A Degree of Insignificance (College Degrees getting to be useless nowadays)

WorldnetDaily ^ | 12/29/2007 | Phyllis Schlafly

[SeekAndFind]

.S. News & World Report, which has made a name for itself by ranking and announcing the best colleges every year, is now ranking and listing the best careers for young people. A comparison of the latest lists shows a shocking disconnect and makes for dispiriting holiday reading.

While the price of a college education has skyrocketed far faster than inflation, many careers for which colleges prepare their graduates are disappearing. U.S. News' Best Careers guide concludes, "college grads might want to consider blue-collar careers" because bachelor's degree holders "are having trouble finding jobs that require college-graduate skills."

Incredibly, U.S. News is telling college graduates to look for jobs that do not require a college diploma. Among the 31 best opportunities for 2008 are the careers of firefighter, hairstylist, cosmetologist, locksmith and security-system technician.

Where did the higher-skill jobs go? Both large and small companies are "quietly increasing off-shoring efforts."

Ten years ago, we were told we really didn't need manufacturing because it can be done more cheaply elsewhere, that auto workers and others should move to information-age jobs. But now the information jobs are moving offshore, too, as well as marketing research and even many varieties of innovation.

The flight overseas includes professional as well as low-wage jobs, with engineering jobs offshored to India and China. Thousands of bright Asian engineers are willing to work for a fraction of U.S. wages, which is why Boeing just signed a 10-year, $1 billion-a-year deal with a government-run company in India.

Society has been telling high school students that college is the ticket to get a life, and politicians are pandering to parents' desire for their children to be better educated and so have a higher standard of living.

[thefactor]

i’m on my way to a masters, but i already have a sweet job. that being said, i wish i could go back to high school and take auto shop. biggest mistake that guidance counselors don’t tell you. everyone should take that class.

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

Don't know yet. What do you think? He spent 3 weeks there this summer in their Catapult program and loved it. He applied and got accepted to go to college there. It's very expensive but he will have to have financial aid.

He aced his ACTs in math and scored very high in everything else, too. He's won all kinds of math contests.

[kempo]

College degree my ass. When was the last time you called a plumber to your house. They charge more than a M.D.

[ladyjane]

That is impressive.

[ladyjane]

BC not as good as BU?? What!!!

Well, BU has a good hockey team but the Eagles have excellent hockey and football.

[SoftballMominVA]

Well, financial papers go out no later than March. If they want him, the parents can be fairly aggressive with the school in terms of grants/scholarships

My younger has already collected a hair over $500k in renewing scholarships, but she's waiting to hear from her top choice, Hofstra. I've already told the admission counselor she needs a 3/4 scholarship at the minimum or it's a no go. He said he could guarantee that and maybe a full ride. So I told him, when we get the papers, you'll get the acceptance. Oral promises are nice, written ones are better

Tell his parents to ask about the money. Don't be shy, just ask what MERIT scholarships will be offered to him

[billorites]

"McDonald's and the Home Depot are always hiring. Pizza delivery is also a good night time gig."

Not to pick on you, but to relate a story of an acquaintance:

A younger friend of mine graduated from college 8 or 10 years ago, had no serious prospects and finally took a job with Enterprise Rent-A-Car because no one else made him an offer.

Well, he drank the Kool-Aid, got with the program, made his dismal little office in East Porkchop successful and the company dragged him off to make him a supervisor. Now, at the age of 30 he's got a career. And if you ask him about it he get's all excited and won't shut up about Enterprise. Which suggests to me that he loves his job.

I, of course, envy and hate him now and hold him in contempt since he's happy, has found fulfilling work and has sold out to "the man"...

[longtermmemmory]

sounds like society does not want individuals with brains...

a degree is worth less because the information imparted is worth less.

[familyop]

"I am concerned that we are committing national suicide by off-shoring almost all our manufacturing capacity. Just wait until the value of our dollar falls and we can't afford to import these goods. What then? Can we rebuild capacity? I don't think the corporate execs who have received huge bonuses realize just how much it will cost to rebuild what they dismantled and in many cases destroyed. Much of the intellectual property required to actually make good product left our companies with those laid-off workers."

Yes.

Applied Materials, Chinese rival face legal battle
EE Times ^ | December 25, 2007

Excerpt:

Applied Materials Inc. and Chinese fab-tool rival Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. (AMEC) have agreed to disagree over a confidentially motion filed as part of a bitter legal battle between the two companies.

Applied Materials (Santa Clara, Calif.) seeks to prove its suit against AMEC (Shanghai) by providing a confidential "trade-secret list" to select employees from the Chinese IC-equipment supplier. In a document filed in December of 2007, Applied Materials claims AMEC is resisting the move, thereby delaying the motion.

