2 ms·

A good point well made. The problem is that we're all told 'go to college'. What we're not told is 'go to college and learn a worthwhile skill'. Personally I

by brc 15y ago

A good point well made. The problem is that we're all told 'go to college'. What we're not told is 'go to college and learn a worthwhile skill'. Personally I think the value of a college degree has dropped enormously while the cost has risen. Thus these types of calculations are going to look even skinnier 20 or 30 years down the track. Again, I'm not agitating to not go to college, but I would counsel any college-entry age students into asking what the real-world skills they are getting, and whether it is really worth the cost of admission. Sometimes it's a binary choice - you can't work in a field without a degree. In other cases, it's much less cut and dried. This particularly applies to higher degrees, where the marginal benefit of each additional qualification drops lower and lower.

rcfox 15y ago
> The problem is that we're all told 'go to college'. > What we're not told is 'go to college and learn a worthwhile skill'. I almost agree with this. I think that there is some ideal number of humanities students to be cranked out of universities per year, but we're way over that. As a result, the demand can't meet the supply. In fact, the demand might be reduced due to the troubles involved in filtering through the flood of applicants. The real problem is that universities behave like anything else: they'd rather make a quick buck. They admit way more humanities students than are needed because they can make more money that way. Engineering students cost a lot of money, they're whiny, and they smell bad. (Disclaimer: I was a whiny engineering student.) Why would you want more of them when you could surround yourself with kids who cost less and will pay you tons of money just to get away from their parents?
- brc 15y ago
  Yes, I kind of agree, but I don't blame the universities. They merely respond to demand for humanities by teaching them what they want. I don't want to live in the type of place where students are effectively denied their choice even if it is a stupid choice looking from a monetary point of view. If kids with rich parents want to learn greek literature on their parents dime, well, good luck to them and I hope they get laid with their ability to wear a toga with panache. It's up to the students to work out for themselves that they're doing a pointless thing, and that it won't pay off. I suspect this is partly an information problem and partly a societal problem - there's too much emphasis on going to college as a social marker and not enough emphasis of what happens when you finish. Maybe there's a good website weekend project in there to do an cost/benefit analysis of different types of study which calculates the debt, the 1 year, 5 year and 10 year salary ranges for the graduate, and also compares other non-college trades and vocations for equivalent payoffs.

by brc 15y ago

rcfox 15y ago

> The problem is that we're all told 'go to college'. > What we're not told is 'go to college and learn a worthwhile skill'. I almost agree with this. I think that there is some ideal number of humanities students to be cranked out of universities per year, but we're way over that. As a result, the demand can't meet the supply. In fact, the demand might be reduced due to the troubles involved in filtering through the flood of applicants. The real problem is that universities behave like anything else: they'd rather make a quick buck. They admit way more humanities students than are needed because they can make more money that way. Engineering students cost a lot of money, they're whiny, and they smell bad. (Disclaimer: I was a whiny engineering student.) Why would you want more of them when you could surround yourself with kids who cost less and will pay you tons of money just to get away from their parents?

brc 15y ago
Yes, I kind of agree, but I don't blame the universities. They merely respond to demand for humanities by teaching them what they want. I don't want to live in the type of place where students are effectively denied their choice even if it is a stupid choice looking from a monetary point of view. If kids with rich parents want to learn greek literature on their parents dime, well, good luck to them and I hope they get laid with their ability to wear a toga with panache. It's up to the students to work out for themselves that they're doing a pointless thing, and that it won't pay off. I suspect this is partly an information problem and partly a societal problem - there's too much emphasis on going to college as a social marker and not enough emphasis of what happens when you finish. Maybe there's a good website weekend project in there to do an cost/benefit analysis of different types of study which calculates the debt, the 1 year, 5 year and 10 year salary ranges for the graduate, and also compares other non-college trades and vocations for equivalent payoffs.