The American Spectator : The BS Degree

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The BS Degree

By Alec Mouhibian on 9.24.09 @ 6:07AM

You can smell one from a mile away.

(Page 2 of 2)

And who can blame them? Four years of textual overload and obscure academic jargon -- feminist, anyone? -- is not likely to ignite the moral imagination. A third of my English coeds sought business careers. Another third of us merely desired a major that wouldn't make people think "Oh, one of those." English seemed harmless enough. Then on April 16, 2007, two months before we donned our gowns, Seung Hi-Cho opened fire on his peers at Virginia Tech University, killing 32 and then himself. One salient detail widely advertised about Hi-Cho's biography was his status as a senior English major.

For months, his kindred spirits across America couldn't avoid the suspicion that our futures contained the slightest possibility of becoming a serial killer and Korean.

"Beware of the scribes," as Jesus said, prophetically.

NOW THAT A BS DEGREE can come from anywhere, traditional notions of it must be revised. No longer should it comprise only the obscure, irrelevant, ludicrous, or piece-of-cake. No longer should it imply a complete absence of learning. "You get out of it what you put in" may defy the spirit of procreation but it applies acutely to college. Ambitious go-getters who aspire to pick up a practical craft will find one whatever they major in.

And that's just the problem. Joseph Epstein, one of the wittiest inside observers of academe, has a phrase for what this craft is most likely to be. He calls it "being good at school." The accuracy of this phrase was confirmed to me when a 25-year-old recent graduate I know boasted of being "good at history." It was something a fourth-grader would say -- one without too many friends.

"Good at school" may sound benign. If so, consider what it entails: that nimble ability to tap-dance to the idiosyncratic tunes of various professors and teaching assistants, pleasing morons and mediocrities and first-raters equally, tapping this way, that way, whichever way the As lay. Translated to the real world, this prepares the gifted for a kind of clairvoyant conformity -- which is to know where everyone's going so you can lead them from behind. The rest learn how to follow the rear.

In his memoir Lost in the Meritocracy, novelist Walter Kirn recounts his own mastery of the dance as an English major at Princeton. "If my schooling had taught me anything," writes Kirn, "it was how to mold myself -- my words, my range of references, my body language -- into whatever shape the day required." Flattering authority without appearing to, slaving to academic fashion, and affecting consensus contrarianism were main principles. Reading was not. Collegiate Kirn didn't so much read as anti-read, somehow interpreting Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise as a celebration of the college experience. It wasn't until he was safely graduated and properly humbled by pneumonia that he opened a copy of Huckleberry Finn in bed and began his education.

Timely pneumonia can't come to all such students, and may not save them even if it does. (Though Kirn condemns the system that propelled him, critics of his rather wily literary career will note that he learned its lessons well.) What's more, their numbers are rising. Over 60% of high school graduates now go directly to college. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, nearly half of them will major in the humanities or social sciences. President Obama has announced his intention to make enrollment as universal as death.

Some believe the president's plans (with help from the economic crisis) will end up revitalizing craft and training schools, in turn releasing the grip that the "college experience" has held on the public dream for far too long. Yes, we can hope. In the meantime, however, concerned parents will have to do more to ensure seriousness in their children's higher supervising. Merely knowing their major isn't enough.

Test them at home. Monitor their reading lists. Threaten draconian groundings. Force them to choose, if you must, between Howard Zinn and contact with the opposite sex. None of these measures is guaranteed to prevent them from eventually living in Portland or Silverlake, but they're worth a try.

As for me, in the spirit of going five minutes out of my way I think I'll finally pick up that dusty diploma I worked so hard to neglect. The expired Indian casino voucher that hangs on my wall is fading, after all, and it's about time it got replaced.

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Letter to the Editor View all comments (76) | Leave a comment

Erica| 9.24.09 @ 8:45AM

And of course after getting these degrees, the students and the parents complain that there are no jobs in their field! Do they really think that colleges only offer degrees in areas of high demand in the workforce? No, a college will let you blow your cash on just about anything - and then immediately start asking for alumni donations.

