Articles like this make me very, very angry

[uchicagoalumna]

<p>Okay, so I've read twenty different versions of this same article over the past few months, and every iteration of this article makes me angrier.</p>

<p>They essentially all have the same argument:
1) ZOMG job market prospects are dim
2) ZOMG why are our kidlings studying Sophocles when they really should be studying business and computer programming and stuff that is "useful."
3) ZOMG why are our kidlings studying Sophocles AND TAKING OUT STUDENT LOANS</p>

<p>This one hit home particularly because the writer's husband works at a "prestigious Midwestern University" and she lives in Chicago. If she has the same last name as her husband, I think I know who her husband is at UChicago.</p>

<p>Anyway, the article is here:
Is</a> it time to kill the liberal arts degree? - College, university, undergraduate, graduate, undergraduate studies, graduate studies, grad school, state school, state college, freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, ivy league, pac 10, big east, big 10,</p>

<p>Two major flaws:</p>

<p>1) 95% of this article is anecdote disguised as fact, trend, or conspiracy. And, at that, I question the writer's judgement, for example:</p>

<p>
[quote]
I went on an interview to tend bar at a strip club, but left demoralized when I realized I'd have to walk around in stilettos. I went back to school to complete the pre-medical requirements I'd shunned the first time through, then, a week into physics, I applied to nursing school, then withdrew from that program after a month when I realized nursing would be an environment where my habit of spacing out might actually kill someone.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>REALLY? Can you be THAT dumb, not thinking about the jobs BEFORE you apply to them?</p>

<p>2) She presents no compelling longitudinal data. None. At all. She links to an article with some short-term data, but she doesn't analyze that data further, because I don't think the studies cited in the Times article as as awful as she's painting them out to be. That's exceptionally lazy from a scholar's point of view. She should be ashamed of herself.</p>

<p>But I bring this to your attention, oh readers: high school students, college students, and parents alike, because I am afraid that this kind of dreck is poisoning the water supply, and I am scared that schools like the University of Chicago are going to take the flak for articles like these.</p>

<p>So, my response:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>** Career preparation and academic preparation are mutually exclusive. ** And I really mean that. As an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, I took fabulously useless courses like gender studies, Yiddish, and art history. But instead of sticking my head in the sand and thinking about career prospects after graduation, I did my career homework earlier on and found the people, organizations, and internships that would help me after graduation. I read how-to books, did informational interviews, and considered learning about "the real world" as important as learning about Foucault. ** So I had my cake and ate it, too,** and my fluffy liberal arts degree has me successfully employed in a high-paying field. But no, I did not sit and whine and I certainly worked to get as much information about the field as possible before I set about looking for work.</p></li>
<li><p>UChicago was affordably expensive. No, not cheap, but my family and I made some sacrifices because my state school, in the long run, wasn't cheap enough to justify its lower cost. Or, framing it another way, my undergraduate education cost me a Honda Civic and cost my parents a BMW 7-series. I watched my budget in college and I watch it now, and I find that forgoing some morning lattes and some weekend margaritas can really help me pay off loans and start saving for retirement.</p></li>
<li><p>** UChicago was the best intellectual experience I ever had and probably ever will have. ** Sure, there are nice things about being an adult, but I miss the people and the parties, and I miss having people around me to discuss what we read. I miss seeing all these crazy things to do and I miss professors that challenged me to become a better reader.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>So students, parents, etc., don't get sucked into this pseudo-apocalyptic garbage. Kids, invest some time into learning about fields you're interested in and learn about what you'll need to know to do well in those fields, whether it be XHTML, accounting, or Chinese. Find a way to learn these things..... and have fun.</p>

[Rny2]

<p>I would agree wholeheartedly, especially to your response. Furthermore, I’d add, as something that I personally try to emphasize, that the liberal arts and critical thought are not just helpful but vital to practice. Coming from an Economics background and given the recent havok in the financial markets, I think it’s high time that people in business and finance spent more time learning how to analyze, reason, and argue than on accounting technicalities or complex derivatives. Maybe then people might wake up and catch the next bubble instead of burying their heads in ‘practical skills.’</p>

[zakuropanda]

<p>These articles are really annoying. Every time I read one I want to mail the author Andrew Abbott’s “Aims of Education” speech.</p>

[phuriku]

<p>Pretty infuriating. I guess the gist of her argument is that we need to start career planning at an early age? At least, that’s what the following seems to imply.</p>

<p>

A new Harvard study suggests that it’s not an abandonment of the college curriculum that’s needed, but a re-envisioning and better preparation. The study compares the U.S. system unfavorably to its European counterparts where students begin thinking about what sort of career they’ll pursue and the sort of preparation they’ll need for it in middle school. Could that be the answer?

