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 ...
Reading is self guided but you are still learning from others. The entire premise of academia is that the student requires a professor to tell them the significance of what the author plainly stated.
I would think tha a yak urine sample collector would require a an advanced specialist degree.
And that most liberal arts degrees don’t impart what they did 50 years ago.
A true professor can help your mind grow. A lot.
I majored in English, and the things that authors "plainly state" is pretty short.
Very surprised your J school professors didn’t convince you that coal and oil are evil and nasty as well as anyone associated with them.
What can you do with a Liberal Arts degree? Ask Johnny.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7fchtEJpy8&t=0m6s
Thanks—but sometimes it is painful to be right.
I was thinking more of text books than novels and plays. That said, only the author of a novel can tell you what they intended, everyone else is just telling you what they took away.
My son also said he wanted to study music in college. He too had a friend who was going to study music. I told him if that was what he really wanted he should give it his best shot because he probably would not have a chance later in life.
He now makes a good living as a musician and he and his wife are raising four wonderful sons. The friend is also a professional musician.
Sometimes a passion for an impractical line of study does lead to success.
Further devaluation of degrees are the 1. plethora of types of degrees and 2. more people getting more degrees.
Technical fields now have degrees that 10 yrs ago required only experience or an associates deg. To my second point,
everyone has one (a bachelors) - the new high school equivalent.
Surprisingly not.
Unfortunately today most colleges do not provide a classic liberal arts education. It is mostly progressive pablum that is taught today. I was a liberal arts major — many years ago. I got a well-rounded education. I wouldn’t recommend a liberal arts degree to any high school senior today.
I agree. I wouldn’t even recommend most Catholic colleges, outside of about 10.
One of the reasons why I went to school for engineering was, “they can’t tell me that 2+2=5.” My instincts were correct.
Did you have any native English speaking professors?
Or did you learn Mandarin Chinese to participate in class and understand the prof?
Half the teachers were American and half were from India, etc.
I should have specified “student”.
Amyhow, the number of natural born Americans in my program was negligible. Most I knew were taking subjects like, Psychology, Business Administration, or Pre-law, all subjects that we don’t need many more graduates from, IMHO.
Had I taken Mandarin or Hindi it might have helped me in some of my Math classes. LOL.
There certainly were, and I presume still are, liberals there. I recognized Wellstone as a liberal true believer after the reading my first issue of the school paper. After my second I began to see him as the biggest liberal activist in the state. But in my case no liberal marinade soaked in and I never felt any liberal political pressure applied to me. Advanced brainwashing must have been available my senior RA did end up on Hillary's health care task force and another classmate worked in Clinton's WH but it wasn't intrusively thrown at everyone. Happily she was worthless as a RA. Maybe I missed some via my own course selections. I mostly avoided the social sciences as they didn't interest me. My english and history selections were fairly classical. My parents and an uncle were alumni. My only political science course wasn't from Wellstone, but rather from my uncle's old adviser. His generation of Carleton profs turned out great future parents. Two of my folk's classmates produced Limbaugh's chief of staff, although he didn't follow them to Carleton as I had.
During my time at Carleton everyone was bright. Alas being bright doesn't alone make one wise. Carleton had more National Merit Scholars than any other non-University in the country. The quality of the student's minds made for some fun discussions in the lounges when political subjects came up. Their baseline Minnesota liberal programming didn't hold up well to reason and they understood reason to recognize my points.
Carleton is a place where a 'liberal' education in the apolitical 'broad based' sense is common. It is and was the most expensive school in Minnesota because it was the best school in Minnesota. Actually it was then the best rated west of Pennsylvania; IIRC my freshman year US News ranked us #4 in the country amongst nationally drawing liberal arts colleges. Even during the Carter economy you got your money's worth there. I agree a liberal arts education is not for everyone. Too many go down that path and for that matter probably too many are going to college in general. But we need some people to go down that path and Carleton is a place that can teach them properly. Tuition is high, but I don't think it's increased as much since graduation at Carleton as it has at my medical school. There is and was a lot of student aide available for those in need. Federal student aide, including federally backed loans, should be phased out in favor of private, state and local aide. Big Academia will contract. I believe Carleton will survive that.
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