Reply to A Generation of American Men Give Up on College: ‘I Just Feel Lost’

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is a bigger problem for liberal arts colleges than it is for men. They are losing half of their potential “customers.” The gender ratios are reversed in STEM programs, while the women go get degrees in gender studies or art history.

These top schools used to be finishing schools for the children of the wealthy, who would then go to work at Daddy’s firm. Now, only a small portion of those kids can get in, and the first Gen kids that are replacing them are just now starting to figure out that the degree itself was just a small part of the package that allowed those kids to succeed in life.  (See, the sudden spate of articles whining about how their $320,000 SLAC degrees don’t lead to careers that can provide a good lifestyle without generational wealth.)

Not to mention that there are more men who are foregoing degrees altogether, and going straight into business. Go straight into business, have four years of income vs. no income and a $80,000 to $320,000 expenditure? Unless you think you’re going to be one of the tiny fraction that end up in investment banking or at a T-14 law school, it’s an easy call.

How many women posting on this board have Ivy League degrees and are SAHMs?  These colleges have become finishing schools for the UC/UMC. They were just gatekeeping for certain jobs, and now people are realizing that it isn’t necessary as these colleges have begun to price themselves out of the market. It wasn’t that long ago that the press and stock traders, for example, didn’t have college degrees (and the press, for one, was better for it).  “College for all” has devalued the product to the point that we’re realizing it never really added that much value in the first place.

FWIW, I’m not anti-intellectual.  I love to sit around and read history, and would have done it for a living had I been born wealthy.  But doing that for a living is not really feasible for people without generational wealth, and we had to see a whole generation of students who didn’t know any better figure that out for themselves. [/quote]

I have no generational wealth, went to an Ivy League school on full scholarship where I got a humanities degree and now I read a lot of history and other interesting things for my job at a cultural institution where I make a decent salary that pays my bills.  Of course you might sneer because of where I live and that I won’t be retiring in my 50’s with 6 million in savings, a 4000 sq foot house, and plans on spending 40k a year on travels. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s not my priorities.[/quote]

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