STEVE INSKEEP, host: A lack of jobs - not workers - has drawn thousands of people to the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. The protesters include recent college graduates who say they're unemployed and that they can not repay their student loans. One question is whether enough of them will mobilize to matter. NPR's Claudio Sanchez reports...Question for the unhappy camper: how many students will need to mobilize in a park to make Kait Legers's history degree employment-worthy?*
SANCHEZ: ...What did you get a degree in?
KAIT LEGERS: History, from Ohio University.
SANCHEZ: What do you do with a degree in history?
LEGERS: With a Bachelor's? Nothing. I can't do anything with this.
The fact of the matter is that if Kate got ripped off, it wasn't by Wall Street**. If she thought that getting a bachelors degree in history was a ticket to a good job she was a fool. If Ohio University led her to believe that she was going to somehow slide right into that corner office VP job at Sprint because of her detailed understanding of Roman Britain under the governorship of Agricola, then they are the ones who ripped her off.
This is really easy, campers. You choose college for one of two things, either to get training oriented toward a job or to get an 'education,' by which is meant training oriented toward not-a-job. Those people who want to get a job will get degrees in engineering, plastics, computer science, accounting, teaching, and the like. Those who want a more liberal education will get degrees in philosophy, history***, women's studies, black studies, religious studies, or sociology, and the like. You borrow the money, you get to pick.
But if you chose the latter, what right have you to complain that you did not get the former?
* Judge Smails says...
** Wall Street will be happy to rip her off later, obviously.
*** In the final class of my history undergrad, we were assigned the task of locating an actual job for which our new degree qualified us. It was a very cruel prank, for as a wakeup call it came far too late to do the grads any good.
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7 comments:
Also, the latter is more fun/less work. You can also do "university studies" so you can just pick a bunch of unrelated electives. Thisis one way to get an ethnic studies degree without being tagged as having one.
Congrats, I guess my spam filter has given up on you.
Yes, you're correct. Lots of these middle class geniuses go not to get anything in particular, but to have fun. They have the idea that if they stick it out for 4 (well, now 6) years of parties and cramming, somehow the world owes them a decent living. WTF? If you walk out of school with a degree Media Studies, I see "assistant manager" written all over your future. That you don't is no one's fault but your own.
As the holder of a couple of those mostly worthless history degrees (BA and MA), I can honestly say that they are only good for about four things: (1) get you started on a Ph.D. (2) get you into law school--maybe (3) let you be an educated stay-at-home mom and (4) let you substitute teach full-time because you actually have a degree and are bored out of your wits once the kids (a) go to school full time or (b) leave home.
For the record, those two degrees were my last attempt at rebellion against a domineering father who said: "your mother went to college; you're going to college. Get a degree that will do you some good so you can get a job that makes money."
Yeah. Four years, two degrees and what do I have to show for it? Well, I then got to do what I wanted to do in the first place: get married and have kids.
People always ask me what I'm going to do with my degree. Since I assume they mean what job I am going to take with a pair of degrees that match ehart's, "Nothing" is the answer I give.
It's pretty close to the right answer. I have two books I want to write (one is merely an expansion of my thesis). Maybe I'll do that or maybe I'll do nothing at all. History is not a degree that leads to a job*. I'm getting it at 45 instead of 20 because I already have a job.
* Unless it's a BSeD, which is really a teaching degree with a history emphasis
Eh, I have two degrees in physics and one in applied mathematics and all it got me was one three-year project that was scuttled after 16 months. Haven't used any of them since.
Although the humor in a physics grad taking away a much needed writing job from the teeming mass of unemployed/unemployable English/Humanities grads should be noted...
I went to a good state school with a 95% placement rate, that is until I graduated in Dec. '81 and it fell to 45%. The degree? Chemical Engineering. I was able to get a lab tech job in a cement plant six months later.
So there are no guarantees. I am using my degree fully. I think it has helped me keep my job as they've been laying people off for a few years now.
I went to a small private university that has 100% paid scholarships (room, board + allowance) and had a 100% placement rate. Last I heard, they still have a 100% placement rate into entry level management positions all around the world.
I followed that up with another degree, fully paid for by my employer, while I continued to draw my full salary and didn't even show up for any real work for over 2 years.
The job I have now is a direct benefit of all that education and experience. Stable, high paid, and full benefits.
"Be, all that you can be..."
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