Mentat: As much as people like to rag on liberal arts degrees, they actually give you quite a bit of freedom. LA folks tend to be well read and have good vocabularies which tends to make them better communicators than say a scientist where the focus is on empirical results. If you have good written and verbal communication abilities, you can get a job anywhere.






Hard to argue with facts like that........

Places that are still hiring in a down economy:

Coffee Shops
Retail Stores
Restaurants


Yeah, sounds about right.

The right kind of person can be successful with basically any degree. They jut have to be naturally savvy.

I have a liberal arts degree, and am employed, so I'm really getting a kick, etc.

/Not at McDonald's.
//Not Walmart, either.

Mentat: As much as people like to rag on liberal arts degrees, they actually give you quite a bit of freedom. LA folks tend to be well read and have good vocabularies which tends to make them better communicators than say a scientist where the focus is on empirical results. If you have good written and verbal communication abilities, you can get a job anywhere.

Totally good vocabularies brah.

Thinkoutsidethebun (new window)

Mentat: As much as people like to rag on liberal arts degrees, they actually give you quite a bit of freedom. LA folks tend to be well read and have good vocabularies which tends to make them better communicators than say a scientist where the focus is on empirical results. If you have good written and verbal communication abilities, you can get a job anywhere.

But, but, but...this goes against Fark orthodoxy! What am I to believe in now?

I have a degree in Portuguese... Been working in IT since 1994. Just because I knew how the computers work. And I hear from people who have CompSci degrees all the time how I see things differently. They are so damn binary, and I am not :)

SnakeLee: Literally everyone I know with a poli sci degree from my college has a good, well paying job right now or is in grad school. Only about 1/3rd of them have anything to do with politics.

Hey, that's me. And I only added Poli-Sci as a major because it meant I would graduate from the college of social sciences at my university, which didn't require 2 years of a foreign language.

Lt. Cheese Weasel: Mentat: As much as people like to rag on liberal arts degrees, they actually give you quite a bit of freedom. LA folks tend to be well read and have good vocabularies which tends to make them better communicators than say a scientist where the focus is on empirical results. If you have good written and verbal communication abilities, you can get a job anywhere.

[a.abcnews.com image 640x360]
[images.businessweek.com image 600x350]

[www.examiner.com image 482x352]

Hard to argue with facts like that........

Wow, You have 3 jobs?

From the Farking article

"It found that students who had mastered the ability to think critically, reason analytically and write effectively by their senior year were[...]"

So, um, BS students tend to have the first two of those down pat. (I will admit my program had a 2 credit class for seniors that was basically English comp all over again. I think they were worried some of us couldn't write.

MSEE - haven't hurt for work yet

/suck it Lib(eral Arts Major)s

Actually, I am hiring in the Denver area right now.

$20/hour for Mexicans, $100 a day for whites. Prolly kidding.

The article says nothing of the kind subby, but it sure does try to imply that. What it actually says:

Recent college graduates who as seniors scored highest on a standardized test to measure how well they think, reason and write - skills most associated with a liberal arts education - were far more likely to be better off financially than those who scored lowest, says the survey.

So, people who reason well and write well make more money. Shocking?

Amazing how they tie it to a liberal arts degree with nothing more than "skills most associated with...".

Why not reword the article a bit: "skills most associated with long-term pot smoking", and come to the conclusion that pot smoking increases your income in a down economy?

Can't we all just agree that for the most part, college degrees are not vocational training, and that in most cases all they qualify you for is an entry-level opportunity? And from there, it's pretty much up to you (and not your diploma) to excel at your job?

LordZorch: Raw data or it's BS.

It's doesn't mention degree. It says college graduates who did well on their a standardized test in high school do better financially.

The then claim the because the test involves thinking, reasoning and writing that it must be due to a liberal arts education, when they actually have no idea of the education these students received in high school.

/ article is stupid
// subby's headline is worse
/// but that's how the greenlites roll

Got an accounting major (and master's degree), so I'm really getting a kick out of these replies.

/leaving Big 4 to go work in private equity
//Occupy Wall Street (jobs)

Yay! A little bit of everything! With no degree of certainty, but still..

jingks: LordZorch: Raw data or it's BS.