Educate yourself - don't expect someone else to do it for you!

kendig| 9.24.09 @ 8:00PM

That is so true. I only three of my college friends actually got degrees associated with their majors. One friend was a pysch major and had to a get a masters before finding work. The other two were Econ majors like me and are in bankings. As for me. I went back to school and became a computer geek. Go figure.

Sol| 9.26.09 @ 12:16AM

3 Things that are absolute:

1) No degree is bullshit, it only enlightens you to knowledge, and is no guarantee to employment;

2) A discipline of study, has to be disciplined...there are colleges that substitute Socrates and Plato for Captain Kirk and Spock. Don't get me wrong...the whole "every nation, every nationality, every alien living as one" thing is kind of cool, and can be attainable..someday. But let's stick with some REAL Philosophers rather than make believe characters; and

3) Any degree is a bullshit degree as long as you have it in your head that your sole purpose in life is to party, get drunk, and get laid.

I received a sound BA in Criminal Justice, and though I never made a 3.0 GPA, I learned as much as I could, because I went to learn. My discipline was well rounded and prepared me to work in any avenue of law enforcement, probation and parole, or juvenile delinquency.

...the real education is in the trenches...

TOM BOYLEN| 1.11.10 @ 11:39AM

I HAVE 5 SONS ., ALL IN THE CONSTRUCTION FIELD. ONE IS A CONTRACTOR(SEEKING JOBS AT THE ATLANTA AIRPORT) HE HAS OVER 30 YEARS OF "HARD KNOCKS" EXPERIENCE BUT.............NO DEGREES. THIS IS TRUE OF ALL MY SONS. VERY KNOWLEDGE OF THEIR TRADE BUT NOT EASY TO PROVE THEM SELVES WITHOUT THAT FRAMED DEGREE. I KNOW THEY CAN DO THE JOBS . THEY HAVE PROVEN THIS. BUT TODAYS HIGH PAYING JOBS WANT THE DEGREE. IT IS FRUSTRATING. A MAN CAN PROVE HIS ABILITIES WITHOUT A DEGREE.............THANKS FOR LISTENING.............TOM BOYLEN

James Pawlak| 9.24.09 @ 8:54AM

My 1964 Psychology BS required a sound knowledge of statistical math and had such stiff courses as graduate students received "C" grades or below.

BS degrees in Mathematics, Chemistry and such are not the equivalent of "Rocks For Jocks".

Michael L. Hauschild| 9.24.09 @ 10:02AM

I am a product of one of those BS programs, Geography. If you think that the political arena is combative you should try to become “educated” in the post-modern environment. My degree focused on “physical” geography and I eventually ended up in “real” science as a researcher teaching remote sensing as a PhD. candidate in another graduate program. The cultural geography side is so obtuse that while I really am not that much of a dunce, I still could not fathom even to the slightest degree what the hell they were talking about. Things were so bad that the only one there, only woman by the way, to draw “geographers” from the student pool was the Feminist.
That side of my education has not benefited me in any way other than discovering where the highest concentration of Marxists in academia exists.
While I was enrolled getting my Masters I was chosen to be the Teaching Assistant representative to the Dean. We had a “Summit Meeting” where we were to report to the Administration what we thought (as students) would be necessary to improve or streamline the Department we represented. My statement to the Dean, and I quote; “The department is completely dysfunctional, the Professors do nothing but squabble and fight for money, the University, the taxpayers and the students would be far better off if the department was dissolved and the funding it is wasting would be withheld where it could be used to actually used to provide an education to the students.”
That, of course, was my last official act as the TA Rep. I moved on to another Institute where I worked in a department that actually “earned” money. (The only department that made money other than the athletic program by the way.) Nothing there at the original college has changed; the same people are gleefully wasting your hard earned money.

Jack Olson| 9.24.09 @ 10:26AM

There is a good reason why all those journalism students at Texas A&M weren't interested in journalism and why the vast majority of them transferred from the business ad program. Nine tenths of people with journalism degrees work in public relations. Why should they want to work in journalism when the newspaper industry is rapidly shrinking? They will get jobs in government, which is rapidly growing, and in lobbying, which is growing in symbiosis.

