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Originally Posted by Sid Vicious
thanks, you put it more succintly than i did. actually showing up to most lectures imo is pointless, but alot of courses aren't offered via distance ed
LA/SS degrees as a whole need to incorporate better teaching techniques and are stuck in a time warp.
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The world is definitely changing quickly, but how many disciplines do you know change their teaching methods and foundations on a dime? Reform in teaching methods will happen, but it takes time and typically, academics move more slowly because they are, by nature, reflective to a fault.
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most classes still require a textbook, which is stupid as fuck considering how fast the information in one becomes outdated. and although writing papers in stuff is vital to learning, courses should require more "hands on" projects that require creativity. for example, entrepeneurial classes require you to actually market and sell a product.
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Perhaps textbooks may be irrelevant in the business world, but are we experiencing a fundamental shift in the way we view the foundations of the market economy, for example? Other disciplines don't experience the same change as certain business disciplines do.
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interesting, i went to the same school and gradded with the same degree (but with a concentration in operations management + finance). but the work experience was 1000% more useful to me than going to class, and i felt the qualitative classes didnt teach me much of anything...like for example, business communication...etc
most people missed the point of this thread. the value of university and higher learning is theoretically priceless, however the execution is sorely lacking. material taught in class is often outdated or worse, and most degrees have dozens of filler courses which are prereqs.
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How did you get hired in your job in the first place? I bet it was because you were enrolled in a university degree program. Notwithstanding some of what others have said about the value of a university education, at the end of the day, it's a piece of paper you need. Sure, it's overrated, but you basically need a university degree to do anything that is not related to working with your hands.
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basically social science degrees market themselves as a science when they fail both measures of scientific validity
1) empiricism
2) reproducibility
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I can't disagree here; when I was a social science student, I was under no illusions about the degree of scientific rigour (or lack thereof) behind various assumptions. The term "social science" is a bit of a misnomer.
Since this thread has an undertone of picking on "liberal arts/social sciences" graduates, I will state that I guess I bucked the trend and have a pretty interesting job that only 10 or so other people in the whole country have. And, I'm compensated at a fair amount salary for it (which is above-average compared to most people my age and with my education level.) So, there's hope for social science undergrads - you just have to make the most out of the opportunities that come your way and leverage your ability to argue and articulate.