Posted on 10/19/2011 5:32:36 PM PDT by Kaslin
Education is the key to the future: You've heard it a million times, and it's not wrong. Educated people have higher wages and lower unemployment rates, and better educated countries grow faster and innovate more than other countries.
But going to college is not enough. You also have to study the right subjects. And American students are not studying the fields with the greatest economic potential.
Over the past 25 years the total number of students in college has increased by about 50%. But the number of students graduating with degrees in science, technology, engineering and math (the so-called STEM fields) has been flat.
Moreover, many of today's STEM graduates are foreign-born and taking their knowledge and skills back to their native countries. Consider computer technology. In 2009 the U.S. graduated 37,994 students with bachelor's degrees in computer and information science. This is not bad, but we graduated more students with computer science degrees 25 years ago.
The story is the same in other technology fields. The United States graduated 5,036 chemical engineers in 2009, no more than we did 25 years ago. In mathematics and statistics there were 15,496 graduates in 2009, slightly more than the 15,009 graduates of 1985.
Few fields have changed as much in recent years as microbiology, but in 2009 we graduated just 2,480 students with bachelor's degrees in microbiology — about the same number as 25 years ago. Who will solve the problem of antibiotic resistance?
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
I agree. Graduate students in microeconomics take some of the same math classes, like mathematical analysis, that Phd math students take.
Wow... a little over the top doncha’ think? Your tag line says “free hugs today”...
I have seen and read the stats before that indicate those degreed do suffer less from unemployment and the economic slow-down. It does make some sense.
I spent several years in college but never got a degree. I was a very, very good student all the way up from grade school but college absolutely bored me to tears. I could go for a couple of years and then had to get away from it, come back a year later, last a year, etc. I was a History major by the way because I was never terribly good at advanced math and knew I wasn’t going to get a degree in anything requiring more than a general College Algebra credit.
I eventually made my way into the workforce in sales and then moved to retail where I worked hard and after several years I had worked my way up to regional management. Stayed there for years until the Great Recession killed my organization. Now I’m in program management in the airline industry.
As I found myself jobless over the last couple of years and went about the interview process with new employers, I was rarely (twice out of dozens of instances) asked whether or not I had a college degree. The questions were always much more often about my work experience and leadership abilities.
My parents always wanted me to finish school and get a degree because, well, that’s just what a person should do and it was the only way to get a “good” job. Well for many years now I’ve been making more than they did at my age (accounting for inflation, etc.) and largely enjoying what I’ve been doing. I don’t hear anything about college anymore from my dad at all.
How do I turn on an applause icon?
very well said sir !
I am a supporter of trade schools, two year colleges with basic training programs and apprenticeships to skilled craftsmen! I work with a major client who has said that they will lose their ability to purchase certain hand crafted wood pieces they use in their attractions because the one guy who does this is retiring and said he couldn’t find a “youngster” interested in learning his craft! Imagine, a ready made business for a young person who would just commit to learning the craft as an apprentice.
>> But as a father, there is satisfaction in hearing my son tell me of the things he easily recognizes as garbage; and also that he handled the situation well. >>
I feel that pride. My daughter is now a 19 year old junior in the honor’s program. She texts me the stupid stuff her liberal professors say all the time, but she holds her own in debate. Wife did a great job home schooling her.
She laughed when she saw “The Sexual Politics of Meat.”
I believe that unless you are seeking a specific profession (i.e. Law, Medicine, Engineering), college is a total waste of money.
Now does that mean I do not value education? Absolutely not. I've been a voracious reader since I was a child and even to this day, I have a habit of visiting the public library every Saturday morning where I load up with 4-6 new books every week. Now I don't read every one of those books cover-to-cover but I have discovered some rather fascinating and informative paths of learning over the years.
I would say that aside from maybe mathematics and foreign languages, which quite honestly are two subjects that bore me, I have a wealth of general knowledge greater than the majority of those who spent $100,000 or more obtaining a piece of parchment to frame and nail to the wall because many of them never pick up another book after those four years and spend the rest of their lives watching television or playing video games in their leisure time.
I guess I would have liked to have gone to college for four or maybe six years but the circumstances of my life dictated that I earn a living for myself at a relatively early age. In retrospect, I don't think I missed out on that much. I was able to begin my career free of college debt and my current salary compares well with my peers who have had college degrees.
If you enter the work force a motivated self-starter and establish yourself as a "can-do" person with excellent command of the English language (both oral and written), you will go far in life and will likely not find yourself sitting on the street in a puddle of your own filth chanting empty slogans like those over-educated and over-privileged losers in the OWS movement.
You’re right. In fact, the humanities are typically anti-God and anti-science while the homeschool quadrant has a bullhorn that complains about what scientists do.
As an electrical engineer, I am sure that you understand logically that one knuckle headed statement is not valid cause to impugn homeschoolers.
Coincidentally, I was discussing this topic with my adult daughter a couple days ago. She was telling me how tough it is for young people because a college degree is required in order to get a job. She is doing well with a high-paid job in the biotech industry.
I told her, it's not the degree that is important, it's the acquired skills and knowledge that are important. Unfortunately, dumb kids are being pushed through college and are not acquiring skills nor knowledge. She agrees to an extent, saying that all one has to do is show up in class breathing and they graduate. So-called underprivileged kids that have no intention of learning are allowed in with an advantage not given to more deserving kids.
Bravo! I bought both my sons tee shirts emblazoned with a large steak and the words: “Meat is Murder! ... tasty, tasty, murder!
The hard part, at least for the prestigious schools, is getting in. Which means, you come in with just about all you are going to get out of it for $250,000. The only ones going to big universities with a future are football and basketball players good enough for the pros. The world is populated with a uniform distribution of geniuses. Ours come into society seeking how to screw someone else out of their money, lawyers, and the world seeks to better themselves.
I work with a DumBO voter who is so proud his son has a degree in historic preservation. I am sure that Big Mac he serves me will taste so much better.
It was stated to make a point. Do you agree with the poster that homeschooled children should avoid studying science and engineering?
For a while, I plan on getting certificates in HTML and Phlebotomy. Then on to Business and by the end of next year I should have enough to keep my head afloat credential wise, without getting distracted from my main interest, which is virology. That way, if I fall off of the wagon, I still have skills and proof that I know what I am doing, which will make be hirable. I don’t want to get a degree just to make a living and frankly I don’t see how too many college students are going to be valuable. A degree mainly points out that you attended class.
ping for future reference, Whittle is fantastic!
She ended up getting a dual Bachelors degree in Chemistry & Physics with minors in Math & the Classics. She had work-study as a lab tech in the schools enviromental science lab. In fact it was fun watching her come to a realization that quite often there was remarkably little science behind some of the enviromental sacred cows. She now is working on her PhD in Chemistry and is working with a group doing quantum chemistry calculations for low temperature superconductors.
He landed a job that was hard physical labor, and it payed reasonably well. On his second day everyone asked him,"are you still here?" He told me of it, and I instructed him to verify that they were asking that because so many had quit after finding out they actually had to work for their money. He confirmed what I told him the following day.
That job ended and he has moved to one that pays much more, but he has proved himself to get to that level, including a required physical test to verify that he can do the work, and a drug screening.
As for those jackasses who left after one day, and their ilk? They are on wall street crapping on the sidewalk and whining that there is no free WiFi.
Really good post. Thanks.
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