KyMouse| 9.25.09 @ 3:27PM

I wasted two years at a private women's liberal arts college in Decatur, Ga. that is now a highly rated hotbed of feminism and lefty pursuits in general (a few years ago, it offered an alumnae trip to Cuba). I learned remarkably little of use during my six semesters.

I later enlisted in the Army Reserve and attended a brief but intense course in journalism at the old Defense Information School in Indiana. What I learned there, thanks to military journalists from all over the world, launched me into a career in journalism that is well into its third decade.

I should have skipped the fancy-schmancy college and gone straight to DIS. They taught me what I needed to know about journalism and a lot more besides. I wouldn't trade that experience for anything.

Dai Alanye| 9.24.09 @ 10:51AM

It's amazing how many otherwise thoughtful people believe "education" is the answer to the world's problems. It's not a new fallacy.

In "The Drums of the Fore and Aft," published around 1905, Kipling states that the half-educated British army isn't up to standards—that it was better when uneducated, and will be best when fully educated.

One especially fine aspect of the present thirst for "education" is the need to import aliens—legal and otherwise—to do "jobs Americans won't do," it being too much to expect men and women who have some college under their respective belts to sully their hands and bend their backs.

Matt| 9.24.09 @ 10:52AM

When my two boys were in college I approved or disapproved their majors and even some courses.
How did I do this? Simple. I would not and did not pay for anything I disapproved of, end of discussion. I also gave them a date certain when they would be "off my payroll".
They both went to in state colleges. One graduated with a BS in business, the other as a third mate from a maritime college. They are now both in their forties and have net worths in the millions. One is CEO of the publishing company I started the other a Chief mate for Matson Lines.

Michael L. Hauschild| 9.25.09 @ 4:57AM

Good genes + proper upbringing = success

Spicy Joker| 9.24.09 @ 12:11PM

Every social science and liberal arts major should be abolished. Students would still be able to take classes in those areas, but they would have to major in something that will get them some kind of a job.

HD| 9.24.09 @ 12:46PM

My university had (and still has) a degree called "Interdisciplinary Studies" (some schools call it Education). The IDS students with mathematics concentration (to teach ES and MS kids math) were called "bunny counters". Most of them couldn't find their hypotenuse with both hands.

Sandra| 9.24.09 @ 1:02PM

Must be an undergrad thing, I have to complete the Calculus track (3 classes), a Number Theory class, and Pedagogical Math, to teach Middle School math. Hypotenuse? Is that Greek? Isn't that something about C^2=A^2+B^2?? I'm not sure anymore. ; ) {wink}

Sandra| 9.24.09 @ 12:56PM

I have to be really careful, I'm a retire USAF Senior NCO that "finally" earned that piece of paper to go along with 22 years of experience. Can't go anywhere without that $20,000 plus ticket. All my years of actual experience means nothing without it.

But, as a parent, as an IT professional I see daily the effects of POOR PREPARATION in some pretty basic fields like mathematics. I am in the process of applying to a couple different schools to get yet another degree, (a Masters) and the State required certificate to teach.

There is NO MONEY in teaching, we will be "paying" for the privilege of having a teacher in the family. But mathematics is the LEAST corrupted by political correctness. I don't know if I could "teach" in any public elementary schools, I'm too "right-wing" for that.
So I gotta be careful, least some admission officials connect my personal postings and my applications.

Sandra| 9.24.09 @ 1:06PM

That should be "retired" not retire, but I am pretty tired from 6 hours of math homework.

Pingback| 9.24.09 @ 2:15PM

The BS Degree « The Lucky Frown links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

an auspicious and dropping eye.” – Hamlet Garin Hovannisian Alec Mouhibian Posted by: Alec Mouhibian | September 24, 2009 The BS Degree I have piece in American Spectator on bullshit majors. Posted in Uncategorized « Hey, Drama Critics Leave a response Click here to cancel reply. Name * Email * Website Your response: Notify me of follow-up comments via email. Categories Activism…

George Bruce| 9.24.09 @ 2:46PM

I would not mandate or prohibit anything. In a free country, folks can study whatever they want. Of course, that is not possible in the modern academy.

