America’s Medieval Universities: They are now becoming a costly relic

National Review ^ | 06/05/2014 | Victor Davis Hanson

[SeekAndFind]

Employment rates for college graduates are dismal. Aggregate student debt is staggering. But university administrative salaries are soaring. The campus climate of tolerance has utterly disappeared. Only the hard sciences and graduate schools have salvaged American universities

[EQAndyBuzz]

A college degree today is the tollbooth for gaining access to the job market. Without a degree, most office type jobs are out. Which leaves jobs for tech school grads, service industry jobs and entry level retail jobs.

Having the degree doesn’t mean you have a job. You are taking thousands of dollars in student loans so you can check off a box on the job application. Degree from accredited college? Yes. Why do womyn’s and black studies majors work at Starbucks? Because outside of working for some leftwing organization, the degree is worthless.

[grania]

students should focus on majors which help them into job and career paths

A smart path is to have a job skill or a plan to be able to work instead of taking on student loans.

[Vermont Lt]

Alfred University in NY. They specialize in Ceramic arts. She works harder there than I did for an MBA. Art school—at least for her—is a lot of work. And I figure after the big collapse, people will still need pots and plates.

[demshateGod]

I think everyone should have a thorough understanding of the history of Western Culture. Sadly, they won’t get that in most Universities. As we lose our connection with history in our mainstream institutions, it becomes more important for plumbers and mechanics to find it elsewhere. They can find it by independent study, but there isn’t a better assimilation of the disparate disciplines that make up Western Culture than at colleges.

I have two daughters and a son. I’ll be disappointed in my girls if they’re not homemakers, but I’ll also be disappointed if they don’t know the difference between Plato and Augustine or Burke and Paine. Everyone should know this stuff.

[SoCal Pubbie]

I am an art dept graduate from the Cal State Univ system. Either I misunderstood your post or you need to rethink your assertion.

[Shery]

When you think that the IVY League schools were all once Seminaries, training young men for godly service, it is even more ghastly the outcome of the educations received today. Today’s studies and many of the degrees awarded are a slap in the face to God, and purposely meant to be. God is not mocked.

Another observation is this: when professors’ salaries go up, and the quality of education goes down, it really is a signal of the END. This is not sustainable, and soon they will not be able to fill enough university “seats” to pay those outrageous wages. As soon as parents get the real facts that those degrees are nearly worthless in the real world, they will start sending their kids to a good state school, let the kids do their higher degrees on their own at the IVY Leagues, if they want to take on the debt themselves.

[Red Badger]

Plumbers, carpenters, AC techs and electricians make good money. Oftentimes more than college grads..................

[SoCal Pubbie]

Never mind! I did misunderstand your post.

[Sherman Logan]

how many jobs look for women’s studies majors as a qualification?

Nothing really new here.

There have always been niche fields where the only jobs where expertise in that field was a qualification was in teaching it to the next generation.

History, for the most part. How many businesses are looking for a PhD in Byzantine History?

Or a major, like Rita of Groundhog Day, in Medieval French Poetry"

The difference is that those with a degree in these fields were assumed to be well-rounded and able to learn quickly how to do business administration, become a bureaucrat, etc.

Not true for today's Hispanic, black, womyn's or gay "Studies" majors. If I were a businessman, I'd assume their education was an actual negative in practical terms.

Of course, they are always needed by large businesses for their "diversity education" indoctrination departments. But nothing actually productive.

[Sherman Logan]

there isn’t a better assimilation of the disparate disciplines that make up Western Culture than at colleges.

Used to be, you mean.

[EQAndyBuzz]

“Plumbers, carpenters, AC techs and electricians make good money. Oftentimes more than college grads..................”

No question. Welders also. Especially in Texas.

So my kid is home from school for the summer. Freshman at one of those snooty lib NE schools. He is home not three hours and has a job at a local restaurant as a waiter. First week he works 50 hours, picking up every shift he can. Comes home with close to 600 bucks. He wants a car so he can go to his job when at school.

Degree or no degree, if you are willing to bust your butt you can make a living. Maybe not drive a Volvo or have season tickets to the LA Kings, but still be able to live.

[Moonman62]

Every president since Reagan has been an Ivy Leaguer.

[Red Badger]

You bust your butt when you are young so that when you are old you don’t have to........................

[all the best]

“So many politicians, from Barack Obama on down, tell us we need to send more young people to college”

To stamp out any remaining vestige of traditional thinking, values or Christianity that may have been instilled in them by their families. Then fill the void with the atheistic, “progressive” garbage.

[Agamemnon]

Although, this is no “state college art history” degree.

My daughter just graduated University of Connecticut with her BA in History. Her interests combine East Asian art with her interest in history.

She will be studying in London, England for her MA in Art History through Sotheby's International -- the famous auction house -- and her Masters program through Sotheby's is accredited through the University of Manchester. Her academic sponsor is head the East Asian galleries at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

So after a year's time she will complete a Master's program and a kind of internship/specialization with Sotheby's = a meaningful business-world application. The hire rate out of the program is a minimum 70% success rate at Sotheby's, and the program is one which is mirrored similarly at Christie's in the US (out of NYC).

Sotheby's gets a suitably trained individual in their line of work, and the student studies what their realm of interest is at the graduate level -- with a good chance of being employed on the backside with a very prestigious firm.

My daughter has no undergraduate student debt since she was employed through my consulting firm and the salary I paid her accommodated her costs. She will be taking out a loan for the graduate work, but I suspect she will be able to pay it back through gainful employment on the back side of completing the program in good time.

FReegards!

[EQAndyBuzz]

“You bust your butt when you are young so that when you are old you don’t have to........................”

Amen!

[ForYourChildren]

Interesting article. There are certainly big changes occurring with respect to education.

[Vermont Lt]

UConn has a good program. I meant no offense. But you know what I meant. There is a difference in some school with three throwing wheels and the building sized kilns with dozens of wheels.