@tacpoly wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:Then it was their law-degree, and not the Comp. Lit degree, that gave them the high-paying job. Without the law-degree, most of them are back to Starbucks. The same thing goes for medicine, or any "useful" major: The Comp. Lit. degree, alone, is a dead-end for too many. But if one augments the Comp Lit. degree with another "useful" degree,....well, that's true for anything. One could do bachelors in music, for example, stink at it...but go on to get a masters in bio-engineering. If that person gets a job as a bio-engineer, the music degree has little to do with that, and could have been replaced by any of a number of degrees. One could reasonably argue that, having a bachelors in physics or materials science would be far more useful than music, if one is to become a bioengineer, for example.
No disrespect meant to you, but telling young people what you are saying, is not only disingenuous, but for most of them, it sets them up for failure. Think about all the people in the USA, working jobs that they hate, because they were told what you are saying. They are a dime-a-dozen. These young people need to be told the hard truth about the world before they accummulate $50,000 in debt. As older adults, it is our responsibility to do that, objectively, not perpetuate their predisposition to live in denial.
Again: a students' success depends on what they do, not what they study. If a Comp. Lit. major gets straight A's, gets internships or do something relevant to what they want to do after college, demonstrate that they are conscientious and capable, then they'll likely have a job offer before they graduate. A Comp. Lit degree does not guarantee that a person will be a failure, ffs. It's ridiculous that you think so. It's not just the degree; it's what you do with it: a physics or CS major who barely passes their classes will not be successful in finding a job either.
If a student has no clue what they want to do after college, then I would not recommend Comp. Lit. or any soft major because there is not a ready job market for that field. But there are ways a student can make himself an attractive job candidate, no matter their major.
@Anonymous wrote:You are proving his point. The English degrees were so worthless they had to go to law school for 3 years after graduating. Law schools couldn't care less what you majored in undergraduate.
No. My friends knew they wanted to go into law and felt that studying Comp. Lit., English, History, Classics, etc.. where they learn how to write, present and defend their ideas, and do it all under a deadline would in fact be helpful, not worthless.
Tac, please correct me if I'm mistaken in this but didn't you go to school around 3 decades ago?
I'd suggest, having been to school 2 decades ago and less than a year ago as well with a number of datapoints in between (top 50 not top 10 schools to be fair) things are simply different now: school costs more, and I'd argue "fluff" degrees are worth significantly less. We educate far more people than we used to, and as such it's been commoditized.
I'm not in the college is worthless or a scam camp, but to Tacpoly's point if you don't know why you're there and what you're going to get out of it, bail on the idea. I'm an abject failure scholastically too, but I've gotten out when it no longer made sense which is one of the few bright spots on the record.
That said, while I suspect my current salary would be roughly the same, my SSA record would look much better in terms of consistent income if I'd finished my degree somehow back in the day.
@Thomas_Thumb wrote:
@tacpoly wrote:
@CleanCredit wrote:Not saying you're wrong, but I have almost the complete opposite experience with myself and my peers. Within my friend group, most of us graduated with Business, a couple in Engineering, one in the science/pharm field, and another with a history/humanities degree. We also graduated from a Top 10 university.
All of us our doing quite well in our fields with good jobs and making decent salaries. The one who chose Pharm path just got his doctorate and has been working in labs. He is heading to U Penn Med School this fall. Even while going to school, he has been working in labs making pretty decent money along the way.
However, the one friend who got his humanities degree is the only one who hasn't found a career job and works hourly jobs making little money.
Again, not saying you're wrong - but just a different experience from what you have.
Again, my friends who studied Comp.Lit. in undergrad had goals to become lawyers. They had great GPAs, internships, LSAT scores, got into 1st tier law schools, got good grades there, summer associates positions, jobs offers and clerkships after graduating, then worked hard at their jobs. Your friend with his/her humanities degree probably got out of college not knowing what he/she was going to do and likely no job lined up.
Yeah, it's easier to stumble into a good-paying career with a STEM major, but a humanities degree and a well-paying career are not mutually exclusive; the humanities major just has be a little more meticulous about how they go about it.
The issue with this arguement is the advanced degree "requirement". From what I read most posts are based on a BA/BS as being a terminal degree - not looking at graduate school which can be a game changer.
My brother got a dual degree in economics and political science from Stanford. He likely would not have found this combination of degrees as lucrative relative to a BS in petroleum engineering from Stanford. However, he went on to get a J.D. from Yale. Yes, he is doing very well as a managing partner in a top law firm. However, if he stopped with his bachelors things would likely be different.
At a bachelors level STEM degrees are generally more marketable and command higher starting salaries than poly sci degrees - even from state universities. Truth be told state universities have exceptional engineering/physics/math programs - often in the top 5 in the nation. I graduated as a B.S. ChE from a lowly state university (although top 3 nationally for ChE majors).
BTW - I graduated debt free. Back then, state universities were much more value add relative to private. Unfortunately, public universities receive far less support since trickle down economics became SOP.
I rather doubt that the rampant expansion we've seen to tuition at say the UC system has much to do with the support or lack thereof from the state or Federal level.
Market pricing dominates I suspect, and they're charging what it will bear (and what the Fed and others are willing to extend on student loans).