Steve| 9.24.09 @ 4:58PM

I agree, let people do what they want. But then they need to accept the consequences of their useless degree afterward. Instead, they throw a tantrum about there not being any jobs and the government steps in "to make things equal"

Pete| 9.24.09 @ 4:01PM

They could study music???

http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....ent-obama/

Art C| 9.24.09 @ 4:56PM

1988,I have a friend who moved mountains to get his daughter into Princeton. When she graduated went right into the peace corp as a rank and file schlub. I think they only recently started talking again.

Matt| 9.24.09 @ 7:28PM

Did your mountain moving friend stroke the tuition checks to get his Jennifer through Princeton? If so he has nothing to bitch about. http://conversations aroundawoodstove.blogspot.com

Kitty Crane| 9.24.09 @ 5:28PM

My wonderful son has a BS degree in Political Science, and now he is an usher in a theater. I am so, so proud. Yep.

Matt| 9.24.09 @ 7:31PM

See my previous comment to Art C.
http://conversations aroundawoodstove.blogspot.com

Liberal Reader| 9.24.09 @ 7:22PM

This article is absolute BULL SHIT.

I worked for an organization which tracked the success of college graduates in the business world AND which collated hiring practices.

We found that corporate managers increasingly PREFERRED students who majored in the humanities or social sciences (including, yes, things like Womens Studies) to students who majored in Business -- THE stupidest and most useless major.

If you're a parent of a college age student, pay no mind to this opinion piece. It is ill-informed.

Dr Oz| 9.25.09 @ 7:48AM

Right - pay no mind because it reveals the truth. Note his name -"Liberal Reader" and that says it all. Never study a major that requires performance and then spread that thinking into the schools. Any wonder we have a group of stupid grads each spring.

victor| 9.28.09 @ 12:13AM

That's why you voted for that Man in the White House, simply because he ha sno real life experience to speak of. Unless you count smoking pot, snorting coke and talking Marxism with Frank Marshall Davis. Your boy has no idea how anything works and we will all suffer for it.
People still rave about how Jimmy Carter was the smartest man in the room except when Albert R. Gore was there. And look at the mess he left us. Barry O is Carter squared.
My father, who was an Engineer, said of these sorts of people, that they couldn't think their way out of a paper bag.

Matt| 9.24.09 @ 7:39PM

I spent many years as an executive in a publishing company and then started my own company. I never worked for an "organization" that "tracked" anything.
However I can assure you from very personal experience that your post is absolute BULLSHIT. http://conversations aroundawoodstove.blogspot.com

Liberal Reader| 9.24.09 @ 7:59PM

I am a conservative.

I like talk radio. I like to listen to a man shout at me and tell me I don't have to think, because he's figured it all out.

I do NOT like education, science, journalism or any other organized attempt to provide people with KNOWLEDGE. Information, facts, and reason haunt me in nightmarish dreams, but do not affect my decision making.

I hate the whole idea of college (why STUDY anything if Rush already knows everything?), but if you have to go you should study something important.

Like what?

What is important?

What would not be BS?

Search me. What do I know? I'm just a fat jerk who sits around listening to right wing radio all day. I can't remember the last time I read a book. I am not intellectually curious, nor do I trust people who are.

Sarah Palin and W appealed to me beCAUSE they sounded like idiots. I LIKED the way they talked.

I also like Joe the Plumber, because he's a REGULAR guy like me: he knows more about the Middle East than people who have studied the topic their whole adult lives BECAUSE he has NOT studied the topic -- or any topic - his whole adult life.

Are you starting to get the picture here?

Chris Humphrey| 9.24.09 @ 9:31PM

I am a conservative. I have a Ph.D. from McGill. It and earlier degrees were not B.S. degrees, because I avoided taking courses that I thought would be so politically charged that I would not be able to think and write and speak what I actually thought. Occasionally I suffered academically when I did write what I thought was true, but I didn't care. I was interested in what is true.

