Students may weigh dreams vs. dollars in career choice

[pstokely]

Source: St. Louis Post Dispatch

There's a simple bit of advice high school graduates often hear when deciding where to go to college and what to study when they get there: Pick something you love and follow your dream. Do that, and everything will work out.

Sounds great, except it isn't always true.

We can look at the growing mountain of student loan debt and rapidly rising default rates to see that these words have the potential to lead students into financial turmoil. Not every dream has a job attached to it.

And at a time when colleges and universities are under pressure to produce a ready workforce, this fact is pumping up the long-running ideological debate between those who see college as a vehicle to open the minds of young people and those who see it as a training ground for young capitalists.



Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/students-may-weigh-dreams-vs-dollars-in-career-choice/article_ecb2db1d-44ef-5df2-af65-83cbb1dd2439.html#ixzz1w4KHqYn5

[orpupilofnature57]

1. The biggest tragedy

Closing doors to our youths dreams will have consequences that are far reaching ,as to the priorities of the future.

[exboyfil]

2. It takes alot of energy and family support

but my advice to my older daughter is to follow your dream of film making, but get an Electrical Engineering degree along the way. I emphasize how she needs to look for synergies between the two subjects. Film making is highly technical and alot of that technology derives from Electrical Engineering. I told her to look for internnship/job opportunities in film making (or associated activities like commercials) until you can be eligible for engineering internships. I have worked with her to clear the deck for her last two years of High School which will be taking college level engineering classes while working on her craft in Broadcast and Yearkbook Journalism. The online college classes will give her flexibility in her schedule that she does not currently have in the public school, while getting classes done now to open up additional film making classes in college.

[pipoman]

3. Maybe US universities funded by state and federal money should

be required to reduce the numbers of foreign students. Most of the foreign students come from wealthy families, the numbers have driven the price of Universities beyond the 'supply and demand' model based on the US economy..there is just no other explaination I can think of for the cost of education escalating beyond inflation..

[pstokely]

4. More $ from Foreign and out of state students

nt

[riderinthestorm]

7. Anti-intellectualism has meant a 20% decrease in taxpayer funding for public colleges in past 10 yrs

Yes, even STEM courses, that many people believe are the only important majors anyone should be interested in right now. We are so foolishly short sighted in providing for our best and brightest hope for the future. Politicians have been able to manipulate our country's disdain for academia in the past 10 years and its wrought serious havoc on those with ambitious dreams. Pell Grants have fallen precipitously as well. The battle over lowering the interest rates on student loans is disgusting.



http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/01/18/nsf-report-notes-decline-state-support-research-universities

Per-student state funding for public research universities dropped about 20 percent between 2002 and 2010, according to a report being released today by the National Science Board, the policy-making arm of the National Science Foundation.

The biannual “Science and Engineering Indicators” report (which will be released on the National Science Foundation’s website at noon), is designed to provide a broad base of quantitative information about the state of science, technology and engineering teaching and research in the United States and abroad, to help policy makers.

Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/01/18/nsf-report-notes-decline-state-support-research-universities#ixzz1w4oNDIjL
Inside Higher Ed

[KurtNYC]

5. More internships and apprenticeships would help

The world needs craftsmen, electricians, MRI techs, nurses, welders, plumbers, and plenty of other good paying jobs that require training other than 4 year college. College is very good at teaching you how to educate YOURSELF but it is seldom hands-on.

The current push to send EVERY kid on to college is mindless and a disservice to our kids.

[Ineeda]

6. Maybe this is more true nowadays but, frankly,

I don't believe the 'follow your dream' advice was ever totally true, especially as applied to the arts. Statistically, (not 100%, of course), the best an artist could actually achieve would be as an art, writing, or music teacher, choir director, drama or singing coach, etc. The phrase 'starving artist' has its roots in fact. Additionally, I never believed, in total, that "...those who can't, teach." Such a condescending generalization and demoralizing B.S.

[raouldukelives]

8. I blame the parents.

Reading Shakespeare to them in the womb. Spending all that time teaching their kids to read or write. Quoting poetry and music. All a giant waste of time in today's America. Those things can instill ideas in a child that are actually weights around their neck in our valueless, greed based society.
That time would have been much better spent teaching them to not feel empathy when they see a starving child or training them to run fast and whack a spherical object with a stick. If you can catch an inflated rubber ball while running at full speed the world of higher education will open it's doors like Moses parting the Red Sea. If you want to help feed the hungry or learn environmental sustainability, well, I hope you have deep pockets.

[bluestateguy]

9. These are some difficult conversations parents and counselors must be having with kids

A young man or woman may dream of becoming a college professor of philosophy, for example, but only a precious few people can actually make their living doing that anymore.

[maria2]

10. ....

ah ok...