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Angela Christine posted:Right, and that's the trap. A lot of students study things that are interesting, rather than things that are useful. Stuff that helps you make witty conversation, not stuff that helps you get a good job. Which is fine if your family is independently wealthy and you are just going to school to pick up class markers and make connections. It's not such a great idea for the lower middle class who have no college fund and are going tens of thousands into debt because psychology or english lit is super interesting. A STEM degree isn’t necessarily some magic ticket to a six-figure job, though. What’s a Bachelor’s in Math going to get you—a cushy job at the local cosine factory? A lot of people in those fields end up going to grad school for a more practical Master’s in teaching or library science, anyway—nobody’s really chomping at the bit to get a physics major in the office. The point of college isn’t just to acquire knowledge in a specific field; in theory, people are supposed to be acquiring skills like critical reading, time management, how to formulate/express/defend ideas coherently, do research with a discerning eye, and so on. Every degree is worthless, if you don’t know how to hustle. You also have to consider that, 1) not everyone is cut out for STEM or business or other "useful" degrees, and 2) funneling people into those "useful" degree programs is going to create a glut of job candidates looking for work in the same fields. What's the point of being a struggling student with mediocre grades and no interest in the career I'm training for? Especially if you have to distinguish yourself from the graduates with the genuine passion, talent, and desire to excel in Finance or Chemistry or whatever? Especially if there's a surplus of job candidates--which is something that's happened with "useful" careers like nurses, teachers, and even librarians. You may as well play to your strengths and actually make the most of both college and yourself. A degree in English isn't exceptional, but a degree in English with a 3.8 GPA and membership in the Golden Key Society stands out far more than a 2.1 GPA in Accounting and the dread of being stuck in that job forever. This girl’s problem isn’t that she got a BA in English. Yelp girl’s problem is that she expected to land a good job right out of college, with no work experience, at the age of 25. My sister has a BA in English, and has an awesome job: she’s a technical/promotional writer and personal assistant for the CEO of a local company. (Perks include accompanying her boss on business trips and getting a personal spending account to blow on whatever her little heart desires. Girl got trashed in the sauna of a four-star hotel in Beijing on the company’s dime.) My sister was lucky to have a connection that got her in the door for that job—but she also made her own luck by working hard (like creating content more substantial than a cutesy Twitter account), being smart, accumulating experience, and promoting herself in a thoughtful and appealing manner. Shoot, right now I’m fielding job prospects from the state for $39K entry-level positions; meanwhile, the supervisor at my county job is trying to cut my probationary period short and secure my position as Permanent. Once I hit the one-year mark, I’m eligible for transfers, promotions, and a free college education up to a Master’s. My degree is a “worthless” BA in History, something I studied because I’m interested in it. I wasn’t hired because they need someone with in-depth knowledge of Galileo’s persecution by the Catholic Church. Angela Christine posted:As a dumb first year student I remember thinking that since I struggled with high school math (got Cs) that I'd probably be bad at calculus and college level science, so I shouldn't do that. I was really good at sociology, cultural anthropology, and psychology and those subjects are interesting to me, but they don't lead to any particular careers. I cleverly decided that if I didn't go to college at all I would be poor, while if I went and took something not-career related I still might not get a very good job and be beggared by debt, but at least I'd bee well educated. Being poor and educated is better than being poor and ignorant, right? The thing is, having a college education isn't a guarantee that you'll have a lucrative career, but not having a college education is an obstacle to getting a lucrative career. You can work around it--lots of people do very well without a degree--but it's still an impediment. Having a degree has never stopped anyone from establishing a career.
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Feb 26, 2016 20:51
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chemosh6969 posted:Picking on a BS in Math is easy. It's the autism child of STEM. The other degrees have learned to use Math with other skills instead of flipping out and counting toothpicks when someone spills them. It's going to depend on what sector of the work force you're talking about. I work for the county, and we don't really need that many accountants or chemical engineers: we need people to deal with clients. We need people with backgrounds in Finance more than STEM fields, and we need people with customer service experience and some sort of college education, more than we need people with Accounting degrees. My department's stretched to its limit, and I don't even want to think about how overworked the people in Medicare are going to be as the baby boomers continue aging and living forever. Aralan posted:Actually, while the computer science part of my degree has certainly gotten me most of my work, every time I apply for a job they always comment on and sound impressed about the physics double major I had with it. I'm pretty sure it's a big part of the reason I've gotten job offers. Are they impressed because you double-majored, or are they specifically in need of someone with a degree in Physics? Because that's where I lose the plot: what do you do with a BS in Physics? Or Biology? I know there's a need for people with degrees in Science, but I've always seen ads looking for people in specific fields, like Food Science. The only people I know with Science degrees all pursued graduate degrees of some sort, either to supplement their BS with a Master's in a related field, or to earn a Ph.D.
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Feb 29, 2016 01:28
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