I know full well that there are a lot of people in academia who follow the crowd. Many of those who do things like study the Middle East fall quickly into the prevailing school of opinion, whatever it may be. (I understand that the State Department has a good share of these.) Sometimes it takes someone from outside to tell the truth, to say what everyone knows or suspects is true. It may be a "regular guy" or it may be someone who, for some other reason, has been able to escape the p.c. view.

I recommend dropping the snobbery about conservatives as ignorant yahoos, etc. I'm sure there are just as many thoughtless progressives -- probably more, as thoughtless progressivism is still unassailable most places.

Liberal Reader| 9.24.09 @ 8:04PM

Given the choice between Darwin and Genesis, I choose Genesis. The Creation takes place in about two pages, whereas to understand Darwin you have to read a WHOLE BOOK; what's more, you have to classes on biology and stuff, which I'm definitely not interested in.

Given the choice between man made global warming and what Rush Limbaugh tells me to believe about climate change, I choose Limbaugh.

Why?

Because Limbaugh's reasoning goes like this: GOD wouldn't allow man made global warming to happen.

Sounds good to me. And you don't have to study all that information if you go that way. Just accept that God never lets anything bad happen, except when He does.

Given the choice between studying the humanities at school and something that will "help me get a job" (like "business," the moron major) I'll study business because education's sole purpose is to train me to work. I cannot fathom any other reason why I would want to sit in a classroom, and I am TERRIFIED that doing so may face me with the prospect of having to THINK.

Why should I have to think? Isn't this supposed to be a free country?

Liberty or Death| 9.24.09 @ 9:13PM

Wow! I live for days like this, when I get to plant one of you dips#@*s firmly where you belong-- on your ass!

There's nothing wrong with getting an education. The problem exists when you prize that education over reality. See, that's where you liberal losers go wrong. You think just because you went to some fancy-schmancy university somewhere, you suddenly know better than everyone else.
Then... you get out in the real world and realize you are even dumber than when you went through those golden gates to begin with. It probably doesn't happen right away though. You tell yourself you are smart for awhile.

After all, you went through all of that SCHOOL... probably smoking weed and pulling flies out of your feminist, Birkenstock wearing, girlfriend's three-week, unwashed braids... (imitating the monkeys you believe your ancestors derive from) all the while-- continuing to tell yourself you must be smarter than the other guy who actually has a job. And one day... that guy who has a job is your boss. Doesn't life suck?

Listen, you can make fun of Christians for taking things on faith, but the majority of science is taken on faith at some level. Darwinism, to this day, hasn't been completely, or even remotely, proven true. NEWS FLASH: There is NO proof of man-made global warming. The PLANET IS ACTUALLY COOLING!!! Get your facts straight.

And don't hate us because we listen to Rush. Afterall, you guys have The View, and Oprah. Bwaaaahhh Hahahahaha!

cdc| 9.25.09 @ 1:06AM

Liberal reader does tend to be rather impolite but he does have a point. If you encourage students to study hard core subject like science and engineering they will tend to dispense with such silly fancies as creationism/intelligent design. Acceptance of these religiousbeliefs is a few percent among scientists and engineers in general and approachs zero as the course work becomes more focused on biology
So if you think it is important that the next generation be unable to distinguish real science from pseudoscientific gibberish (see Bothell's last couple of articles) then actively discourage them from actually studying science.

Liberal Reader's Buddy| 9.25.09 @ 7:52AM

Liberal Reader, you need a life. What's your hangup with Rush? Got the hots for him or something?

Pingback| 9.24.09 @ 9:37PM

Master Degree in Psychology » The American Spectator : The BS Degree links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…Reply to this … My degree focused on “physical” geography and I eventually ended up in “real” science as a researcher teaching remote sensing as a PhD… See the original post: The American Spectator : The BS Degree Popularity: unranked [? ] Leave a comment! Click here to cancel reply » Add your comment below, or trackback from your own site. You can also subscribe to these comments via RSS. Be nice.…

Liberal Reader| 9.24.09 @ 10:13PM

Liberty or Death --

What makes you think there's some kind of dividing line between "school" and "the real world"?

