Instead of Harvard -Try Welding and Plumbing College Instead

The Uncommon Sense Blog ^ | 4/25/08 | Dan Taylor

[slackattack19]

As a parent, I am reevaluating the merits of the 160K investment I am about to finish making in my daughter's education at the University of Texas. It's not that UT isn't a fantastic school and that my daughter has not done well in her double major of Psychology and Spanish ( 3.95 GPA) it's just that I'm trying to figure out what she does in a year or so to get that back or to even leverage on it in the world that she will find herself.. Perhaps she can be a sort of Dr. Phil for Telemundo going forward.

The larger question here is the whole value of the traditional four year degree in the way that we are doing it.. College for the most part now is no longer a ticket to the executive ranks (there are no companies to be executives in) nor is a job certain upon graduation. At one end of the spectrum, the traditional four year degree teaches one to think, reason, analyze, appreciate and grow intellectually and personally. On the other end it's simply adolescent day care designed to prevent hundreds of thousands of highly intelligent (from a book learning stand point) young people from flooding the market post high school with no social, business, or educational background to keep them employed for longer than it takes to fix a latte'...

[misterrob]

Is there some reason that you are excerpting?

[cripplecreek]

I’m taking credited graphic arts courses and hoping to follow my sister into advertizing or I may return to printing.

[Neoliberalnot]

Psychology has been a useless, unmarketable degree for more than a decade. A major problem with higher education today is the failure to adjust degrees that are marketable in the contemporary world. If you want marketable degrees, look to the hard sciences, engineering, computer sciences, and mathematics and the like or just give them your money for useless trash degrees like pysch, diversity, multiculuralism, lesbian, homo, and women’s studies.

[Anti-Bubba182]

They will NEVER offshore Plumbing.

[Right Wing Assault]

double major of Psychology and Spanish

Brilliant! I'm sure the welfare system will need to hire a lot of psychs to work with the crazy folks streaming over the border. There are so many already here, she's set for life, even if they ever get around to controlling the border. If I were the dad, I would demand a cut of the profits.

[SECURE AMERICA]

In the next decade or two it is more likely that a plumber or an electrician will have steady work as compared to a psychologist.
Unless your daughter gets on staff at some large Institution she will have to struggle with hundreds of other professionals for the few patients that can afford this type 0f treatment. Insurance and the Government, the two largest payees for this type of treatment are both hard pressed to pay out and are looking for ways to cut back.

[NewJerseyJoe]

> As a parent, I am reevaluating the merits of the 160K investment

A sensible parent would have evaluated that before she ever went to college -- and especially before agreeing to foot the bill.

[Steely Tom]

A lot of the people going to college shouldn’t be there. The academy is more than happy to prostitute itself, offering meaningless nonsense degree programs so they can suck in their $200K from the parents of each so-called student.

[ken21]

dan, your daughter would make a good plumber.

say, when’s the last time you saw a woman plumber?

[silverleaf]

Most wealthy people in this country (and everywhere else) didnt get rich working for someone else- but by being entrepreneurs. I think its funny someone should even imply the poor job market for “executives” is the reason their Spanish-speaking Psychology major kid won’t recoup a $160,000 investment in a year!

[RightWhale]

I would do that now. Welding/pipefitting is excellent for the oilfields, as is heavy duty mechanic. Serious income, serious work.

[Starwolf]

There is much truth in what you say. I often encourage the young men I know who are soon to leave the military to consider a trade school rather than college. Some have taken that advice and done well.

My own two daughters went the college route. One is in computers and doing very well in a position that can not be off shored. Cost about $50 for 5 years. She had a full scholarship. The other is in nursing school. Expensive ($30k/yr), but she will make what her sister makes once she finishes her BSN. Their education is the most important investment I as a parent make.

[Paleo Conservative]

In the next decade or two it is more likely that a plumber or an electrician will have steady work as compared to a psychologist.

Anyone who would spend 160K getting a degree in Pschology should get his or her head examined.

[durasell]

They will NEVER offshore Plumbing

---

No, but they will franchise it, so that plumbers earn about the same as the guy who flips burgers.

[Kaslin]

A lot of the people going to college shouldn’t be there. The academy is more than happy to prostitute itself, offering meaningless nonsense degree programs so they can suck in their $200K from the parents of each so-called student.

Hence they are called educated idiots

[Keith in Iowa]

I love printing...

http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=VpAuDrs5ocg

[attiladhun2]

I would still not advise conservatives to entirely abandon academia. For example, it is libs in the American Psychiatric Assn. who will declare child molestation to be “normal”, just as they did for buggery over 20 years ago. That laid the groundwork for a whole panoply of legal decisions that will eventually give us homosexual marriage. The same kinds of things will be done after pedifilia is normalized by APA pervs.

[cripplecreek]

I know I loved it when I did it. (Book binding actually)

That guy is hillarious.

[PGR88]

It’s funny how the real world will eventually allocate talent and resources where necessary, despite what we, our schools, our Gov’t, etc... want to do. Much of college now is becoming high priced propoganda down-load.