Elite Colleges "Blind-sided" by Perceptions of Elitism

[JurisDictum]

Originally Posted by Spyder73 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Fake news

Only 6.7% of the world holds a bachelors degree or equivalent. In USA I think its like 25%.

It's 39% of millennials already and most of them aren't even 30 yet....with so many going to school in their later 20's these days...I'm telling you its going to be higher.

59% have already done some college.

Gen Z will be even more.

The reason is not college downgrading entirely...its actually mostly about the fact that no one can get a job that pays well and they think (sometimes correctly) this will help.

Edit: While we don't talk about this as much in America as in Europe -- one of the best things to do with a degree is take it abroad where only 3% of the population has a U.S. quality degree.

[loramin]

Originally Posted by Spyder73 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

There are a lot of sh!t degrees available is the problem. You should not be able to get a PhD in history for example, it devalues the entire education system.

Pretty much all non-math non-science degrees devalue the educational system now that I think about it.

As a former Modern Literature major (Education minor) who is now a programming team lead, I couldn't disagree more.

The sciences provide you with knowledge, true ... but most of it isn't very useful in a practical sense. Just ask most real-world scientists how much Organic Chemistry they actually use in their job, or ask any Psychiatrist if they can even remember their Statistics class [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] The same is true for "Computer Science": while you certainly do learn some useful knowledge about programming, 90% of it is stuff no one ever uses on the job.

It turns out this is by design: colleges aren't trade schools. The latter teach marketable knowledge, while the former teach academic knowledge. So then why would anyone even go to college if it's not for the knowledge? And why would anyone major in the humanities, where the knowledge is 100% useless unless you go into academia yourself?

Well for one thing, most jobs expect that they'll have to train new college grads. Even if you graduated magna cum laude in Economics that won't be enough for you to succeed as a financial analyst; whatever firm hires you will wind up teaching you. But then why don't these firms just hire high school grads?

The answer is skills and experience. I wrote A LOT of essays in college. Like maybe five per class/quarter (for three classes for twelve quarters = maybe 180 essays?) Believe it or not, they made me a better programmer. Programming requires the same kind of logical thinking that you use to make an argument in a Literature essay, and the same communicative ability that one needs to properly name classes/functions, write useful documentation, etc.

I'm not the only one who feels this way. I went to school with a guy who co-founded the Django framework (the dominant framework used to make websites in Python). He was a Literature major also. Another talented programmer on my team was a Chinese Literature major, another was formerly a PhD in Biology, and another (the best junior engineer I've ever known) had a major in Criminology. I could keep going but you get the idea.

The point is, a good liberal arts education provides you with experience and skills that are valuable in many "knowledge worker" professions ... even if the actual liberal arts knowledge is only good for finding obscure references in shows like Lost or the Librarians [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]