Latest Graduation Rates Released

[Marf]

That's ridiculous to say that liberal arts degrees are worthless.

 

Agreed. Liberal arts graduates make excellent coffee.

[zeWilbur]

Liberal Arts degrees are excellent for creating well-rounded, interesting people. From my experience it does little to provide knowledge/skills that separate the graduate from people that did not graduate from college. There is a reason that my engineering friends do not worry about being unemployed.

[Goal-line]

Liberal Arts degrees are excellent for creating well-rounded, interesting people. From my experience it does little to provide knowledge/skills that separate the graduate from people that did not graduate from college. There is a reason that my engineering friends do not worry about being unemployed.

 

When a person graduates from college, it is up to them to make their course of major study work for them. Just because you graduate from law school, engineering school or medical school necessarily equates to success. I know several engineers who eventually could not make the grade in the field of engineering and ended up doing something else. Also, a doctor friend of mine got tired of the high cost of insurance and decided on a new career. He became a lawyer and is not dissatisfied with that. He is now looking to write children's books. Work ethic is the most important ingredient in the work force, no matter how academic you are.

[AFhusker]

Must be pretty embarrassing to be one of the leftover 3% from Northwestern. Dumbasses.

 

[It'sNotAFakeID]

I don't know how we got off on the tangent of discussing the value of liberal arts degrees...but as a neutral party (I'm a psychology major/business minor) here's my opinion of them:

 

The reason engineers and the like don't have to worry much about employment is because there are far fewer of them and the demand for them is always there. There are far more people with liberal arts degrees and the demand for these people isn't always there. It's much more unpredictable. So, a good majority of them are either unemployed or employed in a field that has no relation to what they studied.

 

Just because they study something different doesn't make what they do easy. It makes it different. I hate it when I hear a couple of people I know who are engineering majors talk down the other majors like their coursework is far easier. No, it's not.

[Hooked on Huskers]

............engineering majors talk down the other majors like their coursework is far easier. No, it's not.

Maybe not. My son's best friend had pursued a mechanical engineer career. In the first college year, he passed all core courses with flying colors. Unfortunately the third college year, he flunked out miserably. The second try, same thing, flunked. Dummy? No, because he decided to changed from engineer to journalism degree. As a result, he graduated with almost 4.00 GPA.

[suigeneris]

Liberal Arts degrees are excellent for creating well-rounded, interesting people. From my experience it does little to provide knowledge/skills that separate the graduate from people that did not graduate from college. There is a reason that my engineering friends do not worry about being unemployed.

 

Engineering isn't exactly a booming profession. Engineers in the oil business will probably do pretty good but most major engineering fields (e.g., mechanical) are expected to have below average job growth this decade. BLS.

 

Engineering jobs that don't require field work are particularly susceptible to cost-saving measures like outsourcing, and that's a trend that should continue to grow.

[zeWilbur]

The focus has shifted from what I was hoping to emphasize. The point was that you can use your time to gain skills you realistically would not be able to gain without attending. Those skills just happen to make you more employable.

 

I will use myself as a case study as I feel it illustrates my point fairly well. When in doubt, N=1.

 

BS Computer Science w. minor in Art History (Double nerd)

MS Electrical Engineering, MA Romantic Literature (Super Double nerd)

PHD Artificial Intelligence, working on a PHD in Philosophy (Uber Double nerd)

 

At this point I work in the private sector as a consultant in cyber warfare, an option only available to me based on what I did academically. The number of opportunities available to me because I chose the engineering route is significantly larger than the number of opportunities afforded me by the liberal arts. I would hope that is evident as my liberal arts emphasis qualifies me to teach, craft, write, or get in pointless arguments at holiday parties. All fine, respectable options. Well, except for the holiday parties. However, those options pale in comparison to the any one of my technical degrees. Any of which still qualify me for pointless arguments at holiday parties. That is the point.

 

So I have spent time on both sides of the fence. A lot of time actually. I have studied and taught on the collegiate level on both sides and celebrate education in all its forms. I can say unequivocally that engineering course work is more difficult, if in no other way than sheer volume. There are countless people in liberal arts disciplines capable of succeeding in engineering disciplines and vice versa. Both areas have unique challenges and rewards. However, I would challenge anyone to find a single person that switched majors from a liberal arts major to an engineering major because the liberal arts coursework was too challenging. Don't worry about finding two or three. Simply find one and will humbly apologize.

 

 

 

 

Liberal Arts degrees are excellent for creating well-rounded, interesting people. From my experience it does little to provide knowledge/skills that separate the graduate from people that did not graduate from college. There is a reason that my engineering friends do not worry about being unemployed.

 

When a person graduates from college, it is up to them to make their course of major study work for them. Just because you graduate from law school, engineering school or medical school necessarily equates to success. I know several engineers who eventually could not make the grade in the field of engineering and ended up doing something else. Also, a doctor friend of mine got tired of the high cost of insurance and decided on a new career. He became a lawyer and is not dissatisfied with that. He is now looking to write children's books. Work ethic is the most important ingredient in the work force, no matter how academic you are.

