Daniel Markovits argues that while “meritocracy—for a time—replaced complacent insiders with talented and hardworking outsiders” (referencing http://archives.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/99_12/admissions.html about historical Yale admissions policies), it is now the case that upper class parents are using their advantages to give their kids the upper hand in earning the needed or desired merit, and that “hardworking outsiders no longer enjoy genuine opportunity.” But now everyone works a lot harder to stay in the same place.
No one denies kids from upper class families enjoy many advantages. But if they have to work harder for their own success, is there anything wrong with that? In industries where meritocracy rules, middle class kids are well represented. As an example, successful high tech firms and hedge funds are among the most meritocratic because their survival depends on that meritocracy. They administer their own exams, whether written, oral or a combination of the two, and their ranks are not filled with upper class kids. Pedigrees may get you an interview but you must excel on those unpredictable exams.
This resonated with me. I’ve been hearing from so many high school students of late that unless you are choosing a professional program, attending university is a waste time and money, that your degree is worth as much as toilet paper, and you’re destined to live your life as a Starbucks barista. Their only goal is to make 6 figures when they graduate from university. Even DS19’s friends, the majority of whom are of Asian descent, subscribe to this viewpoint to a great degree and have chosen to pursue practical programs with more defined outcomes. I admit that I struggled with DS19’s decision not to follow suit. His friend’s parents would no doubt be horrified by his choice of a degree in physical sciences over engineering. Interestingly to me however was that it was DH, himself a product of meritocratic rise having come from a lower middle class background to rise high in the ranks in a career in banking, who was the first to encourage DS to follow a path of passion. He would have been supportive if DS had opted to take a few years off to see if he could make a go at a career in popular music. I suspect that it’s because he is chaffing at the demands that his chosen career places upon him and wishes in hindsight that he had sown more wild oats in his youth.
I still worry about the employment outcomes of DS’s decision to go the route of sciences rather than a professional program, but I am pragmatic enough to accept that it is most likely a much better fit for him. I have only myself to blame if after raising him to embrace a wide range of interests that he has become something of a Renaissance man and sees professional programs as too constraining.
“I’ve been hearing from so many high school students of late that unless you are choosing a professional program, attending university is a waste time and money, that your degree is worth as much as toilet paper.”
This is bizarre to me. The most professionally oriented programs can also be the most limiting in terms of future career opportunities, especially if you don’t follow through and work in that profession.
Interestingly, a discussion in my social media feed the other day amongst hedge fund investors about what major they would advise a kid to choose concluded that you should do the most academically challenging degree that you can excel in, while demonstrating a base level of quantitative ability. So the most recommended degree was math. Only if you’re not talented enough at math should you do computer science, followed by economics and engineering, with finance barely mentioned except as a choice for those who don’t have outstanding talent in quantitative subjects. It seemed they would much rather hire someone with a 4.0 in Poli sci with a minor in stats or economics, than someone with a 3.0 in CS or engineering, and they’d take a math degree over a finance degree every time.
^There’re clearly more cases of anxiety and depression today on college campuses than in years past. The question is what the causes are. Better detection? More students going to colleges? Broader availability and higher rate of abuse of alcohol and drugs? Tougher academics (for some)? The answer may be all of the above. In terms of academics, an objective evaluation would show courses are on average easier and grade inflation is rampant on most campuses today. So why many more students struggle academically today? Perhaps they aren’t the right academic fits for their colleges? Have the colleges admitted too many such students who just aren’t “qualified” academically, despite the oft-repeated, and widely accepted (at least on these forums), assurances from adcoms?
@INJParent, well we’re Canadian. Our universities don’t have grade inflation. The most often repeated advice for incoming first years is expect your marks to drop by around 10% from high school. It certainly can be stressful for high achieving students who are accustomed to getting straight A’s to find their GPA in the B-C range. What we do have in our larger metropolitan centres are large minority populations who put a very high premium on education. It ratchets up the level of expectation for achievement and creates a grades arms race. Ongoing tales in the media about the changing nature of work and the gig economy don’t help either. This is in large part what drives the preference for practical professional degrees. Great demand for professional programs in turn drives up the required admissions requirements to get into them. What you end up with is highly stressed and anxious students.
Not a lot of critical thinking here. Depression and suicidal ideation are at an all time peak (if you believe the numbers) among NON college going kids of this age group. Working, in the military, or struggling to find a job with a HS diploma. So to claim that academic pressure is driving depression- when it’s hitting young people who have zero academic pressure- seems like a stretch to me. And mental illness of all kind- bipolar, anxiety, etc. have always emerged at higher rates during the college attending age, regardless of where the young person is in their life. College/no college- this is the peak period of time for mental illness to manifest.
If you take a look at rates of addiction- particularly who takes oxy, heroin and fentynal, it seems to be hitting the non-college attending population (and the non college graduate) population hardest of all. I’d conclude that it’s possible that depression and anxiety are up all over, but likely impacting non-college attending/graduating people at higher and/or more dangerous rates (look at the mortality rates when fentynal is involved) than the college kids and graduates.
Attending college may or may not be a waste of time and money. But the statistical indicators are clear that non college degree holders earn less over their lifetime than college degree holders. Even with expensive tuition- going to college still pays out financially.
