Gotta disagree about the liberal arts degree. Better said, it is useful and at least SOME business interests find it as such. I won't overstate it or gratuitously knock business degrees, but the old saw about law school not teaching substance, but instead teaching you how to think tends to apply to undergrad as well. Curiosity, creativity, problem-solving and related skills are enhanced via college education and particularly (not exclusively so) by what goes into getting the liberal arts degree. Some of the brightest performers in my experience come from a liberal arts degree.
Don't disagree entirely, but as I said to twenty above, I do disagree about the value of a liberal arts degree. It's not appropriate training for anyone intending to seek a trade, but it's useful and on point for lots of corporate gigs. I also agree that not all talent acquisition folks get or appreciate that value, so it's far from universal, but lots of folks really good at assembling talent know better.
That's the sales pitch that liberal arts makes. It may have been overstated years ago, but I still think it's vastly overstated now when it comes to the job market. BICBW.
I'm trying not to be flippant because to each his own and no knock on anybody for whatever educational path folks decide to take, and you're absolutely not wrong in identifying whatever you actually experienced on that count, but more generally I'd say that lots of folks aren't particularly sharp and that includes lots of folks who would apply Trumpian conventional wisdom. In any event, lots of successful people who measure what actually works have a different perspective. But sure, maybe it's a lonely world for them (and unreasonably so).
Now that makes more sense. Marry a doctor, scam the government, and retire young. What was I thinking?
Hard work, good choices, frugal living, and perseverance is for suckers.
I went to IU with the intention of majoring in History because I love history with the idea that I might also minor in Political Science, but with the ultimate intention of going to law school. Half way through my first semester, I realized I wasn't going to be able to afford college all the way through law school. I also found out that History majors don't make much money right out of college. I went to an academic advisor and asked which undergraduate major at IU was making the highest average starting salary out of college and was told Quantitative Business Analysis. So that's what I did.
Quite the career you have.
The ole QBA. That was also what I majored in. To this day, I hate computers.
was basically computer programming with a lot of math, all in the business school
And don’t think of computer programming the way you youngsters do. Think of FORTRAN, Pascal, and Basic, using punch cards. It sucked
My wife started at IU three years after me and had the same major, but they had changed it from QBA to Decision Sciences, I believe. QBA required all the core business courses, plus more advanced Calculus, linear algebra (which I hated), stats, computer programming (which I really liked), and a couple other courses I can’t recall at the moment. It was considered the most difficult business major at the time.
Serious question: How many of your girls have no business on campus spending their parents' money like they are? And to be fair, how many are paying for any of it themselves?
Agree. And an awful lot of people go to school for the social scene too. I’m not denying that college is a good segue into adulthood, but the main goal should always be preparation for your career path. We’d see even more people in college that don’t belong than we have now.
That's not the way free education works. Living in a place that has 'free college' you are only limited by your intelligence and effort.
