over an entire career. I should add, that he told me he even felt this way. I'm not so sure about the music degree, but I can see the general skills of being detail oriented and working with a team as an IC to create something bigger as key life skills useful in any job. Meanwhile, I got a CS degree when OO was big and nearly minored in business. I haven't looked at OO in years for programming, but the business courses I took have been key every step of my career. I wish I had taken more writing classes.