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  • College advisors?

    From Don Y@21:1/5 to All on Sun Jun 2 05:35:40 2024
    Are there advisors in schools, nowadays, to provide guidance
    for kids?

    In the past several weeks, I've spoken to a lot of kids "just
    graduating" or "in a year or so". Many complain about a BAD
    job market.

    But, when I drill down into their qualifications, most have
    taken "impractical" majors: english lit, psychology, history,
    art, etc.

    Didn't anyone advise them as to the marketability of these
    educations before they invested 4 years of their time/money?

    "And, where did you THINK you were going to work? Do you
    LOVE kids -- cuz you're likely only qualified to be a teacher..."

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  • From Bill Sloman@21:1/5 to Don Y on Mon Jun 3 00:22:51 2024
    On 2/06/2024 10:35 pm, Don Y wrote:
    Are there advisors in schools, nowadays, to provide guidance
    for kids?

    In the past several weeks, I've spoken to a lot of kids "just
    graduating" or "in a year or so".  Many complain about a BAD
    job market.

    But, when I drill down into their qualifications, most have
    taken "impractical" majors:  english lit, psychology, history,
    art, etc.

    Didn't anyone advise them as to the marketability of these
    educations before they invested 4 years of their time/money?

    "And, where did you THINK you were going to work?  Do you
    LOVE kids -- cuz you're likely only qualified to be a teacher..."

    Psychology can a very marketable major - my wife did a double major in
    German and psychology, expecting to end up teaching German in a
    secondary school, but discovered psycholinguistics in the process, got a
    Ph.D. in that and ended up as a very well paid and world famous (amongst psycholinguists) professor.

    It would have been a clever advisor that foresaw that.

    You capacity to "drill down into their qualification" is somewhat suspect.

    No advisor would have told me to take up electronics - and my Ph.D.
    advisor (unlike Winfield Hill's) certainly didn't. Curuously, the guy
    who got his job after he retired had written an electronics paper with me.

    Ghiggino, K.P., Phillips, D., and Sloman, A.W. "Nanosecond pulse stretcher",Journal of Physics E: Scientific Instruments, 12, 686-687 (1979).

    Which is to say Ken wrote the first draft of the paper, and I rewrote in
    a way that made it publishable (if still trivial).

    --
    Bill Sloman, Sydney

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  • From Jeroen Belleman@21:1/5 to Don Y on Sun Jun 2 20:30:04 2024
    On 6/2/24 14:35, Don Y wrote:
    Are there advisors in schools, nowadays, to provide guidance
    for kids?

    In the past several weeks, I've spoken to a lot of kids "just
    graduating" or "in a year or so".  Many complain about a BAD
    job market.

    But, when I drill down into their qualifications, most have
    taken "impractical" majors:  english lit, psychology, history,
    art, etc.

    Didn't anyone advise them as to the marketability of these
    educations before they invested 4 years of their time/money?

    "And, where did you THINK you were going to work?  Do you
    LOVE kids -- cuz you're likely only qualified to be a teacher..."


    Is that new? I don't think so. Graduating in some light-weight
    subject has always been perceived as an easy way to get a degree.
    STEM degrees are "too hard". And then they find that no one needs
    such graduates.

    That said, I've had people tell me that mathematics degrees are
    only good to get you a teacher's job. Unsurprisingly, those same
    people had no idea what mathematics is all about.

    Jeroen Belleman

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  • From Don Y@21:1/5 to Jeroen Belleman on Sun Jun 2 12:08:17 2024
    On 6/2/2024 11:30 AM, Jeroen Belleman wrote:
    On 6/2/24 14:35, Don Y wrote:
    Are there advisors in schools, nowadays, to provide guidance
    for kids?

    In the past several weeks, I've spoken to a lot of kids "just
    graduating" or "in a year or so".  Many complain about a BAD
    job market.

    But, when I drill down into their qualifications, most have
    taken "impractical" majors:  english lit, psychology, history,
    art, etc.

    Didn't anyone advise them as to the marketability of these
    educations before they invested 4 years of their time/money?

    "And, where did you THINK you were going to work?  Do you
    LOVE kids -- cuz you're likely only qualified to be a teacher..."

    Is that new? I don't think so.

    I don't know. My personal experience left me with no choices OTHER
    than STEM (engineering school).

    OTOH, I can recall advising an undergrad before he had to declare
    his "major". He had thought "Computer Science cuz I think I can
    make a lot of money, there" "But, do you LIKE that field?" "Well,
    no..." "There's an awful lot of years for you to spend NOT liking
    something and reliant on it for an income!"

    Likewise, a friend approached me, dismayed, as his kid was about
    to enroll in a psychology program: "How the hell is he going to
    find work, there?" After a brief chat, he ended up going into
    an engineering program (that he really wasn't too excited about)
    and, once there (after graduation) moving into a succesful
    engineering MANAGEMENT position. Hard to see how a psych degree
    would have opened those doors...

    Graduating in some light-weight
    subject has always been perceived as an easy way to get a degree.
    STEM degrees are "too hard". And then they find that no one needs
    such graduates.

    But there are degree options that don't fall into the basket-weaving
    vs. STEM categories. E.g., a CPA is in relatively high demand and
    pay. The Law? (ick)

    That said, I've had people tell me that mathematics degrees are
    only good to get you a teacher's job. Unsurprisingly, those same
    people had no idea what mathematics is all about.

    What I wonder is the extent that kids *are* counseled and how
    effective that counseling can be -- in light of the school
    likely offering those "light weight" programs/majors.

    Head of Psych department: "How come you are denigrating MY field?"
    Counselor: "How many of YOUR graduates are now working IN that field?"

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