 

I agree. Dispassionate people will rarely succeed in any field. That being said, your doctor/lawyer friends could go back to being that if they chose. Conversely, an author of children's books, (for which you require no formal education) can not decide to practice medicine because they were tired of (arbitrary reason).

[beanman]

I don't know how we got off on the tangent of discussing the value of liberal arts degrees...but as a neutral party (I'm a psychology major/business minor) here's my opinion of them:

 

The reason engineers and the like don't have to worry much about employment is because there are far fewer of them and the demand for them is always there. There are far more people with liberal arts degrees and the demand for these people isn't always there. It's much more unpredictable. So, a good majority of them are either unemployed or employed in a field that has no relation to what they studied.

 

Just because they study something different doesn't make what they do easy. It makes it different. I hate it when I hear a couple of people I know who are engineering majors talk down the other majors like their coursework is far easier. No, it's not.

 

I don't want to get into a big pissing match with you, but I will just say that there is a reason engineers are in far fewer numbers in general and a reason we are compensated the way we are. Getting an engineering degree was hell. I considered quitting, committing suicide, etc. many times because it was too much for me to handle. I graduated with a fairly good GPA but my college experience wasn't exactly fun and I don't look back on those days fondly at all other than having the sense that I was working toward something that my parents and grandparents never did. I'm glad I stuck it out because I have a good job now, but I recall plenty of people who switched to engineering from different majors and they couldn't hack it. One of them was a 4.0 business major who stated he wasn't being challenged enough with his current degree choice. He tried Chemical Engineering for a semester, failed half his classes and went back to business.

 

Most college degrees are hard to get. Some are just harder than others(I'm talking about conceptually, not the amount of work that is required). There's nothing wrong with that and you shouldn't be offended by it. All degrees take commitment and hard work. You have to do what makes you happy because whatever you choose to do will likely be what you're doing 20 years from now. Work ethic will take you most of the way, but people such as my wife could work her ass of and never be able to figure out half of the stuff I studied in school. But she could certainly get a lot of other degrees at UNL.

 

Just my $.02. I don't mean to sound like a dick or anything, so I apologize if it came off that way.

[beanman]

The focus has shifted from what I was hoping to emphasize. The point was that you can use your time to gain skills you realistically would not be able to gain without attending. Those skills just happen to make you more employable.

 

I will use myself as a case study as I feel it illustrates my point fairly well. When in doubt, N=1.

 

BS Computer Science w. minor in Art History (Double nerd)

MS Electrical Engineering, MA Romantic Literature (Super Double nerd)

PHD Artificial Intelligence, working on a PHD in Philosophy (Uber Double nerd)

 

At this point I work in the private sector as a consultant in cyber warfare, an option only available to me based on what I did academically. The number of opportunities available to me because I chose the engineering route is significantly larger than the number of opportunities afforded me by the liberal arts. I would hope that is evident as my liberal arts emphasis qualifies me to teach, craft, write, or get in pointless arguments at holiday parties. All fine, respectable options. Well, except for the holiday parties. However, those options pale in comparison to the any one of my technical degrees. Any of which still qualify me for pointless arguments at holiday parties. That is the point.

 

So I have spent time on both sides of the fence. A lot of time actually. I have studied and taught on the collegiate level on both sides and celebrate education in all its forms. I can say unequivocally that engineering course work is more difficult, if in no other way than sheer volume. There are countless people in liberal arts disciplines capable of succeeding in engineering disciplines and vice versa. Both areas have unique challenges and rewards. However, I would challenge anyone to find a single person that switched majors from a liberal arts major to an engineering major because the liberal arts coursework was too challenging. Don't worry about finding two or three. Simply find one and will humbly apologize.

 

 

 

 

Liberal Arts degrees are excellent for creating well-rounded, interesting people. From my experience it does little to provide knowledge/skills that separate the graduate from people that did not graduate from college. There is a reason that my engineering friends do not worry about being unemployed.

 

When a person graduates from college, it is up to them to make their course of major study work for them. Just because you graduate from law school, engineering school or medical school necessarily equates to success. I know several engineers who eventually could not make the grade in the field of engineering and ended up doing something else. Also, a doctor friend of mine got tired of the high cost of insurance and decided on a new career. He became a lawyer and is not dissatisfied with that. He is now looking to write children's books. Work ethic is the most important ingredient in the work force, no matter how academic you are.

 

I agree. Dispassionate people will rarely succeed in any field. That being said, your doctor/lawyer friends could go back to being that if they chose. Conversely, an author of children's books, (for which you require no formal education) can not decide to practice medicine because they were tired of (arbitrary reason).

 

Wow. That's an impressive list of degrees. Computer Science is one degree I can definitely say I would have failed to achieve.

[zeWilbur]

Wow. That's an impressive list of degrees. Computer Science is one degree I can definitely say I would have failed to achieve.

 

Thanks. CompSci was fun for me. Probably not as fun for the "mathematically challenged".

 

The trick to education, and probably life, is just not stopping. I take at least one course every semester to this day. It is amazing how much you can accomplish when you keep moving in the same direction. I just hope that the current athletes, or any students really, are taking advantage of the options they have now before it is too late.