For kids that have no interest in “the life of the mind” or getting an actual education? I have no doubt that for many of them it feels like a waste of time and money. But that doesn’t mean that over the entire population, college attendance doesn’t matter or is not a positive payout over one’s lifetime.
It seems, @twoin18, that the survey indicates that students should pursue pre-professional degrees-math, econ and engineering are the majors of choice for those aiming for tech or finance careers. Very few of those math majors are interested in getting doctorates in the subject,and econ is just a fancy substitute for business at elite colleges. I am certain the the diminshing opportunities for professional middle class jobs, and increased competition for them with resultant academic pressure, cause depression. That would be a rational response to the situation.
@roycroftmom I’d question whether math (especially pure math, which I’ve always found to have higher prestige than applied math) is really a pre-professional major. To me it’s just a demonstration of intellectual ability, it doesn’t teach you something that is useful in the real world. At least when I was in college the perceived order of prestige (which meant intellectual difficulty) was pure math > applied math > physics > engineering > computer science > chemistry & biology.
It seems unlikely that any increase in math majors is due to a sudden interest in abstract number theory, as opposed to the job opportunities right now in data analytics and related sciences often open to math majors.
Actually,@blossom, there’s plenty of critical thinking going on here. The underclass has always been prone to drug use and related dysfunction, so high rates of depression there are not unusual. What is out of the norm, based on historic patterns, is very high rates of depression and drug abuse in kids from reasonably stable middle class families, who traditionally have been sheltered from the types of trauma pervasive in the underclass. I don’t doubt there is overall more depression in poor kids, but that doesn’t negate the dramatic increase seen now in privileged kids, likely due to academic stress.
I’m sure an epidemiologist (I am not one) could give you plenty of alternative theories for more depression, Roycroft, starting with earlier puberty, increased exposure to environmental toxins and food additives in affluent and middle class kids (it used to just be poor kids who had lead paint), higher antibiotic use in early childhood (and prenatal?), or whatever. “likely due to academic stress”- ok, but likely due to many other factors- which we poorly understand- which can increase someone’s propensity towards depression? A close friend who is a second grade teacher reports that the line for the school nurse at lunch- to get ADD meds- is around the block. Do we know what happens to all these second graders who are being medicated once they hit puberty? Are their longitudinal studies to measure the impact of this stuff? She’s also got half the class on growth hormones- nobody once their kid to be “the short kid” anymore. Do we know what happens at age 18 to a kid who has been on hormones for more than half their lives?
We do not. And I find it hard to believe that it’s more stressful being on a campus today than it was during the Viet Nam war, during the draft, if you were a man with a bad lottery number. Flunk out and you head to "Nam. That was worse than “flunk out and you have to retake a course and might not get into Med school”.
The book “The Stressed Years of your life” talks about how prolonged stress can change the brain so that depression and anxiety are the outcome. I can’t really do it justice here, but a lot of these stressors are increasingly “baked in” to the everyday life of kids in middle and above classes, so while increased diagnosis is definitely part of it, I suspect the problem is on the rise. And many kids from poorer backgrounds face a whole different set of stressors.
The notion that a single failure/miscalculation can ruin your life has really wound up a lot of kids. We see it here in everything from “I got a B in BC Calc, can I still get into Stanford?” to the concerns like “If I go to Duke, can I get a job in IB?” Personally, I don’t think we invest enough in helping kids learn to be happy. – how to pinpoint what they love to do, how to find satisfaction in what they don’t, and how to have lives of meaning (to them). There are so many diversions and distractions to temporarily provide that feeling, but none are really sustainable.
Many math majors are explicitly aiming for actuarial, finance, or high school math teaching jobs. Even pure math can be considered preprofessional in aiming for math research or college teaching (after PhD) jobs.
Pure math majors do often have plenty of elective space to take courses that can help them in “plan B” career directions (finance, etc.) if PhD / math research directions do not work out for them.
The dozen students in my daughter’s high school class who were suicidal attributed it to the overwhelming competition, both academic and social, at the school. I have no reason to disbelieve them. Some recovered and some did not.
“Even pure math can be considered preprofessional in aiming for math research or college teaching (after PhD) jobs.”
Isn’t the very definition of “pre-professional” that it leads to a specific profession, i.e. not academia? So engineering, computer science, education, finance, accounting, etc. Otherwise every single degree could be considered pre-professional.
If we exclude goals to academia as “pre-professional”, we still see a lot of math majors choosing the major for pre-professional purposes (actuarial, etc.) and/or preparing for a “plan B” in some type of job other than academia if their path to academia does not work out.
Note that other liberal arts majors are also often chosen for pre-professional reasons. Consider the pre-meds choosing biology as their major, or the pre-laws choosing political science as their major, although no specific major is required for medical or law school admission.
Since my brother was not only on campus during the Vietnam War, but was indeed drafted, I will take his word for it when he says that from his perspective, my children have had a much more stressful high school and college experience than he ever did.
I recall my own HS and college days (I’m female so was not in danger) and between the nightly body count and the protests (some of which were violent, as you recall) I think that level of stress was off the charts. Do you remember the day of Kent State? I sure do.