Re:Screwed up incentives in higher education
by wnoise on Saturday November 27, 2010 @12:50AM
(#1944402)
> Also, grad students have funding
In the hard sciences, yes. Much less so in other fields.
Re:Screwed up incentives in higher education
by thebooktocome on Saturday November 27, 2010 @01:15AM
(#1944429)
Tell me about it. My boyfriend is in hospitality management, I'm in mathematics. Whereas I pull in enough to live comfortably in a single bedroom apartment downtown, he's on financial aid and living with two roommates on the outskirts.
It blew my mind when I found out.
Re:Screwed up incentives in higher education
by blasdel on Saturday November 27, 2010 @03:19AM
(#1944601)
What use would the government have funding market research for hotels? It's blatantly vocational, with even fewer pretenses to academics than MBA programs.
At least english majors don't have a profit motive!
Re:Screwed up incentives in higher education
by thebooktocome on Saturday November 27, 2010 @03:57AM
(#1944643)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hospitality_management_studies
Without getting into specifics, my bf's research deals with epidemiology and things related to improving public health in the hospitality/tourism industry. Sure, at the undergrad level it's mostly vocational, but it's not like there's no public benefit to full-fledged academic research in this area.
It wouldn't be a stretch to say that his work will probably have a greater positive net effect on society than mine will. But since math is a "real science", I make the "big bucks" (relative to graduate students, i.e., two steps above ramen-profitable).
Also, grad students have funding - so tuition is more like an overhead fee on the funding provided by grants and private research partners. Grad courses are also typically seminars, with no more than 10-15 students per course where you get to work one-on-one with the professor. Not to mention that profs tend to actually like teaching grad courses.
Grad school makes sense to me, conceptually at least. Undergrad tuition and the whole system is just insane. It's all basically diploma mills.