It's doesn't mention degree. It says college graduates who did well on their a standardized test in high school do better financially.

The then claim the because the test involves thinking, reasoning and writing that it must be due to a liberal arts education, when they actually have no idea of the education these students received in high school.

/ article is stupid
// subby's headline is worse
/// but that's how the greenlites roll

I have no idea why I wrote high school instead of college.... I'm an idiot.

"scored highest on a standardized test to measure how well they think, reason and write - skills most associated with a liberal arts education"

I'll give you writing. But I'd take the thinking and reasoning of even one of those stoned environmental engineer neo-hippies over anyone out of the liberal arts quad anytime.

The article said nothing about liberal arts degrees correlating with low unemployment.

It said "Recent college graduates who as seniors scored highest on a standardized test to measure how well they think, reason and write..."

It said those were "skills most associated with a liberal arts education"

It said nothing about what type of degree these people had when they graduated.

I also like this part at the end "Arum also cautions that the study doesn't speak to whether high-scoring graduates picked up their skills while in college. It follows up on research last year showing that 36% of college graduates showed few or no gains in learning between their freshman and senior years."

Finishing my M.S. in Public Communications & Technology at Colorado State University this semester. I've filled out so many applications for jobs that I'm pretty sure I could do it in my sleep anymore.

/Thesis is a monster that just keeps growing, but I'm going to finish, damnit!!

treecologist: Mentat: As much as people like to rag on liberal arts degrees, they actually give you quite a bit of freedom. LA folks tend to be well read and have good vocabularies which tends to make them better communicators than say a scientist where the focus is on empirical results. If you have good written and verbal communication abilities, you can get a job anywhere.

But, but, but...this goes against Fark orthodoxy! What am I to believe in now?

Yes, you can get a job anywhere that doesn't require a skill set other than written and verbal communication skills.

The study tested skills commonly associated with liberal arts degrees via standardized test. Their study design didn't have anything to do with what actual education they were receiving. They ranked them based on test score. Some glaring omissions (perhaps the research does address, but the article doesn't):

1) Whether there was a clear association between type of education (liberal arts vs others) and high test scores. If the only ones who scored well on the test were liberal arts majors and the only ones who did poorly were non-liberal arts majors, then we'd have something to talk about.

2) What about selection bias? I would be willing to bet that the families of liberal arts majors tend to be from higher socio-economic status than the other majors. Families of lower income would likely advocate majors that are more practical than a liberal arts degree. This typically translates to higher scores on any standardized test, which can skew analyses and bias results.

To summarize, this study doesn't mean anything without the proper context.

Duh.

Look, broad knowledge is good knowledge.

;)

Average GRE Scores by Intended Graduate Major, 7/1/01-6/30/04 (new window)

For the verbal reasoning and analytical writing portions of the test, philosophy and English majors score at the top.

TheSignPost: Well, I won't bother explaining that people have different aptitudes, different likes and wants, and different ways of thinking, so that there has always been, is, and always will have to be a wide variety of educational pursuits in order that everyone is able to take best advantage of their talents, because this will just be another thread full of f*cking idiots talking nonsense about why "arts" degrees are useless.

BEEP BOOP ONLY MONEY MATTERS BEEP YOUR DEGREE IS WORTHLESS BECAUSE YOU MAKE LESS THAN ME BOOP

Indubitably: Duh.

Look, broad knowledge is good knowledge.

;)

P.S. Wait for it...wait for it...wait for it? They may soon be to the cosmos...

rmoody: TheSignPost: Well, I won't bother explaining that people have different aptitudes, different likes and wants, and different ways of thinking, so that there has always been, is, and always will have to be a wide variety of educational pursuits in order that everyone is able to take best advantage of their talents, because this will just be another thread full of f*cking idiots talking nonsense about why "arts" degrees are useless.

BEEP BOOP ONLY MONEY MATTERS BEEP YOUR DEGREE IS WORTHLESS BECAUSE YOU MAKE LESS THAN ME BOOP

Beep, meep, boop, moop.

;)