I didn't smoke pot in school. I studied, hard. I learned. I worked. I don't apologize for it or see any reason to justify it to you.

Many Christians accept evolution. The two are not mutually exclusive.

The kind of "faith" Christians proclaim is very, very different from the kind of faith you are attributing to scientists. Ultimately, of course, we can never be CERTAIN of anything -- even the testimony of our own senses. Scientists make a kind of leap of faith, then, I guess. But it is NOT like the faith proclaimed by Christians.

Christianity and other major religions, remember, do NOT primarily offer alternative views to science of how the natural universe works; the big bang works just about as well as anything else when it comes to religion's most IMPORTANT claims.

Margie| 9.25.09 @ 12:40PM

"Many Christians accept evolution. The two are not mutually exclusive." ~You say this, but it is false. Real Christians do not accept evolution. To accept Darwin's theory is to to reject the FACT that God created everything. Including you.

"The kind of "faith" Christians proclaim is very, very different from the kind of faith you are attributing to scientists." ~It is not by faith that a Scientist accepts evolution, but by choosing to believe a fantasy. Darwin, a man, who in his own words said he made it up. That's what a theory IS. God is not a theory, He is Truth, and His Word created the Universe and everything in it, including you. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This One was in beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and without Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." John 1-4. You will find that out when you die. Unless of course He decides to wake you up now, before it is too late. Another thing you say, is that "ultimately you cannot be CERTAIN of anything." A very sad way to live, because it is also not true. The fact is "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever." Heb. 13:8. The reason you cannot believe that anything is certain, is because you do not believe this fact. Knowing Him means knowing certainty.
"even the testimony of our own senses." ~ You are right.. "For we were saved by hope, but hope being seen is not hope, for what anyone sees, why does he also hope? But if we hope for what we do not see, through patience we eagerly expect." Rms. 8:24 & 25.
"Christianity and other major religions, remember, do NOT primarily offer alternative views to science of how the natural universe works." ~There is no need for this. The explanations that are needed by man are all in the Bible. "Science" ("the state of knowing : knowledge as distinguished from ignorance or misunderstanding" Miriam Webster's dictionary) is not at odds with the Bible. Some Scientists however, ARE at odds with the Bible. You see, if you don't know God, you know nothing.

Now, have you ever honestly considered these things?

Margie| 9.25.09 @ 12:47PM

*s/b above Jn. 1:1-4.

Liberal Reader| 9.24.09 @ 10:32PM

I refuse to back down on this:

For someone to write an article making blanket statements about entire academic disciplines is just shallow and stupid.

How anti-intellectual, how mentally atrophied can you be?

Dreyfus| 9.25.09 @ 1:16AM

Oh, Heavens! Here comes Liberal Reader with his chronic diarrhea again. Everybody! Out of the pool!

Liberty or Death| 9.25.09 @ 1:11PM

The POINT, my friend, of the article is, not all degrees lead somewhere. There is a big, unspoken, social-norm, that says all people must go to university to become successful-- that is simply not true. School worked out for you, that's great dude! It doesn't work that way for most of the population. Follow the money. Universities must keep their enrolment up to be sustained. Why is is so difficult to believe a lot of what they offer is snake oil? Are you really that blind?

You elite types claim the universities are where free thinkers and open minds are allowed to flourish, when it is just the opposite. They are the most closed-minded institutions in the country. Universities, like the public school system, are no more than breading grounds for liberal thought and ideology indoctrination.

Any Christian who claims to believe they come from chimps are chumps. They obviously haven't been reading the Holy word of God. It's just like Catholics who vote for baby killers. I don't get that?

Have you ever heard of Kurt Godel? Well, if you have... then you know that there are limitations to mathematics. Since all science is rooted in mathematical equations, then science, too, is limited in its ability to solve all the questions that humankind endeavors to answer. Faith my friend. Faith.

