Reply to I'm telling my kids to go to the UK for undergrad

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

From the Law Society of the UK.

Here are some examples of friends who changed majors at US universities. If you assure me that each of these changes is possible at a UK university, I will stand down

Engineering to Math and Scandinavian Studies
Chemistry to English literature
Biochemistry to Biology
Biology to American History
Political Science to Economics
Physics to physics with an English literature minor
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[b]The fact that you can switch from engineering to scandinavian studies tells you how shallow the US undergrad courses are. This is for dilettantes, not a serious education.[/b]

I studied history for my undergraduate degree. I became an economist, my friends who studied the subject became lawyers, journalists, producers, script writers, academics. I know people who studied medicine that now work in the City or media. [i]So your statement that you need to choose a career path at 17 is simply incorrect. The purpose of your undergraduate degree is to give you a solid foundation in an area of study, to teach you how to research, to think, and to express your ideas[/i]. The subject is irrelevant in the vast majority of cases.[/quote]

The fact that you can't switch means that you are narrowly educated.  You might know your subject very well, but you aren't well educated in other areas. You are missing the cross-pollination of ideas by only studying one field.  You are a technician, not an educated person. [/quote]

Did you even read and understand what the PP said? It all went above your head. Not a good sign. Where did you go for undergrad? [/quote]

I understood it. I just don't agree.  Your problem and PP's problem is that you don't know what you don't know.

People who take the UK approach may be well educated in their major and capable of research in their major, but they lack the exposure to other fields to be good critical thinkers.  Lots of smart people who haven't worked in a field think they know something about it and have something to say about it. Because they have no training in the entry level work in that field, though, they don't know what they don't know about it. Because they have a college degree, they assume they are smart and they can figure it out.  They may figure out bits and pieces, but lacking an entry-level theorectical framework they almost always get it wrong. Lacking the experience of dealing with a field foreign to the main thrust of their training, they lack the humility to understand that they need to grapple with the basics before they start offering opinions.

Lacking knowledge in the field and lacking any understanding that they don't have the knowledge in the field, they are the true diletantes .

US college education includes a broad exposure to a number of fields. Students have to struggle with things they aren't good at.  They learn to know when they don't know something and how to approach areas of knowledge that are outside their core training.  Their training in their marriage doesn't suffer because they get an entire extra year as an undergraduate to take those liberal arts classes.

The value of the US approach over the UK approach is visible in the international rankings. A handful of  UK schools do a fine job, but they're not as good as US schools. Even a second choice school in the US is better than 90% of UK schools .
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