generation limbo: 20-somethings today, debt, unemployment, the questionable value of a college education

i agree. good article.

then I don't even know what we disagree on w/ this cause the article is almost 100% line w/ my take on the subject. there were better ways to prepare for globalization and technological productivity gains and there are better ways to address them now, but eventually those two things ensured that the type of manufacturing jobs that built the american middle class weren't gonna be around forever. the service sector wasn't a panacea, but it was something for people to do. for how much longer, idk.

do you think skilled machinists are going to make up a significant % of the job market in 50 years?

yes

maybe I should have phrased that 'significant % of the american population'

lol @ Florida cutting their CS department btw

wait waht

for real

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9226477/Florida_university_plan_to_decimate_computer_science_draws_protest?source=rss_keyword_edpicks

"How can you run a computer science department without computer systems staff?" Sitharam asked.

a computer science any

I have thought about this and hear is my measured response:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA

otm

it is basically a lunatic maneuver from any level

especially the analysis that the dean is playing 11-dimensional chess with the legislature

this while opening up a new school at the same time:
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/state/scott-approves-states-12scott-approves-states-12th-university-florida-polytechnic-after-2317216.html

gfs parents are (retired) profs there, incidentally (not in cs)

in the coming higher ed retrenchment there's gonna be schools that reaffirm that, whether they are focusing on pre-professional training or liberal arts education, the source of their economic and cultural value is in the academic program

and schools that gut the computer science department, apparently

well they're sorta just gutting the research side (which is still a bad decision in this case)

Florida gets what it deserves IMO

is there really any downside to ejecting Florida from the Union?

passport required to enter Disney World

some people like citrus fruit I guess idk

legions of elderly Jews once again a stateless people

continental US that much closer to looking like a big rectangle

worth it to strip Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush of US citizenship IMO

poor Alfred

have to break some eggs to make an omelette, etc

someone should ask Tebow what he thinks

http://www.npr.org/2012/04/25/150882741/negotiating-the-college-funding-labyrinth

It's pretty unusual to hear of a CS program being gutted ime - it's the cheapest of the "sciences" given that you need minimal equipment (processors are cheap) and the economic value is obvious (cf. particle physics, to pick an obvious example). Not sure what Gainsville is playing at.

Tom McWilliams, a psychology and computer science major at George Washington University, is paying about $60,000 a year for tuition, room and board.

The main problem is that you're going to George Washington.

you'd be better off going to Maryland, buying a new Beemer each yeah, & impressing/recruiting/seducing GW students for your "social portfolio"

fuck I meant each year, obviously I didn't pay enough for college

gwu is an interesting case http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/feature/the_prestige_racket.php

I basically agree w/ you but if, say, you want to work in dc and your local school is university of wyoming, there def would be a 'worth paying x amount of money' advantage to going to gwu. I don't think that x is $50k but the problem is that the x does exist. university of maryland not particularly cheap for out of state students.

yeah GW is specially fucked. I lived there for a summer on an internship (for which I actually got paid + free housing in the pretty nice dorms, so it wasn't a shitty 2000s-style internship) & it's amazing how close to "the action" you are, at least geographically, which turns out to matter, b/c it's easy to meet cabinet staff etc.

still, the faculty is really lame. can't you just move to College Park for a year & wait tables to establish residency, then start at Maryland on in-state the next year?

from Maryland's web page:

To qualify for in-state tuition, a student must demonstrate that, for at least twelve (12)consecutive months immediately prior to and including the last date available to register for courses in the semester/term for which the student seeks in-state tuition status, the student had the continuous intent to:

1. Make Maryland his or her permanent home; and
2. Abandon his or her former home state; and
3. Reside in Maryland indefinitely; and
4. Reside in Maryland primarily for a purpose other than that of attending an educational institution in Maryland.

Satisfying all of the requirements in Section II (and Section III, when applicable) of this policy demonstrates continuous intent and qualifies a student for in-state tuition. Students not entitled to in-state status under this policy shall be assigned out-of-state status for admission and tuition purposes.

---
so yeah

I wouldn't argue w/ someone employing that strategy, I think there is a crisis ahead because we have a system that is based on people not being particularly practical consumers

looks like it's one year for New York state also, so why not go to CUNY rather than NYU? CUNY kicks ass, at least at the grad level, & b/c it's in NYC lots of superb faculty end up there

right but that's why I think the crisis will be significantly worse for mediocre privates like NYU & GWU

cant stand mediocre privates

I'm not sure why you'd cut Florida from the union when its skullduggery is so entertaining. That's like cutting Florence adrift because of the Medicis.

lolled at that while writing it btw

re mediocre privates, at Florida too

haha yeah cuny faculty is basically comparable to an ivy league school in my gf's field.

but cuny currently has more than half a million (total) students. if you're gonna do something where you just need a degree sure, but for a lot of careers NYU just commands way more respect.

I'll take your word on that. in my fields CUNY is legendary, even at the undergrad level b/c they're teaching colleges, at least for senior faculty; lotta interesting things come out of it.

but does the high # of students mean much? I mean the U's of Paris have a helluva lotta students, & so does UNAM, but they also have gigantic faculties.

outside of maybe film/'the arts' i cant think of a field where nyu is going to be that big a deal?

anyway i was nonplussed by this article on stanford in the newyorker re: where (elite) colleges are going and how they provide value to students

alternately i have been interviewing for jobs the last two weeks and feel somewhat sanguine about things haha

NYU is a big deal right now in philo b/c they've been buying up "prestige" faculty with huge salaries & Manhattan apartments. I'm skeptical of their measure of "prestige", though.

I don't know that much about mexico, but the french university system isn't acclaimed for its teaching - on the university level they operate w/ an 'open admission but make it really, really hard to graduate' system so the drop-out rate is v. high and the degree signal comes from completion less than from what school you went to.

and then the grande ecole schools - where the ivy league prestige is - are quite small.

'more than from' rather

re Paris you're right but you can do well in French society graduating from even a provincial French uni

though maybe we're disagreeing about what "doing well" means? I know French uni faculty who didn't go to a grande ecole

oh I'm talking about undergrads and what would be comparable to nyu there

I'm talking about undergrad too

nothing is comparable to NYU in France though, b/c NYU is silly; grandes ecoles are like the Ivies for sure, though, but Ivies >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> NYU