College Has Been Oversold

IBD Editorials ^ | October 19, 2011 | ALEX TABARROK

[blueunicorn6]

I coulda joined MENSA, but joining WOMENSA was a lot more fun. Oh, the things those college girls taught me.

[the invisib1e hand]

"knowledge is power."

Must appeal to powerjunkies.

[trumandogz]

“If science weren’t so anti-God/anti-religion maybe a lot more of the best students (read home-schooled) would go into those fields. “

Could you please provide an example of science curriculum which is anti-God?

[businessprofessor]

Economics education is quite varied. Some universities emphasize social science but most focus on the quantitative side. The quantitative side of economics is every bit as rigorous as engineering. Economics courses were my most difficult classes in both undergradaute and graduate school. I took the same math as the engineers even though I was a business major. Most of my professors had degrees in applied math or industrial engineering. Equillibrium models, game theory, and other quantitative models are extremely challenging.

[eyedigress]

Get your MS certification and LabView certification and you are gold to many.

[70times7]

Who will solve the problem of antibiotic resistance?

[nascarnation]

$50 grand a year
for a degree from a “name” school
qualifying you for a job @ Starbucks

not a smart move....

[70times7]

(second try)

Who will solve the problem of antibiotic resistance?

If this problem manages to wipe out the liberal arts majors on wall street it can't be all bad.

[oneolcop]

College can be and usually is, a babysitting service for teenagers. For four (and increasingly five) years the young mush heads are filled with the venom injected by people who decided they wanted to be professors as a profession. They specialize in theoretical sophistry that, while sometimes interesting, is most often irrelevant in the “world o’ work” where the mush heads must somehow survive post graduation.

And yes, I graduated from a prestigious university.

[Sooth2222]

"Medical school is training, college is education."

That's true and in essence what I told my daughter -- study whatever turns you on but be sure to take some courses that teach you how the world works. After college -- "There are three (3) professions: law, medicine and the clergy. Pick any one you want."

She majored in music with a minor in chemistry. And made Phi Beta Kappa -- they seem to love offbeat combos. She has her "dream job".

I was surprised by the graduation requirements at her top-ranked college. "How the world works" courses were definitely not required.

[RockyMtnMan]

God is obviously an engineer.

[70times7]

At RIT the students who washed out of Engineering were called Business Majors.

[Ellendra]

I keep thinking that Logic should be a required course at every level, but it would probably get twisted and mutilated into something resembling White-Males-Are-Bad Studies.

There are too many kids being told what to think, and not enough learning HOW to think.

[eyedigress]

He is a human resources jedi as well. ;^)

[Paved Paradise]

I’m not sure I’m buying these numbers. When you think of all the universities in the U.S. and the number of graduates. There is no way that we are graduating that number. I saw how many just graduated from the Engineering school ALONE at one college in Ohio. Multiply that times all of the colleges! Something seems off.

[C. Edmund Wright]

When I took my middle daughter to college for the first time - Appalachian State in NC - I saw a book with this title in the campus bookstore:
“The Sexual Politics of Meat.”

I am not making this up. I can not possibly imagine what kind of marketable skill one can learn in that book. And there were many like that in the book store.

[Reily]

Scientific “personalities” tend to do the “public” scientific opposition to religion these people are busy being “public scientists”. The job of “public scientist” is easier then doing real scientific work, has better hours, probably pays better, and preening to the glow of the media certainly is ego gratifying.
In my scientific & engineering career I have met very few militant atheist scientists or engineers. (In fact my personal mentors were quite religious taught Sunday school one was a Lutheran & the other a Baptist.) I met more of those in the arts & the literature cadre of the academic world. Many of those have a huge chip on their shoulder and are as about as willfully ignorant as can be! I think they have the “chip” because deep down I think they know that what they do is “bunk”.
I agree with Skepokitic you can go thorough an entire science (even in geology) and/or engineering curriculum from BS to PhD and not come out an atheist. If you do you were probably one when you started.

[70times7]

I’m not sure I’m buying these numbers. When you think of all the universities in the U.S. and the number of graduates. There is no way that we are graduating that number. I saw how many just graduated from the Engineering school ALONE at one college in Ohio. Multiply that times all of the colleges! Something seems off.

Forgive me, but I must ask - how were your "Probability and Statistics" grades?

[antceecee]

Pretty difficult to be a "self-made man" like my Father. He was able to self-educate and use his training from working on farm equipment, automotive and general curiosity in learning about how things work to establishing a very nice career, first in design and installation of commercial laundries and secondly as a facilities director of engineering in the hotel industry. Not bad for a guy who went to a country school. "I've met a lot of college-educated-idiots" (quoting my Dad).

Today the first thing they want to know is if you have your bachelor degree. I worked and paid for my own education. It took me awhile to get the BFA.... glad I did. I couldn't even work in my industry without it.

[Doe Eyes]

If science weren’t so anti-God/anti-religion maybe a lot more of the best students (read home-schooled) would go into those fields.

I have a degree in Electrical Engineering. None of my Engineering courses were anti-God/anti-religion. Instead, the courses dealt with science and engineering.

Sounds like your home schooled students get a warped view of the real world. Too bad for them.