RE: Colleges Are a For Profit Business
I found college to be a major disappointment, and way to expensive. My experience comes from the STEM side, and I think the way that knowledge is tought is extremely inefficient. Students leaving with a BSc have very little practical skills. They spend more time in their academic career writing papers, cramming and regurgitating then actually learning how to use scientific equipment and conduct a routine experiment or test a hypothesis. They will also be forced to take a whole mess of unrelated courses, that for most contribute to their debt. Of course many will say, that is what grad school is for, get experience. Go a masters and get some experience, blah blah blah. Well, if they dumped a bunch of the fluff classes, and got kids in the labs more and sooner, grad school would not be needed. But...they make more money off grad school, so....Anyhow, I have been noticed the degree requirements are dropping for many good paying STEM jobs over the years. The attitude within industry is that universities are generally behind the curve technology wise, and as long as people know some STEM stuff they can be trained. Art history, literature, calculus III, Metabolism, Advanced Organic Chemistry, so forth and so on not required. But do know the basics, and it really helps if you know how to program. Pick a language in demand and learn it, guided or not.
100% agree. These kids graduate in a field and yet do not know how to establish themselves individually. It's like they were made to take orders from someone else. Your comparison is spot on. Is an engineer still an engineer if he or she cannot use equipment or apply the scientific method to real life?
This is like business majors graduating without a clue on how to start their own business.
It's good that they are dropping requirements in STEM, it's a sign that the industry is no longer blinded by degrees and that they need talent not money.
Business graduates that do not know how to start a business? For real? Wow, colleges just stink on the delivery of so much. Or are you just relating?
I am actually a business major. I was never taught how to run a business. Some schools do have those courses but these are mostly specialty classes and not mandated for all students, which is unfortunate.
It was only later during my career where I voluntarily decided to learn how the world works, not from the perspective of an end user. During my undergraduate studies things like enterprise, critical thinking, and identifying trends was never taught. The dream was to get hired by a top bank to do "analytical" excel spreadsheets that can be complied by a high schooler and walk away with a 6 figure salary (this was before the 2008 recession).
So yeah, a lot of business graduates do not know how to start or run a business. The curriculum at least in my case, was mostly accounting, economics, and management with a dash of computer science. The basics of all of that can be found on the web without having take a plethora of exams and papers.
I strongly suggest anyone going the STEM route to get their foot in the door ASAP. A couple basic science classes can do a lot to get someone a job at startup science or engineering company. An drunk Engineer gave me this advice 20 years ago, and it was the best I ever got.
Funny, I am in the process of switching to STEM. I love that it is a lot more objective than other industries so people who are innovative and hard working can go far. No need to waste 4-7 years in the classroom to get your feet wet.
Just take a few physical and or biological science classes, and get your foot in the door somewhere. Do not wait for university to give you the green light, because they will not for years to come. Its what I did.
I responded to a tweet about this earlier. https://twitter.com/scientist84/status/1107154892098060288?s=19