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Why wouldn't "no jobs lol" dissuade you though? Unless you already have money or a connection to it you're probably going to need a job so getting an education

Why wouldn't "no jobs lol" dissuade you though? Unless you already have money or a connection to it you're probably going to need a job so getting an education that doesn't help with that seems like a huge problem. When I was in school I took a triple major so I could study two unemployable things I liked and computer science so I could get a job. I had the benefit of wealthy parents paying my way so it didn't matter that I took extra time to complete my triple major. Still, in my unemployable studies I'd often meet people saying things like "I'm studying English, so going to be unemployed, ha ha" like it was a joke. I always wanted to grab them by the shoulders and shake them and scream "This is real life. You really will be unemployed!"

maximus-decimus 5y ago
I think what he's saying is there's a survivorship bias i.e. 100% of history bachelors don't care about job prospects because the people who did already quit the field or never entered it. As to why it wouldn't dissuade them... some people are more passionate than other I suppose.
- ALittleLight 5y ago
  I don't believe it's passion. You could easily study history at the undergraduate level for zero cost. Nevermind reading on your own - if you just showed up on the first day of class and acted like you are a student nobody would check. You could probably just tell the professors you just wanted to listen. I can't imagine they'd say no. I think very few people do that. I think it's not passion but just a general social pressure towards getting a college degree. On top of that, history, or the humanities, is a pretty easy degree to get. Students who like history more than their options will go there, not from passion, but a desire to get a degree at least cost.
  - maximus-decimus 5y ago
    Obviously if 100% of students were free loaders, they just wouldn't offer the class so it's not a real option. Even then, you wouldn't have the assignment, the dissertations, the feed-back and I doubt the teacher will be as available. A big part of the cost of doing a degree is the opportunity cost of not working anyway. If your university fees are 10k per year (not unrealistic in Canada), but you could be working a 40k/year job instead, the real cost is 50k/year so you would only really be saving 20%... 20% for the privilege of an incomplete experience, no testing to verify you grasp the concepts, no possibility of doing a masters and no diploma to show for it. Roaming classes is like buying a Mitsubishi mirage. Sure, it's a car... but you can have a car that's twice as good for 20% more.

maximus-decimus 5y ago

I think what he's saying is there's a survivorship bias i.e. 100% of history bachelors don't care about job prospects because the people who did already quit the field or never entered it. As to why it wouldn't dissuade them... some people are more passionate than other I suppose.

ALittleLight 5y ago
I don't believe it's passion. You could easily study history at the undergraduate level for zero cost. Nevermind reading on your own - if you just showed up on the first day of class and acted like you are a student nobody would check. You could probably just tell the professors you just wanted to listen. I can't imagine they'd say no. I think very few people do that. I think it's not passion but just a general social pressure towards getting a college degree. On top of that, history, or the humanities, is a pretty easy degree to get. Students who like history more than their options will go there, not from passion, but a desire to get a degree at least cost.
- maximus-decimus 5y ago
  Obviously if 100% of students were free loaders, they just wouldn't offer the class so it's not a real option. Even then, you wouldn't have the assignment, the dissertations, the feed-back and I doubt the teacher will be as available. A big part of the cost of doing a degree is the opportunity cost of not working anyway. If your university fees are 10k per year (not unrealistic in Canada), but you could be working a 40k/year job instead, the real cost is 50k/year so you would only really be saving 20%... 20% for the privilege of an incomplete experience, no testing to verify you grasp the concepts, no possibility of doing a masters and no diploma to show for it. Roaming classes is like buying a Mitsubishi mirage. Sure, it's a car... but you can have a car that's twice as good for 20% more.