[Guy Chamberlin]

does this give me ammunition to confirm what Jim Harbaugh stated of his alma mater and how they influence their football team by pushing them to take garbage classes?

 

Uh....garbage classes aren't exclusive to Michigan. As with most major programs, you'll find plenty of Buckeye and Husker players taking lightweight electives and pursuing vague majors like Sociology, Communications and Physical Education. And of course the tutors, who some accuse of doing far too much on behalf of the players.

 

There are always stellar exceptions, but a lot of graduating football players don't have a useful degree or education. A lot of non-student athletes don't either, but that's another story. The discipline of football, the concept of being a team player, and the connections made while playing four or five years of college football might be more valuable towards a future career. But the kids who arrive as high school superstars, and maintain that sense of entitlement to coast to their degree, often get screwed when the real world comes around.

[It'sNotAFakeID]

I don't know how we got off on the tangent of discussing the value of liberal arts degrees...but as a neutral party (I'm a psychology major/business minor) here's my opinion of them:

 

The reason engineers and the like don't have to worry much about employment is because there are far fewer of them and the demand for them is always there. There are far more people with liberal arts degrees and the demand for these people isn't always there. It's much more unpredictable. So, a good majority of them are either unemployed or employed in a field that has no relation to what they studied.

 

Just because they study something different doesn't make what they do easy. It makes it different. I hate it when I hear a couple of people I know who are engineering majors talk down the other majors like their coursework is far easier. No, it's not.

 

I don't want to get into a big pissing match with you, but I will just say that there is a reason engineers are in far fewer numbers in general and a reason we are compensated the way we are. Getting an engineering degree was hell. I considered quitting, committing suicide, etc. many times because it was too much for me to handle. I graduated with a fairly good GPA but my college experience wasn't exactly fun and I don't look back on those days fondly at all other than having the sense that I was working toward something that my parents and grandparents never did. I'm glad I stuck it out because I have a good job now, but I recall plenty of people who switched to engineering from different majors and they couldn't hack it. One of them was a 4.0 business major who stated he wasn't being challenged enough with his current degree choice. He tried Chemical Engineering for a semester, failed half his classes and went back to business.

 

Most college degrees are hard to get. Some are just harder than others(I'm talking about conceptually, not the amount of work that is required). There's nothing wrong with that and you shouldn't be offended by it. All degrees take commitment and hard work. You have to do what makes you happy because whatever you choose to do will likely be what you're doing 20 years from now. Work ethic will take you most of the way, but people such as my wife could work her ass of and never be able to figure out half of the stuff I studied in school. But she could certainly get a lot of other degrees at UNL.

 

Just my $.02. I don't mean to sound like a dick or anything, so I apologize if it came off that way.

 

You're going to have to trust me here. As someone studying in a field whose purpose is to break down all the important pieces of a puzzle to tell an interesting story, here's the message I'm trying to convey:

 

Engineering coursework is rigorous. *This an understanding of engineering through the lens of a person who studies psychology (and with it the interactions and intricacies of human behavior to larger systematic variables [organizational structure, for example]). Engineering involves understanding the interaction between elements (and when I say that I mean things) in a system. Now the only way that the interaction can be understood is through math; very, very difficult math. You can throw in computer coding in there as well, because that is just as difficult. It is significantly harder to finish college with a higher GPA in any engineering or hard science major than it is a soft science major or liberal arts major.

 

Where I'm going with this is to address the notion that liberal arts majors are just plain stupid because what they do doesn't seem as rigorous on the surface. It's hard for those in liberal arts to quantify "difficulty" to those in engineering because they can't show them complicated equations to prove their point. Ask a journalism major to solve a complex equation and 9.5 times out of 10, it won't be solved correctly. Ask a chemical engineer major to write an excellent story that a newspaper would want to publish, and 9.5 times out of 10, it won't be published.

 

My intent is not to devalue the work of engineers. My intent is to raise the understanding that the two fields can not and should not be compared to each other. Each has its own values, each has its own difficulties, none of which are more difficult than the other.

[It'sNotAFakeID]

Wow. That's an impressive list of degrees. Computer Science is one degree I can definitely say I would have failed to achieve.

 

Thanks. CompSci was fun for me. Probably not as fun for the "mathematically challenged".

 

The trick to education, and probably life, is just not stopping. I take at least one course every semester to this day. It is amazing how much you can accomplish when you keep moving in the same direction. I just hope that the current athletes, or any students really, are taking advantage of the options they have now before it is too late.

 

Do you think they are? Or are they just focusing on making it to the NFL so that they don't have to think about school and education?

[It'sNotAFakeID]

............engineering majors talk down the other majors like their coursework is far easier. No, it's not.

Maybe not. My son's best friend had pursued a mechanical engineer career. In the first college year, he passed all core courses with flying colors. Unfortunately the third college year, he flunked out miserably. The second try, same thing, flunked. Dummy? No, because he decided to changed from engineer to journalism degree. As a result, he graduated with almost 4.00 GPA.

 

Difference in coursework. Different people are suited to do better in different areas.