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Originally Posted by *winter*
I agree, esp with the bolded. It's time for all of us in this country to start making repsonsible financial decisions. And a college degree isn't always one of them, unfortunately. If I do become a teacher, I want to instill that in the students' heads- don't just "go to college" but really think about what it is you want to do, and find a way to do it without incurring a ridiculous amount of debt you'll have little chance of paying off in under 30 years!
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I agree. I was on the East Coast this year and a very distant acquaintance of ours (best friend of a cousin) was telling me she was going to a school that is not known for being an academic powerhouse by any stretch of the imagination, and on top of that she was planning to major in a field that is far from immediately applicable after graduation. She was also taking out massive loans to do this. You almost have to wonder if she would be better off going to community college for two years or even going to a trade school. This is not a knock on universities that are not highly regarded or on "non-practical" majors, but rather a knock on the tuition balloons for higher education that, even at Ivy League institutions, are not necessarily going to add enough to your desirability as an employee to repay themselves in a practical amount of time. She is going to incur a lot of debt paying for a university and a major that will teach her a lot and give her a fine education, but essentially just barely give her even a miniscule edge in the job hunt.
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Originally Posted by AOII Angel
I agree with part of this. I think that practical use of your major is important. Where you get that degree...not so much. If you have a desirable skill set, it doesn't matter where you got those skills. For example, my brother went to the biggest nothing school in the state of Louisiana, a directional school, just like me, and majored in computer science. They didn't even have a computer engineering major. He got an interview with Google in college but didn't get the job. He worked in Mississippi for 5 or 6 years for a nationally known computer company improving his resume. He starts a new job as a Facebook engineer in November. Silicon Valley looks for talent everywhere. It doesn't matter where you go to school in medicine. If you are looking at academics, where you go makes a difference, but making it in the local workforce is a whole different story.
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You're absolutely correct and I probably should have specified. There are some careers or career path where the school (as well as the degree) really does matter which is why I say that it's not just having a degree overall that matters anymore. For example, top investment banking firms are realistically only scouting certain level schools. But I think in many cases, like your brother's, you can be wildly successful out of college no matter what the school if you can prove you have a very specific set of skills you've acquired. I think that not only do the more "practical" majors (business, economics, hard sciences, engineering) produce more specifically transferable skills than liberal arts majors, but also the skills gained from liberal arts majors are harder to quantify or explain efficiently in a short period like an interview or a resume.
Also I should have distinguished between immediate, "straight out of college and got my dream job" success vs. a path like your brother's. I think certain jobs or fields are only really open to candidates from "top universities" directly out of graduation, but if you work your way up and strengthen your resume anything is obtainable. It does mean though that you have to work harder and smarter than those with a Princeton degree to get there, which I think is where some of the resentment towards the "1%" is coming from in the first place...although I still stand by that the majority of those in the 1% still earned it even though they were lucky enough to have those connections.