“What is your major?” is a mantra (and undoubtedly a pick-up
line too) on college campuses. In giving students some exposure to a variety of
academic disciplines, distribution requirements are meant in part to help
students make more informed decisions of what to major in. According to an
analysis of twelve randomly-chosen American colleges and universities in 2015,
an increasing percentage of students since the recession of 2009 were circumventing
this help by declaring their respective majors during their freshman year.[1]
The reason, according to the business newspaper, is pragmatism, student
debt-loads, and a difficult job market. “In 2012, nearly half of college
graduates between the ages of 22 and 27 were unemployed or had jobs that didn’t
use their degrees.”[2] In
response, a higher proportion of students were going to college to get a job.
Although The Wall Street Journal lauds the reduction of education to vocation, even
more striking is how even academic administrators mischaracterize the intellectual
mission of colleges and universities.
The full essay is at “College
as Job-Training.”
[1]
Douglas Belkin, “Freshman Are Picking Their Majors Earlier,” The Wall Street Journal, March 20, 2015.
[2] A
2014 paper by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Quote taken from Belkin, “Freshman.”
