University Education and Financial Security

[Andy Resnick]

they are actually supposed to teach you not to do stuff even when it's not in your interest to do it.

wait... what?

 

[General_Sax]

The purpose of going to University is not, and never has been, "to get a job". It is "to learn". You choose a subject you like, and have the opportunity to spend a couple years studying it.

Yes, but historically the places of higher education were restricted, more or less, to the wealthier members of society. There was no real need to consider whether eduction would make one employable.

Now that the working and middle classes have entered the academic world, the question of whether or not one's eduction will be needed in the "working world" is of obvious importance.

 

[twofish-quant]

wait... what?

I meant their interest.

The problem is that you can't have it both ways. If you want an institution to be a center of "higher learning" then I think that would involve the university having some responsibility for informing the student what will work and what won't and for keeping students from debt even when that debt is in the universities interest.

If it's a purely commercial transaction that's different, but in that case universities shouldn't expect to be taken more seriously on social affairs than used car salesmen.

 

[Andy Resnick]

If it's a purely commercial transaction that's different, but in that case universities shouldn't expect to be taken more seriously on social affairs than used car salesmen.

For the most part, they aren't. To wit: "Ivory tower".

 

[Mathnomalous]

Wait wait, this is ridiculous. So if a country can't produce an Einstein, they are a failure? There has only ever been 1 Einstein, so good luck with that argument making any headway.

Secondly, you'll be hardpressed to find people who DONT think top US universities are over-priced and sometimes overrated.

I apologize. The claim is ridiculous. What I was trying to say was that the US and some European countries achieve similar education levels but those European countries achieve those levels at a lower cost.

In the past, I believed that people going to high-ranked universities were the best society had to offer. Today, I think people that attend those places are mostly trained themselves to attend those places in order to make a self-fulfilling prophecy true.

What worries me most is the perception that if you DO NOT attend these high-ranked universities then you must not be that "bright." This is a problem.