A Scary thought on Academics
It used to be if you got good grades you'd be accepted to a good
college and you'd graduate with a good degree and you'd get a good job.
You'd make good money, you'd find a good person to settle down with,
you'd buy a good house in a good neighborhood, be a soccer mom or drive
the carpool. life used to be good, because for a very long time this
dynamic played out and it worked. But somewhere along the line we
wanted more than good. four years at even the best university not only
didn't secure the good job or the good paycheck, but employers wanted
more experience, more potential. more. more. more! now four years of
college is nothing. five, six, seven years is what's now required in
many fields. you can major in virtually anything, but in practice most
of those degrees won't help you one bit. More school, means more bills,
which means more years until the 'real' world will really start. That's
a scary thought because here we are starting the last semester of our
sophomore year and w want to believe that we are reaching the halfway
mark... but we aren't.
While i was sitting in my dentist's office, i picked up TIME and read the cover story "Grow Up? Not So Fast" . It got me thinking, are colleges preparing us for the real world? I see some of the majors Rutgers offers and other schools offer similar majors and i wonder, what can one do with a degree in comparative literature? Plant science? women's studies? even economics? you learn the history, you learn the theory, you read and you read, you compare, contrast, analyze and interpret... but 4 years later where does it leave you. Sure you can go back and get a masters or a PHD, teach, write, think... but what kind of non-academic job can you get with that degree, even with the extra degrees?
maybe trade schools have it right. they teach marketable skills for a real occupations and don't waste your time or money otherwise. Out of all the twenty-one courses i've taken (and currently am taking) at Rutgers i can count only two courses that will help me in the job market (financial accounting and creative writing). But as for the other nineteen... well after the last final was over i quickly forgot all the unnecessary information that i'd never need again. Jewish studies is interesting, but so are many courses. Am i paying for interesting... or for marketable?
Part of the reason i was so interested in accounting is because it teaches you a set of skills that prepare you for job placement in the real world. I feel like the business-related majors (atleast at Rutgers) are practical in ways most other majors are not. What about law school? you learn about cases, but do you learn how to be a lawyer? what to say, how to handle cases, what to look for... as far as i know the answer is no. you learn theories and facts and you write long papers. If you grades are high enough, that makes you good lawyer material. But why? You had a better memory, you studied harder, you were an overachiever... but does it make you ready to be an adult? to have the job?
See, i don't think that everything you need to know to be a good employee anywhere in anyfield can be learned solely from a book. Experience is important, facts are important... but I don't think it's enough. I feel like I'm paying a lot of great deal of money, for a great education and hoping beyond hope to secure the great job with the great pay and benefits... but great is the new good and soon excellent will replace it. Maybe we don't want what our parent's had. we don't want good. not minivans and to be tied down at twenty... but we want financial security, to be trained for jobs that pay well and that interest us... don't we?
While i was sitting in my dentist's office, i picked up TIME and read the cover story "Grow Up? Not So Fast" . It got me thinking, are colleges preparing us for the real world? I see some of the majors Rutgers offers and other schools offer similar majors and i wonder, what can one do with a degree in comparative literature? Plant science? women's studies? even economics? you learn the history, you learn the theory, you read and you read, you compare, contrast, analyze and interpret... but 4 years later where does it leave you. Sure you can go back and get a masters or a PHD, teach, write, think... but what kind of non-academic job can you get with that degree, even with the extra degrees?
maybe trade schools have it right. they teach marketable skills for a real occupations and don't waste your time or money otherwise. Out of all the twenty-one courses i've taken (and currently am taking) at Rutgers i can count only two courses that will help me in the job market (financial accounting and creative writing). But as for the other nineteen... well after the last final was over i quickly forgot all the unnecessary information that i'd never need again. Jewish studies is interesting, but so are many courses. Am i paying for interesting... or for marketable?
Part of the reason i was so interested in accounting is because it teaches you a set of skills that prepare you for job placement in the real world. I feel like the business-related majors (atleast at Rutgers) are practical in ways most other majors are not. What about law school? you learn about cases, but do you learn how to be a lawyer? what to say, how to handle cases, what to look for... as far as i know the answer is no. you learn theories and facts and you write long papers. If you grades are high enough, that makes you good lawyer material. But why? You had a better memory, you studied harder, you were an overachiever... but does it make you ready to be an adult? to have the job?
See, i don't think that everything you need to know to be a good employee anywhere in anyfield can be learned solely from a book. Experience is important, facts are important... but I don't think it's enough. I feel like I'm paying a lot of great deal of money, for a great education and hoping beyond hope to secure the great job with the great pay and benefits... but great is the new good and soon excellent will replace it. Maybe we don't want what our parent's had. we don't want good. not minivans and to be tied down at twenty... but we want financial security, to be trained for jobs that pay well and that interest us... don't we?