Anonymous
Post 12/12/2012 16:40     Subject: If your kids are English majors they're destined to work at a shoe store
OP -- you know little of what you assert. Most organizations are starving for people who can write. Many LOVE English majors. They tire of business majors who can't write and who think too narrowly. My DD was an Ivy League English major and was hired on Wall Street because they loved her writing.
Anonymous
Post 12/12/2012 16:33     Subject: If your kids are English majors they're destined to work at a shoe store
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Art history is worse!


Wrong. I know a guy who worked at Goldman Sachs who studied art history and actually won several clients by being knowledgable about their art. Boy, you business majors sure are smug jerks.


Someday, I am going back to school for an art history degree. I spent my college and graduate school studying STEM and business.


Good for you! You'll be a happy and fulfilled person.
Anonymous
Post 12/12/2012 16:33     Subject: If your kids are English majors they're destined to work at a shoe store
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Yeah, I don't agree with the assertion that liberal arts grads aren't successful. I look forward to my son studying classics at a SLAC, and eventually going to med school after finishing the pre-med requirements through such a program. Will he do it? Don't know. Will I be a jerk about forcing him too? Absolutely not. But I think families can influence their children through providing a solid foundation, just like a solid liberal artus undergraduate major.

If he wanted a trade, and it turned out he had an aptitude for fixing cars, carpentry, or plumbing, I would encourage the study of the trade and skip college.

College shouldn't be a trade school in my view. I suppose others have a different image of the purpose of a university education. We can differ I suppose.


Agreed, but I disagree about agreeing to differ. People like this ignorant OP want to neuter college to the point where it is glorified trade school, and there are forces out there trying really, really hard to achieve this. Business and science and government majors and pre-med students need ethics and philosophy. Professionals of all kinds need to learn how to express themselves clearly and effectively in writing. The goal of education should be to roll out well-rounded humans, not automatons who only dream of making money.


I am not the PP but I would like to welcome you to the USA. School is about regurgitating what you have heard, so you can pass the tests, graduate, and assume your role as another cog in the wheel. It is the #1 killer of creativity and individuality. God bless those who are able to escape with an actual education; as opposed to this overpriced, artifical nonsense that most graduate with.


Look, I worked in higher ed for 10 years so I'm not going to disagree with you. That's why going to a big comprehensive university for undergrad is madness unless you are there for STEM so that you can work with the best faculty in the lab. You'd be much better off at a - GASP! - small liberal arts college if your goal is to actually get an education.
Anonymous
Post 12/12/2012 16:31     Subject: If your kids are English majors they're destined to work at a shoe store
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Art history is worse!


Wrong. I know a guy who worked at Goldman Sachs who studied art history and actually won several clients by being knowledgable about their art. Boy, you business majors sure are smug jerks.


Someday, I am going back to school for an art history degree. I spent my college and graduate school studying STEM and business.
Anonymous
Post 12/12/2012 16:29     Subject: If your kids are English majors they're destined to work at a shoe store
It depends what you do with it. Graduate school is key.

Journalism? Not a great field these days!
Anonymous
Post 12/12/2012 16:26     Subject: If your kids are English majors they're destined to work at a shoe store
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Yeah, I don't agree with the assertion that liberal arts grads aren't successful. I look forward to my son studying classics at a SLAC, and eventually going to med school after finishing the pre-med requirements through such a program. Will he do it? Don't know. Will I be a jerk about forcing him too? Absolutely not. But I think families can influence their children through providing a solid foundation, just like a solid liberal artus undergraduate major.

If he wanted a trade, and it turned out he had an aptitude for fixing cars, carpentry, or plumbing, I would encourage the study of the trade and skip college.

College shouldn't be a trade school in my view. I suppose others have a different image of the purpose of a university education. We can differ I suppose.


Agreed, but I disagree about agreeing to differ. People like this ignorant OP want to neuter college to the point where it is glorified trade school, and there are forces out there trying really, really hard to achieve this. Business and science and government majors and pre-med students need ethics and philosophy. Professionals of all kinds need to learn how to express themselves clearly and effectively in writing. The goal of education should be to roll out well-rounded humans, not automatons who only dream of making money.


I am not the PP but I would like to welcome you to the USA. School is about regurgitating what you have heard, so you can pass the tests, graduate, and assume your role as another cog in the wheel. It is the #1 killer of creativity and individuality. God bless those who are able to escape with an actual education; as opposed to this overpriced, artifical nonsense that most graduate with.
Anonymous
Post 12/12/2012 15:56     Subject: Re:If your kids are English majors they're destined to work at a shoe store
I majored in Art History and I'm making six figures in a totally unrelated field.

