"Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing" is also a good investment!
(the above was tpyed...tiped,,,TYPED with my own two fingers....four times, before I got it right)
:-)
Posted on 01/07/2014 6:29:39 AM PST by iowamark
In the field of higher education, reality is outrunning parody. A recent feature on the satire website the Onion proclaimed, "30-Year-Old Has Earned $11 More Than He Would Have Without College Education..."
"Patrick" shouldn't feel too bad. Many college graduates would be happy to be $11 ahead instead of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, behind. The credit-driven higher education bubble of the past several decades has left legions of students deep in debt without improving their job prospects. To make college a good value again, today's parents and students need to be skeptical, frugal and demanding. There is no single solution to what ails higher education in the U.S., but changes are beginning to emerge, from outsourcing to online education, and they could transform the system.
Though the GI Bill converted college from a privilege of the rich to a middle-class expectation, the higher education bubble really began in the 1970s, as colleges that had expanded to serve the baby boom saw the tide of students threatening to ebb. Congress came to the rescue with federally funded student aid, like Pell Grants and, in vastly greater dollar amounts, student loans.
Predictably enough, this financial assistance led colleges and universities to raise tuition and fees to absorb the resources now available to their students. As University of Michigan economics and finance professor Mark Perry has calculated, tuition for all universities, public and private, increased from 1978 to 2011 at an annual rate of 7.45%. By comparison, health-care costs increased by only 5.8%, and housing, notwithstanding the bubble, increased at 4.3%. Family incomes, on the other hand, barely kept up with the consumer-price index, which grew at an annual rate of 3.8%.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
I was and remain involved in higher education to some extent and I see this quite frequently. Young people need to learn to distinguish between a vocation and an avocation. As regards financing, accruing huge debt to put oneself through a “good” school studying something that is marginally useful in the economy is a luxury most people cannot afford. If they are going to do that, students would have been better advised to do it on the back of the military, which still offers fairly generous support for enlistment or officer training.
hard sciences and engineering
anythign else is stupid and only good for government jobs and politics
Pretty much. But a true liberal arts education is worth its weight in gold, since it prepares one for life, rather than a career.
Trouble is, finding a good classical education is difficult.
Still, for $35 you can get a good start with this book on Socratic Logic, and save yourself $50k.
Far too many pursue income-worthless degrees following their “passion” rather having their passion as a hobby and getting an education that is marketable. Doesn’t need to be a four-year college degree either.
The two most sought after degrees here at Texas universities are psychology and distributed studies (learn a little about a lot and not a lot about anything.)
I recently read in the San Antonio paper about a young woman that was thrilled to finally get a $15k/yr job in Dumas, Texas, way up in the God-forsaken panhandle. She has a masters in museum science.
> hard sciences and engineering
anythign else is stupid and only good for government jobs and politics
When my sonwent away to college I told him to do his research and find out whatvtypes of jobs would be in high demand that paid well. I told him to take. Good look into the future because he was going to need to earn a good living paying back those college loans. And he did. He knew engineering was a good bet because they will always be needed. He chose chemical engineering because he was good at chemistry and he loves math. He made the right choice. He graduated several years ago and got a job within the same year earning $60K right off the bat. He now makes $70K and has been selected for management where his pay can climb past $100K. Proud of him and he’s smart as a whip. He also said he doesn’t approve of 0 anymore. A two’fer (he was brineashed for a little bit by the university indoctrination system)
When my sonwent away to college I told him to do his research and find out what types of jobs would be in high demand that paid well. I told him to take a good look into the future because he was going to need to earn a good living paying back those college loans. And he did. He knew engineering was a good bet because they will always be needed. He chose chemical engineering because he was good at chemistry and he loves math. He made the right choice. He graduated several years ago and got a job within the same year earning $60K right off the bat. He now makes $70K and has been selected for management where his pay can climb past $100K. Proud of him and he’s smart as a whip. He also said he doesn’t approve of 0 anymore. A two’fer (he was braineashed for a little bit by the university indoctrination system)
In order to actually learn to read Latin and Greek easily, you still need the guidance of experienced instructors. And once you learn, and start reading classical texts, you still need guidance to understand the context and significance of what you are reading.
True. Such an education teaches a person how to think. I am doing some research right now on the college educations of our Founding Fathers. Fifty percent of them graduated from one of the colonial colleges. They all got a degree in philosophy because that was the only course offered. Their degree in philosophy prepared them for further study in divinity or law. But, the capstone of the education was their precise training in moral philosophy, virtue and ethics. The colleges were expected to prepare the men to be good judges and good preachers. Would that our present colleges took such an interest in the virtue of their students. BTW - those BA's in philosophy are equal to a PhD today.
Reynolds covers most of the key points, but one he misses is grade inflation - at Harvard, as I recall, the most common grade is an “A”, and the the average grade is an “A-”.
I doubt all those Harvard kids are busting their humps - at schools like the Ivies, admission is essentially a guarantee of graduation, as long as the kids at least show up for the exams - the amount of value added from class attendance is tough to determine.
As regards majors, the fundamental sciences and engineering fields typically do maintain some standards, and often rigorous ones - a student will generally have to put in some effort to get through majors in those areas, and will generally have a leg up in looking for a job after graduation.
And in general, almost any major with the word “studies” in it is border-line worthless (although I was kind of amazed to find out that one of my favorite authors, Tom Wolfe, earned his degrees in “American Studies” - that doesn’t exactly fit in the “victim studies” category, however).
Majors in the fine arts and traditional liberal arts are viable for kids who have a real passion for those fields, as long as they realize they probably won’t be able to make a living in the theater or pursuing history - they need to make sure they develop their analytical and communicative skills (especially writing and communicating orally) so they can sell their talents outside their major field.
All of those worthless majors graduates now comprise a vast and growing constituency to have the Government “make jobs” for them.
The market on new engineers is very weak. Science degrees (chemistry, biology, etc) are a dime a dozen, and are also not that high paying unless you go beyond a bachelors.
There are exceptions, and hard work will get you far, but I cringe when I hear people pushing STEM degrees. Your son was driven, many of these kids I have ran into expect a high paying job right out the door and don't think about the soft side of things.
Someone who can make a living on a single college degree majored in engineering, accounting or something with real world application
"Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing" is also a good investment!
(the above was tpyed...tiped,,,TYPED with my own two fingers....four times, before I got it right)
:-)
anythign else is stupid and only good for government jobs and politics
Not everyone has the aptitude for hard sciences or engineering. My B.S. in accounting and M.B.A. in finance served me well and I was able to retire early and comfortably.
oops- real stuff like that I should have included.
I am talking about ‘political science’ or ‘19th century french literature’ and other useless degrees
(just kidding about useless...)
LOL I think Mavis’ business is on a path to extinction.
My 4 yr old grandkids keyboard like little demons already.
What you are failing to understand is that if you make it into one of those programs, you already have a track record of busting your hump. The likelihood that a kid does nothing more than show up for the exams after being accepted is extremely low.
The museum in Dumas is really nice, and I believe it is free to the public. Stop by if you are ever that way.
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