<p>I believe you’re chances of being a successful small business owner will greatly increase if you are college educated vs. high school educated. I have only taken 45 credit hours but feel that my courses have really helped me grow as a person. I am a much better writer, thinker, organizer, listener, and yes, citizen than I was before starting college.</p>
<p>^^ Sorry, i must have portrayed that wrong. I completely agree with you that after earning a college degree you are more educated overall as a person, which in turn makes you a more intelligent, critically thinking, and therefore, “better citizen.” And the small business owner was a bad example on my part, because being the son and grandson of life long small business owners, i can confidently say that location you can get based off many factors (family, how much $ you have to pay a higher rent, etc), timing, and other strange factors weigh heavily into the success of a small business just as much the owners “business sense.”… but i digress.</p>
<p>The point im making is, yes college makes you a more intelligent, more well-rounded person and therefore a better citizen, but that doesnt mean that should be your goal in attending college. your goal should be to find some sort of field to specialize in that you feel your good at, can succeed at as a long term career, and that can offer you a way to support yourself, and a family if you choose to have one, to a level of your liking (be that $40,000 a year or $150,000 a year). if you get lucky, youll love your career, and then youre really set for life. but i have to say thats my main focus in going to college, not becoming a better me or whatever. that will happen on its own along the way, and can also happen being a hard-working car mechanic with no education. Dont just think of the life-long micky d’s cook, there are hard working people with decent jobs that didnt get a degree. The intangible benefits of college (learning the value of hard work, life experience, dealing with others, etc) i believe can mostly be obtained without going to college. You would lose out on some benefits like critically thinking skills and writing ability, but i dont think many go to college with the goal of learning to write better (except journalism majors obviously!). Most go to earn a degree, teaching them a trade, giving them a path to a career better than what they feel they could have obtained without one</p>
<p>Thanks for the lead on MTSU. I will check it out.</p>
<p>My D’s school feels the same way about college as the ethics professor. At Parent’s Weekend her first year, the freshman dean announced that the college “is not a trade school.” Which sounds good, till you remember that most of the students at D’s school have parents who can find them a good job through their social and business connections.</p>
<p>Sadly, I have no idea what my niece would major in if it were completely up to her. She really doesn’t open up to our side of the family. The only thing I can tell she really likes is the Jonas Brothers, because she wears their merchandise all the time.</p>
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<p>What is his definition of a “trade” degree? If he thinks everyone should be majoring in whatever I’d ask him what the job placement was like for all the “studies” majors. I’d also tell him that if he wants to put the idea in my child’s head that certain degrees are “trades” and not the normal experience he should cut the tuition for those willing to major in things that are not practical, otherwise he should encourage hard work and persoanl growth. I don’t think a general dean should EVER promote certain degrees, of course if he was a dean of say the business school it’d be different.</p>
<p>The context of the speech was preaching to the parents not to push a major on the kids for fear they can’t find a job with their intended major. The dean wasn’t touting anything in particular, just trying to reassure parents that their kids would still get a good education and not starve even if they did major in whatever it was they wanted.</p>
<p>I do agree for the most part, but not sure how well the advice applies to my niece’s situation because there just is not a lot the family can do to help her if her major doesn’t work out. I have a liberal arts degree and it took me almost 2 decades before I found a really good job that I liked and pays well. I just don’t want to see my niece in the same situation.</p>
<p>Wow, I have been looking on the MTSU website, and I discovered that my n. could get in-state tuition at MTSU through the academic common market if she majors in Recording Industry. I have sent her an email and a facebook message so I hope she will strongly consider it even though it’s secular. It comes in about half the price of Belmont or Loyola, so it would leave her some money in her trust fund she has to go back and take classes in something else to get a job.</p>
<p>2011musicmajorma, I can’t thank you enough for the advice.
<a href=“http://www.mtsu.edu/admissn/pdf/ACM-for-web-12-08.pdf[/url]”>http://www.mtsu.edu/admissn/pdf/ACM-for-web-12-08.pdf</a></p>
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<p>I can see both sides of a discussion on this thread. I used to be a strong advocate of the stance that undergraduate education should not be training for a job. Study whatever you want. And I still believe that the undergraduate education should develop a students ability to analyze, problem solve, write and communicate. I also think it should expose students to many areas of study not taught in HS, in other words a liberal arts education. </p>
<p>BUT… the world has changed. I am a parent, a boomer and what I wrote above may not apply in this day and age for several reasons.</p>
<h1>1 Many more people are going to college. Not like when I went to college when just the degree was worth something.</h1>
<h1>2 (as plscat…said)The cost of college is so expensive, a student cannot really afford to major in something that won’t result in a job paying higher than they could have gotten out of HS.</h1>
<h1>3 There is such grade inflation that a high gpa certainly does not mean the student can analyze, problem solve, communicate, write…</h1>
<h1>4 Jobs today require more specific skills than when I graduated. Jobs require specific computer, engineering, accounting, science, etc skills.</h1>
<p>If you are perusing a degree in a field where there is fierce competition (theater, sports, fashion) or declining (music industry), you should consider a double major or minor in a area that has job prospects and growth.</p>
<p>uskoofish–I would like to know what your D is doing in a couple of years. I sincerely hope it is in musical theater or vocal performance. It would be good if it was not pursuing an MBA like so many of my school’s music industry majors.</p>
<p>I think that my D would be happy in a few years if she is either in performance or working on the business side of the entertainment industry. Or both!</p>
<p>She is the kid who was both Belle in her senior show and also President of the school (with top 5% academics.)</p>
<p>I could see her going either way, based on what opportunites present themselves. I think that even if she is not able to support herself as a performer, it will still be part of her life.</p>
<p>I don’t see going the MBA route as a sell out. True, I don’t ever see her as an accountant, but I could see her doing an MBA specializing in entertainment. Not sure whether it is necessary career-wise. She is beginning to network through her internships, and that may be the best approach to getting ahead.</p>
<p>Interestingly, there is definitley a cross-over between the performance and business end. D was just asked to audition for a commercial for an upcoming CD by a producer who is freelancing from her music industry job. D has interned with her for a year and this producer knew that she was a musical theatre major. Somehow she conceived the idea of the commercial with my D in mind. They are meeting with the musician’s manager on Tuesday to discuss the concept and for the manager to meet D. It is for a very famous musician…a rock and roll icon. Who knows?</p>
<p>With respect to the “universities make people good citizens”</p>
<ol>
<li><p>That might be a nice side responsibility. That’s why in Texas we have 6 hours of government, 6 of US history, and various other core classes regardless of whether you go to UT or some community college. </p></li>
<li><p>Schools, at the very least those supported by tax dollars, are responsible for provided some return on investment. That means research which benefits society, whether it’s of the “drug habits of sex workers” type or “better superconductor” types. It also means adding to the human capital of society by teaching skills. </p></li>
<li><p>Schools have a responsibility to give students a return on investment. That means giving them an education which enriches their lives(i.e. at least TRY to teach people how to appreciate a poem or two) as well as their pocketbook. College is expensive and everybody is not suited to the sit around and read Plato style of college. To those that are, see: [St</a>. John’s College](<a href=“http://www.sjca.edu%5DSt”>http://www.sjca.edu)
That’s not a joke. I applied and was admitted there a decade ago. Chose a more practical option(state school followed by military) instead.</p></li>
</ol>