</p>

<p>Career planning in middle school? Really? That’s her solution? It sounds like she’s so bitter about her career (and her own lack of proper preparation) that she desires a world wherein everyone is forced to consider and prepare for a specific career from a young age. It’s emotionally-charged nonsense.</p>

<p>That being said, there’s a good point to be taken from this article.</p>

<p>

And the common thread in all these stories seems to be how surprised these graduates were by their utter unemployability, a feeling of having been misled into complacency, issued reassurances about how the pedigree or prestige of the institution they’d attended would save them.

</p>

<p>I think this is a good point, and one especially relevant to the University of Chicago. </p>

<p>Many students believe that because they are a graduate of UChicago, they will be able to find a great job regardless of their major or qualifications. I’ve seen many students in EALC and English have this misconception, and they’re annoying as hell when they realize that a UChicago degree isn’t an immediate ticket to riches. Their complaints usually come in the form of a shot at UChicago’s prestige: “People at Northwestern and Stanford have jobs. You don’t even understand how screwed UChicago is in the job market.” The people at NU/Stanford who have jobs are the ones who put effort into increasing their qualifications, regardless of their degree. Those at NU/Stanford who are as complacent as these whiners are just as underemployed.</p>

<p>Often, it appears that UChicago students become so caught up in the purported prestige of the school that they come to believe that this prestige itself is entirely sufficient to land a great, high-paying job straight out of school. The university and its students would benefit if these rampant misconceptions were cleared up via meetings with one’s advisors or CAPS. (I’m sure they are to some extent, but perhaps it is not emphasized enough.)</p>

<p>Of course, this attitude isn’t limited to Chicago; it affects its peers as well. However, it’s particularly disappointing to see such attitudes of entitlement from a university that purportedly embodies the spirit of dedication and hard work, a spirit that shouldn’t be limited to one’s activity in academia.</p>

[Rny2]

<p>

@Is it time to kill the liberal arts degree?

Right now, they’re in those four extraordinary, exceptional years where ideas matter; and there’s not a thing I’d do to change that.

</p>

<p>Hmmmm . . . xD</p>

[caltanner]

<p>It is crucial that [liberal arts]/[UChicago] students increase their usefulness. It is through the practice of [business] and [programming] that we create the society which maintains vigorous intellectual inquiry along with scientific progress. It is also crucial that those [businessmen] and [programmers] maintain both practical excellence and intellectual inquiry, rather than separating those lifestyles into two respective sectors of society.</p>

<p>The problem isn’t killing liberal arts. Rather the problem is getting those liberal arts to accept practicality and merge successfully… (+vice-versa).</p>

[caltanner]

<p>The most dreadful of arguments: “Career preparation and academic preparation are mutually exclusive”. (That close-minded view can detract from both.)</p>

[jeckert]

<p>Sure, college is about preparing you for a successful future career, but that’s not all it’s about. Part of college is learning to expand your horizons and challenge yourself; to a point, it’s about discovering who you want to be, exploring, enjoying. College is not a factory that produces stable jobs and career-driven yuppies. I suppose that in the current economic climate peope are inclined to think of education in this way (though not to the extent that my metaphor suggests, or course) as a stable job is on everyone’s wishlist, but college is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, one that everyone should take advantage of.</p>

[idad]

<p>Every so often I post this link. It is perhaps the best answer to those who question a liberal education: [The</a> University of Chicago Magazine: October 2003](<a href=“http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0310/features/zen.shtml]The”>The University of Chicago Magazine: October 2003)</p>

[idad]

<p>BTW S1 attended Chicago, majored in Comparative Human Development, and has a great job in the educational technology industry. His having attended Chicago opened many doors for him and conferred an immediate respect (deserved or not).</p>