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College often not worth time, money
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review ^ | Thursday, February 24, 2005 | Mike Seate

Posted on 02/24/2005 9:12:40 AM PST by Willie Green

A waitress at one of my favorite Strip District restaurants last week used one of the industry's oldest cliches. She delivered a meal and reminded me that she "really didn't do this" for a living.

Waiting tables, she explained, was simply something she was doing until a well-paying job opened up in the field she studied during six years in college.

While this is rote conversation for wait staff in places like New York and Los Angeles, where everyone with a tray of linguini in their hands is waiting for a slot on NBC's "Fear Factor," it's unusual for Pittsburgh.

Or is it?

The waitress, it turns out, spent all that time and nearly $150,000 of her family's money studying social sciences, but after graduating she became disappointed with the entry-level salary of her chosen field.

"I can make, like, twice what I'd make as a social worker waiting tables," she confided, "so I'm probably going to just stay here."

(Excerpt) Read more at pittsburghlive.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: academia; career; education; thebusheconomy; vocation; work
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To: tfecw
You're right. One of my kids has a computer science degree. He really had no need for a course in women's studies! (He didn't actually take that one, but it was an option).

I think that these colleges are going to price themselves right out of the market. More and more students are going to turn to practical and less costly choices like tech schools.

161 posted on 02/24/2005 10:31:19 AM PST by CAluvdubya (From the RED part of California)
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To: AdamSelene235

The book maintains he did it in six months.

As to your not having a liberal arts degree, well, in America, that's allowed. LOL!


162 posted on 02/24/2005 10:32:19 AM PST by RexBeach
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To: Aquinasfan

My son's college so far has been "tuition free" and should be able to continue to be "tuition free."

He's enrolled in our county's dual enrollment program (he was homeschooled up until then, but the program is open to all students, private and public).

So during his high school years he's earned his AA (tuition is free, we had to pay for books, but if you're a public schooled kid, books are loaned free).

Then the State of Florida offers Bright Futures Scholarships if you make a certain grade on SAT or ACT tests, do some community service (75 hours), and plan to attend a state university (UF, FSU, USF, UCF, etc.)

I know in some state's they have similar programs, it sure makes it easy on the pocketbook.


163 posted on 02/24/2005 10:33:08 AM PST by dawn53
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To: RexBeach

I've read the book.


164 posted on 02/24/2005 10:33:49 AM PST by AdamSelene235 (Truth has become so rare and precious she is always attended to by a bodyguard of lies.)
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To: Sloth

**I graduated in 1998 with a B.S. degree in chemical engineering. The best job I could find for a year and a half paid about $19K, and I was lucky to get it.**

I graduated in 1985 with an accounting degree from the University of Oklahoma, not a top tier school by any means and receiving offers of $ 20,000 to $ 24,000 a year while the state economy was in a severe recession. The engineers , regardless of specialty, were getting offers of a minimum of $ 30,000 a year. I recall some getting mid to high 30s.

Getting offers of $ 19,000 a year today with an engineering degree must be really tough!


165 posted on 02/24/2005 10:33:54 AM PST by WildWeasel
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To: Drew68
To many American university students would rather spend their college years pulling bong-hits while they major in "Literature of Contemporary Protest" and "Peace Studies" and leave the mechanical engineering classes filled with students named Amir, Singh and Mohammed.

When I went to engineering school over half the class consisted of foreigners.

166 posted on 02/24/2005 10:35:21 AM PST by A Ruckus of Dogs
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To: AdamSelene235

Good book, wasn't it? LOL!


167 posted on 02/24/2005 10:35:28 AM PST by RexBeach
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To: Conservatrix
...this is why I am planning to take the Praxis exams for music certification and try to get a job teaching public school (as I CHOKE) because what else CAN I do as a musician which pays you a regular paycheck every week???? I'd really love to know!!!!!!

As long as you're not in Kalifornia... My wife has been downsized as a k-12 music teacher, and we're thinking of moving to Las Vegas (we don't want to), and trying there. I'm semi-retired with a small business, so I couldn't cover the monthly bills on my own.

I fear music education -- especially elementary music -- will have to be done with a little innovation, like going to affluent school districts, and asking the superintendents and principals if their parents are willing to pay something like a five-dollar weekly charge for general music.

The interest begins in the primary grades; without it, there's no interest in middle and high school (especially vocal music) and it can't be manufactured.

I think, though, that where there's a will there's a way. Mrs. Mugwump is also a classical singer. You should hear her do Schubert, and Faure's stuff!

168 posted on 02/24/2005 10:35:58 AM PST by Mugwump
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To: AmishDude

>>The truth is, liberal arts degrees from the Ivy League may carry some weight, but not from other schools.

