Posted on 11/03/2013 1:42:10 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
....she was a little nervous when her son told her he wanted to major in music in college.
She knew that was his passion. But as a mom, she was hoping hed pick something a little more practical.
That may explain why Hardy, a professor of classics at Carleton College, is so sympathetic to a new program designed to help her own students find a career that pays the bills.
This fall, Carleton launched an interactive website, called Pathways,as a one-stop shop for those who wonder how to turn a history or philosophy degree into a meaningful career.
At the same time, its asking professors who teach subjects from French to womens studies to Shakespeare to take on a new role:advising students to start career planning as soon as they arrive on campus.
When I got here 20 years ago, I know I would have found it almost offensive, Hardy said. But theres been a culture shift.
At todays prices, even elite schools like Carleton, in Northfield,are feeling the pressure to justify the value of a liberal arts education. [Its]a hot-button issue, said...associate dean and a professor of religious studies. Especially among parents.
Theyre spending all this money on a college education; they want their students to have something marketable when they finish,he said.
Paths to Life after Carleton
Carleton, one of the most selective liberal arts colleges in the country, has no shortage of customers. In the past year,it had 14 applicants for every spot in its current freshman class of 527. Its also the priciest college in Minnesota,at $58,000 a year for tuition, room and board.
.......The centerpiece of the site is the career path visualization,an interactive chart that shows where grads from individual majors ended up. Click on history majors,for example, and it shows them spread across the professions,from business,law and education to museum curators and actors....
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
As a computer science professor, its kind of sad when you see these kids who already have a BA or BS in something else show up wanting to join your major. These are typically people who did programming at some point in their lives, but were attracted to (or talked into) something else. After graduating, they found out the only jobs they could get were the same ones a HS graduate could get. The really sad part is that they wasted 4 years and have little more to show for it than debt. In that way, its worse than going back to square one.
I learned as a child that the A was for becoming a well-rounded person. The professional degrees were for becoming a professional person.
The second’s for the boardroom, and the first one’s for the door to beginning to get there by being able to talk to people in the first place.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2012/06/05/americas-best-paying-blue-collar-jobs-2/
Lots of high paying blue collar jobs. My son is a roughneck on an offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico making $65,000. When he was hired he had years of construction experience, but had never working in the oil industry. He’s on a 2 weeks on/2 weeks off schedule working 12 hrs. shifts.
It’s a hard job and rarely can someone over 40 y/o work like that, but he’s taking classes in petroleum services and hoping to eventually get an office job.
And you can get a lot of it on recordings from "The Teaching Company," or even free online. Not that I wouldn't love to be physically in class with J. Rufus Fears, and doing the writing assignments, but one has to be reasonable.
****develop marketing campaigns, develop advertising materials****
I hopefully believe you are one who sifts most of the “innovative” dreck from the portfolios that you dare to engage.
I can do all of that in abundance, and could do so before graduating high school.
We are not speaking of communicating with people, because all communication deals with culture primarily.
I would not be employed by anyone who was not engaged in moving the culture to the right, and I mean in creative and innovative ways that really mean something to the exposed audience.
I believe, success is never the guideline, improving the culture while making money is.
I’d venture to say that Carleston College and Hillsdale College are on opposite ends of the ideological spectrum.
I think he’ll find that Hillsdale and the rest of Michigan is a lot like home but colder. Its in the conservative 7th district and we have tea party congressman, Tim Walberg. Hillsdale itself is kind of a farm community.
If he’s into hunting and fishing he should feel right at home and Michigan will honor any firearms permits he may have.
Starts when you are born and ends when you draw that last breath. Most 18-22 year olds don't have the perspective to absorb a true liberal arts. Also, I think a 4 year intensive reading list would likely be of more use, and practically free.
Colleges like Carleton have distorted their course offerings far, far away from the classic "liberal arts".
A true liberal education included Latin, possibly Greek, English composition, and some "hard reasoning" courses - philosophy, history, literature. That taught one HOW to think and in the old days ("old" like Plato and the medieval Schoolmen) was preparation for the sciences - mathematics, astronomy, music (yep, music is a science).
For political reasons (and also because it was "too hard" to admit the general population and the slackers) this has been heavily watered down. The literature and history courses consist mostly of hard left grievance politics, and reasoning has disappeared from philosophy and history.
There are schools that are trying to keep up the old rigorous approach, but in an era of mass college education they will always be outliers.
One of the things that indicates where Hillsdale college is leading is the fact that they are no longer giving teaching degrees without a 4 year degree in something else.
We’re producing too many teachers who don’t know anything but teaching from a book and Hillsdale seeks to correct that.
You forgot “pizza delivery boy”. One summer when pursuing my engineering degree, I took an required English class. It turned out that the professor was pursuing his PHD in English, but delivering pizzas on the side.
“yak urine sample collector”
It is funny you mentioned that. I am now at the point where demand has left me no choice but to offer franchise opportunities to those willing to invest their capital, time and sweat equity into this new and exciting venture.
yak urine sample collector”
Sorry, that requires a degree in Animal Husbandy and if you were looking for a job doing it, you better have gone to Texas A&M.
Unfortunately while liberal arts depress are probably the most worthless degrees on the planet, today you need one to find even the most mundane job.
AAM,
What you have described is practically a course catalog from Christendom College.
That school is at the very tippety-top of my oldest son’s college list. We expect him to be admitted there to begin his studies next fall.
He spent a week down in VA on campus this summer, and we went to their Open House last month. It is a perfect fit for him. I would advise all Catholic parents (the school is VERY Catholic — and VERY orthodox in its Catholicism) to consider it for their children. Sandra Fluke and her ilk would not be as happy there as she they clearly are at Georgetown.
Regards,
These families really ought to consider what they can do with a degree before spending over 200K on it.
Avoiding restaurants where the waitstaff is mostly male. They have attitude like “I didn’t spend four years in college to wind up waiting tables”.
The thirtysomething waiters are worse. They got laid off.
I turned a J school degree into a top paying sales career in coal and oil products. The key was being a quick study and willingness to ask for the orders.
I’m willing to bet you would still prefer to hire a liberal arts major from a college such as Hillsdale, where the graduates are exposed to multiple points of view than one from your typical liberal arts college which takes something like global warming as a settled article of faith. Am I right?
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