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To: oh8eleven

“The whole purpose of college is to learn how to deal with difficult situations...”

WRONG. The whole purpose of college is to get some worthwhile degree to help with future earnings (and offset current investment). It is all about investments. Useless college degrees should be removed. Only Business, Engineering, and Hard Sciences should be in the public universities(if they should even remain open). The rest should be removed, their “professors” fired, and the university buildings auctioned off. And no more gubmint funding!


6 posted on 05/01/2016 8:47:22 AM PDT by sagar
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To: sagar
I don't (entirely) agree with you, but I think it is true that the "humanities" (art, literature, history, psychology, etc.) could be considered as "hobbies" rather than as actual bodies of knowledge, and perhaps should be treated as such.

But even considered as "hobbies," these areas add much to life beyond the functionality of the theoretical and applied sciences. Still, much that goes on in the humanities these days is little more than left-wing propaganda. One of my daughters majored in Geography, and I was amazed how thoroughly politicized even THAT field has become. (Perhaps needless to say, her college degree has nothing whatsoever to do with her actual employment, which is in accounting and bookkeeping.)
9 posted on 05/01/2016 8:55:07 AM PDT by Steve_Seattle ("Above all, shake your bum at Burton.")
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To: sagar
WRONG. The whole purpose of college is to get some worthwhile degree to help with future earnings (and offset current investment).

Historically, pre-WW2, that role was taken by trade schools. Universities were for getting a well rounded education on philosophy and the liberal arts, not learning a craft. I suppose medicine, law, and architecture/engineering being exceptions. After the GI Bill a lot of those two year trade institutions either got absorbed into larger universities or became community colleges.

The error some make is to to attribute the classical purpose of the university (a spot for gentlemen of means to mature their general classical liberal arts education and engage in intellectually stimulating debate) with the modern purpose (to train in a trade so you can get a job). Some still think it's the former and find that they have useless degrees and can't get a job to pay down their massive debts. Others wax poetic about universities as these august bodies where debate and intellectual curiosity are paramount but they are trade schools now. People need to get over the idea of the old time university, it's dead.

14 posted on 05/01/2016 9:19:07 AM PDT by pepsi_junkie (ui)
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To: sagar
Only Business, Engineering, and Hard Sciences should be in the public universities . . .

I would not go quite that far. Nursing, architecture, and several other marketable degrees are not on your list. Math is not considered a hard science, but applied math, statistics, and economics are in demand and extremely marketable.

21 posted on 05/01/2016 10:35:22 AM PDT by Pollster1 (Somebody who agrees with me 80% of the time is a friend and ally, not a 20% traitor. - Ronald Reagan)
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