Private University or Trade school?

[Jmustang1968]

This might be strange coming from a liberal arts guy, but I thought I'd introduce some math into the thread:

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/201 ... -term-data

For you STEM types who don't like to read, basically the article explains that a LA degree is a longer term game and that because it best prepares you for a graduate degree you will likely earn as much or more than those in other fields during your peak earning years.

So go study history and philosophy, kiddos. Or Communication . Follow your passion. You'll be ok.

Yeah, many of those degrees are best accompanied with a masters and are good stepping stones towards a master or phd as I am sure you know. Most engineering or tech degrees dont go beyond getting a bachelor and hitting the work force.

[Jagosaurus]

Dave, Have to agree with JMustang on his point.

Some of the liberal art folks have more degrees than a thermometer is there a salary to student loan debt ratio to go along with those stats.

Seriously though, no disrespect was meant towards LA degrees in my previous comments. Actually, my wife's undergrad was a bachelor of science while her master will be a MA. She works for a college like yourself (she's an operation manager and will also be an adjunct comm prof after she wraps up her coursework). This is an environment where LA degrees are viewed in a different light. When she was looking into the degree, we researched costs, job placement, average salaries (in our geographic area) and what it'd do for her personal career advancement.

I think my main point was... if you chose to be a stone mason in trade school, an engineer or business analyst with a Bachelors/Science/Math degree, or a counselor with a LA degree... look at job placement related directly to your ultimate goal and conduct a ROI on earnings versus costs of degree.

My wife was an academic advisor before her current roles... a ton of students have completely unrealistic expectations related to the degree they're obtaining and what their salary upon graduation will be.

[marurun]

whereas IT, tech, accounting, and engineering jobs are in demand.

A few years ago, I know the UK was looking for engineers to come work. They were encouraging US engineers to come over on work visas.

I will counter that with the fact that IT companies like Apple and Microsoft are constantly pushing for increased H1B visas and complaining that there aren't enough STEM graduates in the US, this despite the fact that many software engineers face an uphill battle finding jobs. The IT companies just want cheaper labor. There ARE enough STEM students in the US and not enough jobs for them.

[SoltanGris]

This might be strange coming from a liberal arts guy, but I thought I'd introduce some math into the thread:

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/201 ... -term-data

For you STEM types who don't like to read, basically the article explains that a LA degree is a longer term game and that because it best prepares you for a graduate degree you will likely earn as much or more than those in other fields during your peak earning years.

So go study history and philosophy, kiddos. Or Communication . Follow your passion. You'll be ok.

My experience was getting A's in my major classes and Cs in everything else. So many students went for classes that would maximize their GPA. I figured, nobody cares about your GPA. So I took classes that I thought were interesting. I didn't alwasy do well, as comp-sci is a time sink. Loved listening to history teachers tell stories, but terrible memory for the details so I didn't excel in the classes. But I felt I was really learning stuff I wouldn't otherwise pursue.

College isn't a trade school. If you just want a job, go to trade school and get working. I'm glad I was able to get a formal computer science education to augment my personal experience and learning other things like history, horticulture, astronomy..