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....to high paying jobs? Story I suggest reading the article in it's entirety. These are just a few paragraphs that stood out to me.

"Ask a group of high school seniors what they’re sick of being asked about college, and they’ll likely share some variation of the question “What are you going to major in?” Adults usually follow up the query one of two ways: They tell students to study a subject that leads to a high-paying job—after all, student loans don’t pay themselves—or they say money isn’t everything and that students should major in fields that appeal to their passions. Hello, English and psychology."



But according to a new report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, black students are more likely to choose majors that don’t lead to lucrative careers—and it may not always be a matter of personal choice."........



"Not choosing a STEM major can have a significant economic impact on a person’s life. “African Americans who earned a Bachelor’s degree in a STEM related major, such as architecture or engineering, can earn as much as 50 percent more than African Americans who earned a Bachelor’s degree in art or psychology and social work,” wrote the report’s authors.

Instead, black students are more likely to major in “intellectual and caring” fields. They gravitate toward early childhood education and social work, “where low incomes do not reflect their years of higher education,” said the report."



Okay, I either don't get what they're saying or I do and just don't see it. These are a couple of the paragraphs that stuck out to me from the whole article. I know not everyone gets the education they want due to lack of funds, lack of educational ability, lack of motivation, etc. I also know that many people choose a field based on either what they want to do or what is most prevalent in their city/town.



Example, where I live there are countless opportunities for jobs in the medical field; specifically nursing, medical assistants, pharmacy techs, etc. It's one reason why I chose Medical Office Assistant and Medical Billing and Coding as my fields of study because I know between the two of them I have a 99% chance of getting employed after I graduate and become certified. Are they what I saw myself as being when I was younger? No, I wanted to be a nurse but no matter how much tutoring I received I just couldn't get through even the most basic math a nursing degree requires. My brain simply doesn't compute it.



Anyway, if the black folks they're talking about prefer to be teachers or work in social services, who cares? And if their wages aren't reflective of their degrees that's not on the colleges nor the graduates, that's on the fact that those jobs are paid with tax dollars which are always lower pay than their private sector counterparts. In my opinion, outside of firefighter/EMT's, police officers and our troops, there is no more a selfless act than to want to teach children or work in a field where they are able to help children who are compromised in some way. Why on earth would these be considered a less than any other job or career out there? Because the wages don't reflect the degree? I don't get it. Plus, as thankless as those jobs are these days why would you go into them if you don't have a passion for it?



There are plenty of white teachers and social workers whose wages don't reflect their degrees either. So why can't this be about that issue instead of it being about why black students aren't choosing majors leading to higher paying jobs? It's not a black issue, it's an American issue. I can assure you from personal experience we can't always choose what we want, sometimes we do what we can with what we've got.



I did read the whole article so I know it talks about possible inequality issues and I totally understand that, but people who are smart enough for those STEM jobs they were talking about generally aren't going to be deterred by mindless idiots who tend toward race issues. At my permanent duty station I was a white female in the Army with a black male platoon sergeant who didn't agree with women being in the military and didn't care for white folks. And I was the only white female in the platoon so I know what it is to deal with mindless idiots with gender and race issues in a workplace, but I refused to be bullied by his behavior.



If I'm missing something please enlighten me.

After being able to load the comments section I was able to read some points of view that made some sense. One of which is that high school students these days are pressured into making decisions on degrees a lot more than back in my day (I graduated in 1990), familial and peer pressure, and another person discussed trade schools which aren't as popular but people in those fields can often make better money than those with degrees if they're not afraid of working for their pay.

It's tragic that a black person will be bullied and called Uncle Tom for actually trying to succeed because their unmotivated friends and family think they're selling out by trying to make a better life for themselves. Maybe they just don't want to live in the hood and on public assistance the rest of their lives.

This is something I encountered when working with an organization in Jacksonville that had me in daily contact and communication with low income folks where everything was discussed to include how their friends would 'sell' their food stamps for cash so they could get alcohol, cigarettes and drugs. If some of these people heard their neighbor/cousin/whoever was doing something to get themselves out of the life, they would rain all kinds of disparaging remarks toward them even as they complained about their own situation. It was so strange to hear that. I guess I've never had the mindset that where I am in life at that moment is permanent so would never think to shame someone for doing better than me. My time would come.

The rich have always gotten richer the poor have always gotten poorer and ot doesnt have a darn thing to do with government.

Thank u for the insight.

Quote:The rich have always gotten richer the poor have always gotten poorer and ot doesnt have a darn thing to do with government.

Thank u for the insight.

