Created by: CollegeAtHome.com
College@Home
September 23, 2012 by
Learn more, earn more
September 21, 2012 by
People who learn more, earn more. However, the rate of return is high on associate degrees because community college tuition is so low.
10 low-earning college majors
September 15, 2012 by
Anthropology leads Kiplinger’s Worst College Majors for Your Career. It combines low pay and high unemployment. Anthro majors are twice as likely as the average college graduate to end up working in retail in a job that doesn’t require a college education.
Unemployment rate: 6.9%
Recent grad employment rate: 10.5%
Median salary: $40,000
Median salary for recent grads: $28,000
Projected job growth for this field, 2010-2020: 21%
Likelihood of working retail: 2.1 times average
Many anthropology graduates “are studying a culture they didn’t expect: the intergenerational American household, as seen from their parents’ couch.” Nearly a third of recent grads are in low-paying office or sales jobs. Recent graduates average $28,000 per year, less than the median pay for someone with only a high school diploma. Students interested in foreign cultures would do better to major in international relations, Kiplinger suggests.
ThinkstockFine arts, film/photography, studio arts, graphic design and drama/theater also are low-earnings, high-retail majors. Also on the list: philosophy and religious studies, sociology, liberal arts and my major, English.
I’d guess that arts and theater majors understand they’re going to struggle to make a living. Do sociology majors know their odds?
Ann Althouse quotes from Kurt Vonnegut’s A Man Without a Country:
If you want to really hurt your parents, and you don’t have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts. I’m not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.
I’m not sure writing bad poetry constitutes practicing art or enlarges the soul.
What the Chinese are studying
September 14, 2012 by
University enrollment has soared by 30 percent in China in recent years, but graduates are having trouble finding jobs, reports Online Colleges. “It’s estimated that one-third of China’s 5.6 million 2008 graduates were unemployed during their first year after school.”
Information technology tops the list of The 10 Hottest College Majors in China. China produced half a million IT graduates in 2009, but there are plenty of jobs for well-qualified IT grads.
In addition to electrical and mechanical engineering, medicine, accounting, architecture and business management, the top 10 include English (not many jobs, but it helps with study in the U.S.), journalism (way too many graduates for the jobs) and law (too many graduates.)
Who will fill the skills gap?
September 8, 2012 by
As baby boomers retire, 10 million new skilled workers will be needed by 2020. Skilled is the key word.
Chicago faculty union OKs performance pay
September 7, 2012 by
Unionized professors and staff at City Colleges of Chicago have agreed to performance pay. Instead of annual pay hikes for seniority, faculty members could earn bonuses based on student outcomes, such as graduation, transfer and employment rates. The bonuses won’t be linked to individual performance. If the district reaches it goals, all faculty members will receive more money.
Many ‘dreamers’ will need GED, college access
August 17, 2012 by
Young illegal immigrants began applying this week for two-year stays on deportation and renewable work permits. High school drop-outs can qualify by enrolling in a GED or job training program. That sets the bar low: Enrolling is easy; completion is hard.
Also on Community College Spotlight: Half the jobs lost in the recession have been recovered, according to a Georgetown report, but virtually all new jobs require college credentials — a certificate, associate degree or bachelor’s.
Academic or vocational skills?
May 23, 2012 by
For the first time ever, a majority of jobless Americans 25 and older are college graduates or people with “some college.” Should our educational system focus less on academics and more on teaching workforce skills?
After college, what will you earn?
May 16, 2012 by
After college, what will you earn? Soon students will be able to see federal data on graduates’ employment and earnings to determine whether College X or College Y is a good investment.
Chicago employers who hire City Colleges graduates will get the first month of salary free.
College dreams turn into debt nightmare
May 14, 2012 by
In Student Loans Weighing Down a Generation With Heavy Debt, the New York Times introduces yet another debt-doomed borrower: Kelsey Griffith, 23, borrowed $120,000 to earn a marketing degree from Ohio Northern University. She’s working two restaurant jobs and will move in with her parents while looking for a marketing job.
Her father, a paramedic, and mother, a preschool teacher, have modest incomes, and she has four sisters. But when she visited Ohio Northern, she was won over by faculty and admissions staff members who urge students to pursue their dreams rather than obsess on the sticker price.
“As an 18-year-old, it sounded like a good fit to me, and the school really sold it,” said Ms. Griffith, a marketing major. “I knew a private school would cost a lot of money. But when I graduate, I’m going to owe like $900 a month. No one told me that.”
Ninety-four percent of students who earn a bachelor’s degree borrow to pay for higher education — up from 45 percent in 1993, according to a Times analysis of Department of Education data. This includes federal and private loans.
Elite colleges with big endowments can offer generous financial aid — and a degree that’s valuable in the labor market. Ohio Northern charges $50,000 a year for a degree of moderate economic value. “Pursue your dreams” is a cruel hoax being played on 18-year-olds and their financially naive parents.
Only 38 percent of payments on federal student loans are being paid, down from 46 percent five years ago, the Times reports. Some borrowers are still in school. Others have deferred payments. Some have defaulted.
Forty percent of recent college graduates have delayed a major purchase, such as buying a car or a home, because of college debt, estimates a Rutgers study. Only half of the surveyed graduates had a full-time job.
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