"May" is a key word there. I've been a hiring manager, and I assure you, a liberal arts degree from an Ivy just signifies to me, that you've likely got a foolish committed Leftist in front of you. This is not someone I'd have a tendency to employ.


169 posted on 02/24/2005 10:37:12 AM PST by FreedomPoster (This space intentionally blank)
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To: RobRoy
I attended a seminar way back in high school that had a fantastic speaker. The gentleman was a vp at some big phone company, but he started in the mail room. He did not earn a college degree out of high school.

He said, "No one owes you a job just because you have a college degree."

His advice was to approach a job expecting to start on the bottom and then work like the dickens to move up. It's the kind of idea more young people need to be exposed to.

170 posted on 02/24/2005 10:37:40 AM PST by Lil'freeper (Te audire no possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure.)
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To: redgolum

My wife is an RN working three days a week at a prostate cancer research institute. She earned 35K last year.


171 posted on 02/24/2005 10:37:58 AM PST by huckfillary
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To: RexBeach

It was excellent.

But I specifically remember Alex's college education being interrupted by AmRev.

Not that he wasn't an incredibly fast learner.


172 posted on 02/24/2005 10:39:00 AM PST by AdamSelene235 (Truth has become so rare and precious she is always attended to by a bodyguard of lies.)
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To: 1stFreedom
The best way to make money...bar none.......is in network marketing. Networking has been a god send to me.
173 posted on 02/24/2005 10:39:09 AM PST by Radioactive
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To: Conservatrix

Small world. My sister is doing just what you're doing. Let me send you some FReepmail.


174 posted on 02/24/2005 10:41:48 AM PST by radiohead (revote in washington state)
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To: Betis70

Great point.

I knew two friends who went into other fields and both were hired at least in part because of their history/archaeology backgrounds.

One of them went into finance. His boss told him he would give him a shot because he felt that a history degree was a pretty good indication that my friend could absorb a lot of data, remember it and apply it. I don't know if the history actually paid off but he did become quite successful.

Another of my friends became an technical investigator and he got the job again for partially the same reasons. His boss felt that my friend would have an ingrained aptitude for the work since archaeology is in many ways like putting together a difficult jigsaw puzzle or evidence at a crime scene.


175 posted on 02/24/2005 10:42:54 AM PST by XRdsRev (New Jersey has more horses per square mile than any other U.S. state.)
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To: CAluvdubya
well mine was a technical school. It is on the verge of overpricing itself. Everything all together was about 35 large a year.

But you are right prices will destroy a lot of crappy colleges that don't need to be around. It will also prevent kids from going to them that don't belong or who wouldn't get their money's worth. Then they will become "respectable" again then everyone will start going, then it'll die out again, and on and on :)
176 posted on 02/24/2005 10:43:13 AM PST by tfecw (Vote Democrat, It's easier then working)
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To: ContemptofCourt

"good lawyer" = oxymoron. One lawyer in a small town will starve, two will make a good living.


177 posted on 02/24/2005 10:43:14 AM PST by wordsofearnest (St. Louis bring back Torre.)
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To: AdamSelene235

He was a VERY fast learner - at just about everything. Including moving up in the old social strata!

Quite right. He left King's College before he graduated.

I just got, also, the new book on William Pitt "The Younger". I'll be starting that soon.

Hmmm. Sounds like it's time for me to get a Jimmy Buffett book to balance all of this off.

Cheers!


178 posted on 02/24/2005 10:43:25 AM PST by RexBeach
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To: coder2

No offense taken on the history major comment.

Like I said in Virginia history jobs are semi plentiful..in other states it is much harder to find museum work.

I graduated college in 2000. The longest I've been out of work since then is one week. I've worked in 5 different museums. Each promotion brings a little more pay.

I'm still single so 30K is plenty for me. Most of my money is wasted on my library collection ;)An MA is the museum field can bring 40k - 60K around here (if you are management/supervisory). To me that's decent enough.

Besides museum work you can either teach or become a lawyer. Most of my fellow history majors in school weren't too serious about the field. It is not for everyone.

YH


179 posted on 02/24/2005 10:43:35 AM PST by yankhater (I Hate Liberal Dirty T-Shirt Backpacker Grad Students)
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To: Kenton
There was a time, say, oh, prior to the mid-1970s, when corporations preferred someone with a liberal arts degree, because they were considered to be more well-rounded individuals than people who were just "learning a trade".

My impression is the exact opposite.
Such specialized training and skills were highly valued and sought after.
However, as they increasingly became more scarce, many companies had to "settle for less".
As a result, they often became corrupted and decayed from within when the liberal arts majors began incorporating social theories into company decision making.

180 posted on 02/24/2005 10:45:08 AM PST by Willie Green (Go Pat Go!!!)
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