A recent piece in the Atlantic notes the decline of degrees granted in the humanities, especially at the elite colleges, but makes the point that "students aren't fleeing degrees with poor job prospects. They're fleeing humanities and related fields specifically because they THINK [emphasized by author] they have poor job prospects."
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/08/the-humanities-face-a-crisisof-confidence/567565
Statistics are produced to show that employability and income only marginally favor graduates in STEM and related fields over those in the humanities - not so significantly as to warrant anyone making a decision of major on that basis. Yet students are being driven ever more strongly by this misperception into fields they may not be suited for. Some of the causation for this can be found in the change of attitudes toward education in students themselves. In 1970 seventy percent of all students thought it was "important or essential" to get from a college education "a meaningful philosophy of life". Only forty percent put a priority on using their educations to "make more money". Those stats reversed themselves sometime in the eighties and have not gotten better since then.
I would be interested in hearing from U of C (or peer school) students of any era (including especially current, prospective or recent ones) as to what you think the breakdown is or was or should be between going to college in order to (a) come out with a job and (b) come out with a "meaningful philosophy of life". And if there is presently a prominence of (a) over (b) - whether or not based on a misperception - is that the underlying reason for the decline of the humanities, or are other factors in play here?
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