Anonymous
Post 12/12/2012 15:56     Subject: If your kids are English majors they're destined to work at a shoe store
Anonymous wrote:So tech entrepreneur thinks tech jobs are the only way to success. This just shows that Marc Andreessen has a remarkable lack of imagination.


And a limited understanding of how to build a robust and sustainable economy.
Anonymous
Post 12/12/2012 15:54     Subject: If your kids are English majors they're destined to work at a shoe store
Then there's the argument that dropping out of college is the real key to success:

http://collegedropoutshalloffame.com/
Anonymous
Post 12/12/2012 15:49     Subject: If your kids are English majors they're destined to work at a shoe store
So tech entrepreneur thinks tech jobs are the only way to success. This just shows that Marc Andreessen has a remarkable lack of imagination.
Anonymous
Post 12/12/2012 15:48     Subject: If your kids are English majors they're destined to work at a shoe store
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My father was an English major - when he graduated his first employer agreed to hire him if he would go back to school on the company nickel and "learn something." So he became a very well educated metallurgist. This was 1951.


Yes and we will all be better off if everyone is well-educated. We should have well-educated plumbers as well as doctors. We should have well-educated lab technicians as well as lawyers.

Getting an education is about so much more than getting a job.


This. An educated citizenry can make educated, informed decisions about elected government and policy. This stuff matters people. Life is more than engineering and Wall Street and cashing in.
Anonymous
Post 12/12/2012 15:47     Subject: If your kids are English majors they're destined to work at a shoe store
Anonymous wrote:Yeah, I don't agree with the assertion that liberal arts grads aren't successful. I look forward to my son studying classics at a SLAC, and eventually going to med school after finishing the pre-med requirements through such a program. Will he do it? Don't know. Will I be a jerk about forcing him too? Absolutely not. But I think families can influence their children through providing a solid foundation, just like a solid liberal artus undergraduate major.

If he wanted a trade, and it turned out he had an aptitude for fixing cars, carpentry, or plumbing, I would encourage the study of the trade and skip college.

College shouldn't be a trade school in my view. I suppose others have a different image of the purpose of a university education. We can differ I suppose.


Agreed, but I disagree about agreeing to differ. People like this ignorant OP want to neuter college to the point where it is glorified trade school, and there are forces out there trying really, really hard to achieve this. Business and science and government majors and pre-med students need ethics and philosophy. Professionals of all kinds need to learn how to express themselves clearly and effectively in writing. The goal of education should be to roll out well-rounded humans, not automatons who only dream of making money.
Anonymous
Post 12/12/2012 15:47     Subject: If your kids are English majors they're destined to work at a shoe store
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My father was an English major - when he graduated his first employer agreed to hire him if he would go back to school on the company nickel and "learn something." So he became a very well educated metallurgist. This was 1951.


And this one anecdote proves. . .what, exactly?


Nothing to prove - just think it's funny. He was hired because he was an educated person as an English major. Any damn fool can be taught to mix metals.
Anonymous
Post 12/12/2012 15:46     Subject: If your kids are English majors they're destined to work at a shoe store
Anonymous wrote:Yeah, I don't agree with the assertion that liberal arts grads aren't successful. I look forward to my son studying classics at a SLAC, and eventually going to med school after finishing the pre-med requirements through such a program. Will he do it? Don't know. Will I be a jerk about forcing him too? Absolutely not. But I think families can influence their children through providing a solid foundation, just like a solid liberal artus undergraduate major.

If he wanted a trade, and it turned out he had an aptitude for fixing cars, carpentry, or plumbing, I would encourage the study of the trade and skip college.

College shouldn't be a trade school in my view. I suppose others have a different image of the purpose of a university education. We can differ I suppose.


I would also add that a good friend from undergrad (history major) graduated and worked as a carpenter over the summer, got a license, and started a building company on his own. His high-end clientele love his ability to work with them and build additions and the like.

Another liberal arts undergrad went back to school for chemistry and, we lost touch, but last contact she was getting into research.

It's just not that simple to peg what people will do based on four years of their life in undergrad.
Anonymous
Post 12/12/2012 15:45     Subject: If your kids are English majors they're destined to work at a shoe store
Anonymous wrote:My father was an English major - when he graduated his first employer agreed to hire him if he would go back to school on the company nickel and "learn something." So he became a very well educated metallurgist. This was 1951.


Yes and we will all be better off if everyone is well-educated. We should have well-educated plumbers as well as doctors. We should have well-educated lab technicians as well as lawyers.

Getting an education is about so much more than getting a job.