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A comment on More than 1M fewer students are in college, the lowest numbers in 50 years. Parent comment

Re:More than 1M fewer students are in college, the lowest nu... by ren_engineer on Thursday January 13, 2022 @11:40AM (#29922865)
>Much of the rest of the world has realized that society requires and is capable of supporting advanced education for all -- after all we want humanity to be advancing, right?

the number of STEM degrees in the US has basically been flat for decades, majority of degrees being handed out are effectively useless in terms of boosting productivity and "advancement". Go around and ask people with college degrees how often they actually use them, probably 90% admit it was worthless, I know mine was. Luckily I had academic scholarships so I didn't have any debt

kids are effectively being propagandized and brainwashed into chasing worthless credentials while racking up debt that will impact their lives for years. The amount of emotional manipulation around college is disgusting

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Re:More than 1M fewer students are in college, the lowest nu... by Taylor_OD on Thursday January 13, 2022 @12:18PM (#29923496)
My theatre degree has been useless from a compensation standpoint for me. It was somewhat helpful when I was in sales but I only got it because it was the easiest degree that required the least amount of maths.

I went to college because my parents forced me to. Thankfully I got out without any debt. I cant imagine how upset I would be if I racked up 100K is debt and ended up with a useless degree like many of my friends did.

That being said... I cant really blame my parents for forcing me to go. It did seem like the best option at the time. No one told me, or I guess them, about alternative educational programs or trade schools. I'd probably be a carpenter now if someone had. I had pretty much zero plans for my life post high school so college at least gave me something to do while I figured it out.

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Re:More than 1M fewer students are in college, the lowest nu... by mcguire on Thursday January 13, 2022 @09:24PM (#29929894)
"the number of STEM degrees in the US has basically been flat for decades"

Between 2008 and 2015 the number grew by nearly 50%.

https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d16/tables/dt16_318.45.a...

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Re:More than 1M fewer students are in college, the lowest nu... by acchow on Thursday January 13, 2022 @07:50PM (#29929170)
> kids are effectively being propagandized and brainwashed into chasing worthless credentials

They also force each other into "worthless credentials", as many college graduates will only date other college graduates.

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Re:More than 1M fewer students are in college, the lowest nu... by thundergolfer on Thursday January 13, 2022 @08:36PM (#29929528)
Paying for the Party is a good book about this issue of STEM degrees being flat and money being pumped in by students doing marketing, PR, communications, and business management degrees.
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