Worth a full read to appreciate the scope of pretzel twisting being employed by administrators to justify costs to parents.
Carleton College Academics -- The courses and majors show a never-ending "proper thinking" LIBERAL creation factory.
Given their parents can afford $58K a year for tuition, I seriously doubt finding a job is a priority for many of these students. If their minds are property marinated in LIBERAL "thought," they will easily fit in with fellow travelers Al Gore-Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton and that crowd.
a really smart kid or family would just take the $60K a year and come up with a financial plan for the kid to live independently, get a degree, work and invest
If I was 18 again and knew what I know now- $240K in 4 years- would set me up for life!
I would never hire someone I or a trusted colleague didn’t know. Resumes, recommendations, degrees, even interviews — they’re only good for hiring temps.
Personal networking is the way good jobs are got.
Since it hasn’t been mentioned, Carleton is where Wellstone taught prior to running for Senate. I grew up in Northfield and graduated with his son, David. Northfield is also home to St. Olaf college. They are both beautiful campasses, and very liberal.
This is the part where if he doesn't have a fully paid scholarship, dad is supposed to step in and say "THE HELL I'M PAYING FOR THIS - GET A REAL DEGREE AND MINOR IN MUSIC!"
WTF?!?!? That's enough to start up a small business and sustain it for a short term which would be long enough for a REAL EDUCATION...
Unreal - what a bunch of suckers these fools are.
A student graduates from college with an Accounting degree, gets his first job and asks, “How can we make it cheaper?”
A student graduates from college with an Engineering degree, gets his first job and asks, “How can we make it better?”
A student graduates from college with an Liberal Arts degree, gets his first job and asks, “Do you want fries with that?”
““The value of the liberal arts education is that it trains you very broadly to think and write and express yourself and analyze problems,” he said. That, he said, is why most students choose a school like Carleton”
I love this old saw. Somehow this presumes that, say, a degree in Electrical Engineering neglected to get to the point of thinking and solving problems.
In the end, it’s intelligence, creativity, and adaptability that matters long-term for success.
intelligence, creativity, and adaptability is more readily found in majors that require students to exercise, hone and develop those traits - and exclude those who do not have those innate aptitudes.
Usually those lacking the requisite innate aptitudes for generalized success end up in Liberal Arts programs - where it’s easier to pretend (up until graduation) that a student is intelligent, creative, and adaptable.
I would have to say MOST bachelors degrees, if they’re not in a specific professional program that is science or math based (nursing, engineering etc) are no better or worse. Years ago I noticed, that when I hired undergraduates with “business” degrees, they could not write coherent reports or conduct research.
English and history majors were quite versatile, and very adaptable when working on marketing projects.
The baccalaureate with a concentration in one of the liberal arts is intended to make one a better person. That is its purpose, its reason for being.
I was an English major (before the fall of English), and there is not one day in my life as a physician that I don’t constructively use something I didn’t know before I went to college.
However, if anyone thinks that getting a bachelor’s degree in one of the liberal arts will lead to getting a job or making money, then they are too stupid to go to college in the first place.
Be well prepared to fill out a welfare application form.
What can you do with a Liberal Arts degree? Ask Johnny.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7fchtEJpy8&t=0m6s
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.
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.
Fact is, most Liberal Arts degrees only qualify you to teach the next generation of Liberal Arts majors - so if you can’t get a teacher or professor job you are out of luck. I have spoken with music and theater majors that think they are going to make a living playing an instrument, singing or acting. Good luck with that. A very few do, the vast majority teach or starve.
Also, I believe people should have these as minors, not majors -- I love history, but majored in mechanical engineering