Harvard’s Worthless Degree?
Posted on March 31st, 2009 in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
The blogger MSM Monitor isn’t so sure that Harvard’s motives for promoting study of the humanities are benevolent.
I’ve got one (not from Harvard). I majored in history, and as fun as some of the memories are, it was a waste of time and money. I don’t want to dismiss the whole experience as worthless, but looking back, that’s pretty much the extent of my ejerkashen at the school.
And look at what they want you to get a degree in….
3 Responses
3/31/2009 11:59 pm
After reading about Mack’s allegations regarding her dismissal from HMC, one wonders what could have gone wrong. We know that Larry Summers was poised to give serious consideration to any quantitative discussion raised by a woman….(See Crimson article….http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=527380)
4/1/2024 10:25 am
Please. That blog post from MSM Monitor is what’s worthless. Let’s look at the author’s claims:
“I guess, if you don’t have to worry about money or future employment!”
I must have missed the coverage of the ‘Society of Unemployed Harvard Graduates with Humanities Degrees.’ Seriously, though, if you want to get a Harvard degree in history or Sanskrit and then go on to make a ton of money in business or law, you can. It just depends on the courses you take outside your concentration, what you do during the summers, and whether or not you go to a professional school after college.
“As long as you PAY the TUITION and FEES, right? God! This is about COLLEGES MAKING DOUGH!!!!!”
That’s just ignorant. Considering how generous Harvard’s financial aid is now, the University has never before earned less money from its undergraduates. And, anyone who thinks that small humanities departments are a cash cow for a university is a complete moron.
“Why you gotta lie to the kids? For a buck?”
This was in response to the statement that studying in obscure fields can still lead to mainstream professions. Well, it isn’t a lie. I bet that if we look at, say, the class of 1999, we’ll find that most of those humanities concentrators are neither unemployed nor living off of trust funds.
“That was the philosophy I took when I decided my course list — and here I am!”
And here we arrive at the crux of the issue. The blogger wants to blame his own career problems on his education. I have multiple degrees in multiple “worthless” fields, and I’m doing pretty well for myself in a field that has no obvious relationship to what I studied. How did that happen? At the beginning of my career, I demonstrated to prospective employers how the skills I learned could be applied to my job. Just because this blogger hasn’t been able to apply his education to his post-college life doesn’t mean that no one can, or even that it’s especially difficult.
4/1/2024 5:26 pm
The reality is that education is not, and has never been, a guarantee of riches or future employment. Education has, and will always be, a stepping stone toward making it happen. Ambition, hard work and some luck can make it happen.
While I’ve found that attending an Ivy opens doors more easily than if I had gone to a third-tier school on full scholarship, I believe I could have wound up where I am if I had done so without the huge sticker price. It just might have taken me longer.
So while I agree with Nemo, I sympathize with MSM, especially since the job market is placing a greater value on specialization instead of generalization. Those “worthless” credentials may turn out to be worth more than the 6-digit debt.