The motion is part of a suit filed by Applied Materials against China's AMEC in October of 2007. Applied's suit, filed in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California here, claims that AMEC is allegedly involved in misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of contract and unfair competition.

The co-defendants in the suit include several AMEC executives and former employees at Applied Materials: Gerald Yin, Aihua Chen, Ryoji Todaka and Lee Luo. In fact, the suit contends that 30 former Applied engineers now work at AMEC.

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

We're very proud of him--especially since he was diagnosed as autistic as a little guy and now this. There have been many tears of joy with each new accomplishment of his.

When we took him to RH for the summer program, I talked to one of the professors about him and she simply waved off the fact he has had autism (possibly Aspergers is more appropriate). She said they've very accustomed to it there and it would be getting more common in the future. He did very well and got along great. They knew him so when he was accepted there they probably felt he has a good degree of probability of success. I don't see why not.

[RedRover]

Maybe your problem is your personality.

[SoftballMominVA]

I just looked it up - WOW! 30k for tuition, 9k for room and board. But, over 90% of their students get financial aid.

This is the question the parents should ask to the financial office. What is the average debt load of your graduates?

[bert]

Liberal arts is worthless but they extend to all degrees.

[SeekAndFind]

One of the major problems is student loans. The availability has allowed colleges to increase the tuition much higher than inflation. And it is continuing so that it is almost impossible for a college education for the middle class to the poor. Don’t see any easy answer.

And this is the problem with government injecting itself into the college arena. The more government tries to "help", the more incentives there are for colleges to make use of this "help" to increase their tuition BEYOND the inflation rate.

But who the heck says that you need government to "aid" students to "afford" a good college education ?

Grove City College for instance, refuses government aid at all levels and still manages to charge only $17,500 a year in tuition plus board and lodgings ( much less than that after need or merit based aid which they offer PRIVATELY ). They are the most competitive Christian college in the nation and Princeton Review tells us that their career service is among the top 20 in the nation with fully 90% of their graduates finding good jobs within 6 months of graduation. And get this, their students TOP the Ivy league colleges in terms of Civics, History and Economics knowledge.

Schools like these prove that you don't need government to provide a good, solid college education.

Going back to college grads not being able to find jobs ( allegedly). Here are some factors to consider :

1) Your geographical location in this country. If you live in Detroit for instance, your chances of finding good job are worse than living in say, Silicon Valley.

Solution : BE PREPARED TO RELOCATE TO THE GROWTH AREAS.

2) Your salary expectation. Many graduates expect some sort of high salary as an entitlement for their 4 years of work in college and refuse some good entry level job that would have garnered them solid experience.

3) Your Degree. Other than teaching for instance, what does a graduate of English literature have to offer to the world of finance, technology, product development and engineering ? ( maybe creating interesting marketing brochures ?? ).

At any rate, I can't believe that we are hemoraghing all of our jobs overseas when our current unemployment rate is 4.7%. The jobs that go to China are the ones we don't even want to do (would you like a job that asks you to assemble toys ? ).

[Professional Engineer]

Would you like some cheese with your whine?

[familyop]

Yes. The market is chaos, although many idiots like to make it look more like a conspiracy. The market is being further messed-up by traitors, who are in favor of continuing to build the economies of antagonistic nations. Don’t listen to the maroons. Get a copy of “What Color Is Your Parachute.” It will help you to cut through the demoralizing crap about getting jobs and give you the edge that you need.

And to the pollyannas here who like to weld someone else’s hook to the bottom, I hope that oil goes to $200 per barrel during the coming year! ...hope that the dollar goes down to equal the yuan! And may you all find future jobs in t-shirt factories!

[Sloth]

I graduated from a respected chemical engineering program in 1998 (at the height of Clinton’s “best economy in history”), and I couldn’t find an engineering job for about 2 years. Even then, it was a gov’t regulatory bureaucrat position.

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

Financial aid is going to be a necessity. He may go to Iowa State in the end. It’s hard to say if the education from RH is worth that much more than from ISU. If there’s sufficient financial aid, it’s conceivable he may be able to go to RH cheaper than ISU.

[Clemenza]

Speaking as someone with a BA, MA, and MBA, I will say that your education is only worth what you put into it and what you choose to get out of it. All of that money spent on those three degrees would have been wasted had I not used my school years as a way to both educate myself and learn skills that would be applicable in the real world.

Too many "liberal arts" majors chasing jobs that don't exist, IMHO. With about a quarter of the adult population having a college degree these days, we should expect such results.

[Professional Engineer]

...or there are literally no engineering jobs in that part of the world.

C'mon there's plenty of jobs for engineers in banking and furniture manufacture.

/s