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Jan 20 2015 01:29pm
Quote (Skinned @ Jan 20 2015 02:12pm)
Any real man would spend at least a couple years in military service while contemplating the future.  Or the Peace Corp.

Maybe see the world a little bit before deciding what to do for the REST OF YOUR LIFE.

I was never a fan of the soul crushing life path everybody always seemed to want to push me down.  Life has the potential to be really good, but it won't be if you act in bad faith.


Peace Corp doesn't take people fresh out of high school.
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Jan 20 2015 01:38pm
Quote (Skinned @ 20 Jan 2015 14:12)
Any real man would spend at least a couple years in military service while contemplating the future.  Or the Peace Corp.

Maybe see the world a little bit before deciding what to do for the REST OF YOUR LIFE.

I was never a fan of the soul crushing life path everybody always seemed to want to push me down.  Life has the potential to be really good, but it won't be if you act in bad faith.




Damn good idea, to be 18-20 free of huge responsibilities with a healthy body again, I'd get to Florence for the art, and history.Having lived in three states here in the US. my whole life, I feel like I've missed something, I'd love to walk in cities that are many centuries old.

on the subject Our public HS. has a program called the A+ program it if the student maintains a c average, and preforms a certain number of civic work they receive free tuition to a local Junior college for two years. The College that they work with also works with the state colleges as far as transfer of credits go.

This HS. also has a Tech Ed. program which has norman but shorter core classes in the morning and then specific tech. school in the pm. from welding/hairdressing
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Jan 20 2015 02:44pm
You can't groom people to go into disciplines they don't want to do. You might be able to give them the options to explore something they may like, and you can do your best to stimulate what someone is interested in but guiding people to things they don't want to do is a fools errand. Make math a more tangible field for retention and study and people might pursue it. Math as taught in schools emphasizes repetition and memorization, two things that people don't like doing. If you can stimulate someone who may already be interested in something, you are doing a good job.

I think people need to broaden their horizons on what their education actually means jobs wise. The media and schools don't go a very good job of telling people what their education actually means. They're pretty good at saying "look, a math major makes a lot and science does too, you should do that!". Well that's not a very good sales pitch. People enjoy disciplines that aren't as directly connected to jobs, but it doesn't mean those disciplines can't lead to high paying jobs. My girl finished up her MBA co-op this year, she was an BBA student in university, and was told this was the best path for getting into business by her high school and the media. When she got into her MBA program, the Arts students in her program consistently outperformed the business and economics students because they had much stronger critical reading and thinking skills. Those two skills are arguably the most important skills for succeeding in the business world, but most arts students aren't told that. They're told their major sucks and they should have done math, science, or trade school instead.

Fix tuition costs and understand the realities of what an education means.
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Jan 20 2015 03:01pm
Quote (AspenSniper @ Jan 20 2015 11:51am)
Topic: Do High Schools do a good job of preparing students for a career and for college? Do colleges do a good job of training their students to go on a great career pathway after college.

I say no.

Most high schools use their guidance counselors as their career and college coaches for students. Meaning, employees who have never worked outside of the education system in most cases are preparing students to go into the big bad world. My issue is that in most cases, these are the two scenarios that happen:

1. College Advisement - Most will led students lead with their hearts. In my case, in Maryland, many students wanted to go to Virginia Tech and Penn State rather than an in-state school. In order to not crush their dreams, most guidance counselors did their best to show students how to get into these schools. Problem is, those universities are out of state and $40-42k per year for tuition + room and board. Unless the student intends to do a 4 year engineering program or pre-med, etc., they should be advised to attend community college for 2 years in a program that leads into a 4 year university OR at least advise them on the student loan debt they'll be in by not choosing an in-state school.

2. Career Advisement - Many will let the student speak of their interests, or advise students to major in what they most enjoyed in high school. Few students enjoy math, English, science, etc., but they take that 1 psychology class and think it's interesting, so they major in that. No issue with Psych majors, but I think high schools shouldn't operate that way. I think they should inform students of growing fields such as IT developers, mobile apps, or even simple fields like being an RN or Dental Hygenist which are ever-growing, less school, and high paying. Essentially, I think high schools should point out what matters in a CAREER such as: good pay, flexible hours, PTO time, career growth potential, etc.

Colleges aren't innocent on #2 either in many cases. My case was different because despite going to a smaller private school, they were able to give more individual attention and did a great job of pointing out growth pathways for students' majors, and for telling freshmen which majors would yield the most long term benefit.

Thoughts?


Well, high schools are doing a poor job of preparing students for college academically, so I guess them missing the boat on other facets comes as no surprise. Colleges are regularly having to put new students through remedial courses because their high school coursework was substandard.

Colleges aren't interested in student success before they are interested in selling courses. Considering ~50% of college grads are employed in fields outside their major, pre-collegiate counseling needs a serious boost.
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Jan 20 2015 03:05pm
Quote (Santara @ Jan 20 2015 03:01pm)
Well, high schools are doing a poor job of preparing students for college academically, so I guess them missing the boat on other facets comes as no surprise. Colleges are regularly having to put new students through remedial courses because their high school coursework was substandard.

Colleges aren't interested in student success before they are interested in selling courses. Considering ~50% of college grads are employed in fields outside their major, pre-collegiate counseling needs a serious boost.


I wouldn't say being employed outside your field is bad. I was told day one that if we graduated less than half of us would be working as an engineer.
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Jan 20 2015 03:05pm
Quote (Skinned @ Jan 20 2015 02:03pm)
Who lives in a state that doesn't have a state university?  What a waste of money.

You get what you put in wherever you go.  All universities produce geniuses and idiots and it doesn't have much to do with the university itself.


Have to agree with this.
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Jan 20 2015 03:19pm
Quote (nobrow @ Jan 20 2015 09:05pm)
I wouldn't say being employed outside your field is bad. I was told day one that if we graduated less than half of us would be working as an engineer.


The analytic skills do help in interdisciplinary work and even help a lot when employed in other functions. Knowing how to dice problems up into bite size easy chunks is pretty much essential to being an engineer.
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Jan 20 2015 03:31pm
Quote (nobrow @ Jan 20 2015 04:05pm)
I wouldn't say being employed outside your field is bad. I was told day one that if we graduated less than half of us would be working as an engineer.


depends on the number of years

many people hop off to more relaxing fields of work as it becomes available

i had some opportunities hop into the business side of things but i found the technical work wasn't very gratifying
couldn't spend the rest of my days working with word, excel, powerpoint and outlook

was a fun experience though while it lasted
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Jan 20 2015 04:22pm
Quote (Skinned @ Jan 20 2015 01:03pm)
Who lives in a state that doesn't have a state university?  What a waste of money.

You get what you put in wherever you go.  All universities produce geniuses and idiots and it doesn't have much to do with the university itself.



No one. I'm saying stupid high school students set their heart on an out of state school and parents and teachers support that stupid decision
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Jan 20 2015 05:14pm
Quote (nobrow @ Jan 20 2015 03:05pm)
I wouldn't say being employed outside your field is bad. I was told day one that if we graduated less than half of us would be working as an engineer.


Neither bad no good in and of itself. But it's certainly indicative of a large proportion of students misallocating their resources.
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