What are you talking about? Who said anything about the government?

In general it is believed that certain trends are perpetuated by the state.

The last paragraph of your second post illustrates negative peer pressure concentrated in low income precincts. This is the driving force for the proliferation of poverty in society.

No matter what color you are, I have this to share with college students. Only go to college and get a degree if you know what you are going to do with it. It will save you alot of money and time.

I went to college right out of high scool and was told, "Just get a degree, then figure it out later." That is the worst advice that is extremely outdated. Have a profession in mind and use college to pursue that. Don't take classes to be entertained. Take classes to prepare yourself for a profession or your business.

One of the best things a high schooler can do is not go to college right away. Get a full-time job after graduating high school and figure out what you want to be, then go to college ONLY IF NECESSARY.

Quote:No matter what color you are, I have this to share with college students. Only go to college and get a degree if you know what you are going to do with it. It will save you alot of money and time.

I went to college right out of college and was told, "Just get a degree, then figure it out later." That is the worst advice that is extremely outdated. Have a profession in mind and use college to pursue that. Don't take classes to be entertained. Take classes to prepare yourself for a profession or your business.

One of the best things a high schooler can do is not go to college right away. Get a full-time job after graduating high school and figure out what you want to be, then go to college ONLY IF NECESSARY.

Best advice ever. Rather than "make college free" ask yourself, what will a college education do for me? A college education or degree doesn't mean that you'll get the job of your dreams or make the money that you anticipated. A college degree is highly over-rated in today's world.

What matters is "real life experience" more than anything. Case in point. I do not hold a college degree, yet I supervise and have to teach college graduates. My experience has been that college graduates "expect" to be paid at least if not more than what I get paid. That's just not realistic. Once they learn how the real world works, only then do they go on to be successful.

Education from a college is only as good as the education received. One point to remember though, no matter the industry, college will only teach the fundamentals. Real life experience is much more valuable than "theory" which is what education gives you.

I personally think that rather than focus on a college education being "free" (Bernie Sanders) I would rather focus on useful education that enables those in the lower class find meaningful employment/careers (Marco Rubio). The kid is into cars? Teach automotive mechanics, welding, etc. A kid is fascinated with construction? Teach architecture, electricity, plumbing, etc. There are a lot of good paying jobs available... and they will always be around regardless of what the stock market does.

Is the focus on the middle class or perhaps the lower class? A college education does nothing for them. Good technical education does.

Quote:Is the focus on the middle class or perhaps the lower class? A college education does nothing for them. Good technical education does.

So doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc. must only come from at least upper middle class families?

My husband has 2 degrees. A Bachelor's in Business Management and also an architectural degree. And he's not using either. When he graduated there was a lot of architecture grads and he couldn't get a job in that and was unwilling to move away from his family. His business degree came in handy when he went to work for local government at a waste water plant but only for the piece of paper, not because they wanted a manager.

He did make it to plant manager at some point but some guy a level higher came in and made his life a living hell so much so that my husband finally left and went to another plant in another county. Even though he had 15 years experience and management under his belt plus his degree he had to start at just above entry level and gets paid less than everyone there who works the same position but has been there longer, none of whom have a degree or management experience. He was recently passed over for management for a guy who only got it because he's a "yes" man even though he was the biggest known slacker of all the operators there. My husband was pretty depressed about that. But what can you do?

Quote:My husband has 2 degrees. A Bachelor's in Business Management and also an architectural degree. And he's not using either. When he graduated there was a lot of architecture grads and he couldn't get a job in that and was unwilling to move away from his family. His business degree came in handy when he went to work for local government at a waste water plant but only for the piece of paper, not because they wanted a manager.

He did make it to plant manager at some point but some guy a level higher came in and made his life a living hell so much so that my husband finally left and went to another plant in another county. Even though he had 15 years experience and management under his belt plus his degree he had to start at just above entry level and gets paid less than everyone there who works the same position but has been there longer, none of whom have a degree or management experience. He was recently passed over for management for a guy who only got it because he's a "yes" man even though he was the biggest known slacker of all the operators there. My husband was pretty depressed about that. But what can you do?

let me guess... Union?

There are a couple factors missing from the article.

What percentage of black college students are female? Males are more likely than females to gravitate to STEM degrees, and if the female proportion of all black students is over-represented, then that may skew the results to make it look like there is a bigger problem than what actually exists.

The article states that only 6% black students are pursuing pharmacy degrees. I'm guessing that's not too much under what the general college population is pursuing. While I agree that many students are still getting degrees that interest them without regard to practical application, I'm having a hard time linking it to race based on this article alone.

Quote:So doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc. must only come from at least upper middle class families?

The world needs ditch diggers too!

I graduated Indiana University with a degree in History. Three years later, armed with three years of real life experience, I went to UNF and got a degree in Accounting, so I could get a decent job.

Based on my personal experience, I think it would be very helpful if every student were required to spend at least one year out of school before they went to college. It would give them some life experience. It would teach them the value of a good job where they can make some money. I think many more of them would choose more useful majors.

Just drifting through high school, and then through college, you don't learn much about real life. Education doesn't occur only in a classroom. That's why that one year between high school and college, either working or in the military, would be extremely helpful. Let them decide their major after a year of doing manual labor on a construction site.

Quote:I graduated Indiana University with a degree in History. Three years later, armed with three years of real life experience, I went to UNF and got a degree in Accounting, so I could get a decent job.

Based on my personal experience, I think it would be very helpful if every student were required to spend at least one year out of school before they went to college. It would give them some life experience. It would teach them the value of a good job where they can make some money. I think many more of them would choose more useful majors.

Just drifting through high school, and then through college, you don't learn much about real life. Education doesn't occur only in a classroom. That's why that one year between high school and college, either working or in the military, would be extremely helpful. Let them decide their major after a year of doing manual labor on a construction site.

Yep I agree ,different countries but the same problems.

I think a year of a program in which you can do different modules of potential college courses or even a few weeks internship in different potential professions would do wonders for college drop out rates.

I wanted to be a marketing wiz before deciding on becoming a journalist and then a secondary level teacher. Secondary school straight to college was way too bug a jump for me

Quote:I graduated Indiana University with a degree in History. Three years later, armed with three years of real life experience, I went to UNF and got a degree in Accounting, so I could get a decent job.

Based on my personal experience, I think it would be very helpful if every student were required to spend at least one year out of school before they went to college. It would give them some life experience. It would teach them the value of a good job where they can make some money. I think many more of them would choose more useful majors.

Just drifting through high school, and then through college, you don't learn much about real life. Education doesn't occur only in a classroom. That's why that one year between high school and college, either working or in the military, would be extremely helpful. Let them decide their major after a year of doing manual labor on a construction site.

This makes sense. Eventually someone else will start asking the question: "why the hell do we waste 13 years of our kids time spending millions of dollars teaching them things that don't correlate to jobs or a career in the current k-12 public education system" but that's a little outside the box for most people right now so i'll leave it alone.

College isn't for everyone. A good living is very possible as a skilled tradesman. Remember when nearly every high school offered vo-tech classes? They need to bring that back. Mike Rowe has a foundation that promotes trade occupations. There is a dearth of skilled labor in this country because for some reason there's a myth out there that everyone needs a college education. It makes for good campaign fodder, but terrible social and economic policy.

Quote:This makes sense. Eventually someone else will start asking the question: "why the hell do we waste 13 years of our kids time spending millions of dollars teaching them things that don't correlate to jobs or a career in the current k-12 public education system" but that's a little outside the box for most people right now so i'll leave it alone.

College isn't just a jobs training program.

Quote:College isn't just a jobs training program.

Exactly.

I majored in Business, got a BBA at UNF with a focus in accounting. I never worked a day as an accountant, I'd rather stick knitting needles in my ears. After a few months of floundering about, looking for a job in accounting I didn't want, I signed up for an intensive computer programming training course (8 hours per day, 5 days a week for 9 months), got an internship with the COJ that led to a 20 year career in their IT division. Ironically, the reason I was chosen for the internship was my accounting training, as they needed analysts for their financial systems - budget, payroll and accounting.

Despite the more pragmatic benefits from the business and accounting courses, I cherished the history, humanities, art and music appreciation, and English courses I was required to take. I feel sorry for anyone not exposed to more than whatever knowledge they need to earn a living.

I'm finishing my last semester of online classes to complete my BAS in business. I don't need a degree but it's already helped me in my career. I landed a position with higher wages and pay then most entry level guys at my company. I've got about 10 years in automotive mixed working as a tech/service writter. Now to im a full-time service manager the next step is becoming a general manager. Most of them don't have college degrees but I'll get there in half the time as my coworkers partially cause I'm good at my job the other part because I have paper backing me up. In a few years I'll try for a management job at one of the big dealerships. I'll walk in with a business degree, my 10 ASE certifications 8 years experience running an indepented garage and a few years running a corporate garage should give me a leg up on other applications. It's all about making yourself stand out.

Quote:let me guess... Union?

Nope. Just local government.

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