Pete| 9.24.09 @ 11:16PM

When I applied to my "first choice" college, I applied to the business school. I subsequently wound up in the liberal arts school. As a political conservative, in the era of Reagan, that was not easy or comfortable. I was expected to defend my ideas daily - to both students and faculty.
The job market wasn't easy. But I was able to take night classes in anything I needed (accounting). The most important lesson I learned was that learning never ends. I went on to graduate school in business and will become a CFA soon. I can't tell you how useful a sound, broad education is.
Unfortunately, the classic liberal arts education is a rare thing these days.

Liberal Reader| 9.25.09 @ 12:05AM

Pete --

Having to "defend your ideas every day" is what being a college student is all about -- if your education is going well.

Sounds like yours did.

You did the right thing: undergraduate study should be broad and liberal, with plenty of study of the humanities.

Leave studying business to graduate school or just plain work experience.

(Of course, economics is a perfectly good undergraduate major; but economics is an actual intellectual discipline, unlike "business.")

Good luck on becoming a CFA.

victor| 9.28.09 @ 12:07AM

When you're a liberal in a liberal school, you never have to defend anything, but just regurgitate what the leftie profs tell you.

Christopher Holland| 9.25.09 @ 12:16AM

The penny has to drop sometime - people run up big debts before they even start their working careers so they can get a degree that isn't worth the paper it is printed on. They will never be able to buy a home because of the debt so their future is either to rent or live with mom. They have mortgaged their futures so a lot of academics like Obama's liberal mates can pontificate about nothing in comfort.

Sooner or later people are going to realise that there is no point in watching this movie, they need a better plan. There won't be enough lamposts in the country to hang all the liberals from when that happens, it is going to be bloody.

Liberal Reader| 9.25.09 @ 1:13AM

Christopher:

"There won't be enough lamposts...to hang all the liberals from"?

What is this strange desire for mob violence on the right? Why do you imagine being a party to lynching would be satisfying to you?

Can't you just try to win the argument using reason? -- Or would that be too much like college?

Tyrone| 9.25.09 @ 6:20AM

It's because you people never go away, are never happy, and are constantly trying to change society to conform to your fashionable and usually misguided view of the world in ways that radically disrupt the culture and undermine the values of the thriving majority.

You refuse to see reality or listen to reason and deliberately seek to destroy the way of life most of us hold dear. We can't manufacture, drill our own oil, build nuclear power plants, properly educate our children, farm, raise a family or do any of the other things a nation needs to remain great because of your policies and you call the Republicans the party of no?

You are arrogant and unrelenting and your policies are usually profoundly destructive to the well being of the nation over the long term. You have seldom if ever won anything by democratic vote and win most of your "victories" through judicial fiat or gross misrepresentation of the facts like in the run up to the Violence Against Women Act, abortion, welfare, education etc. The nation has become culturally weaker and more divided under your policeis. The silent majority has had enough of this sneaking mendacity and it has come to fantasizing about hanging all of you from lamp posts rather than see the nation turned into a third world charicature of itself. Please move to Canada while you still have time.

Margie| 9.25.09 @ 11:33AM

To Tyrone~
"A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver." Proverbs 25:11

Liberal Reader| 9.25.09 @ 3:48PM

Tyrone --

Your problem is with CAPITALISM, not Liberalism, my friend.

Margie| 9.25.09 @ 4:21PM

Liberals all have degrees in "BS", alright. Capitalists have degrees in "Basic Sense."

Victor| 9.28.09 @ 12:04AM

After all, Lib reader has a PH.D in something or other.
And everyone knows what PH.D stands for, don't they?
Piled Higher and Deeper
Capitalism and not bloody Liberalism, made this country.

Acai Force Max| 9.25.09 @ 2:50AM

Can I get into a Masters program in Health Informatics if I have a BS degree in Information Technology? Would I have to take any other pre-requisite classes? I don't work in healthcare, but want to get into it.
http://ezinearticles.com/?Acai.....id=2926642

Ryan Smeets| 9.25.09 @ 9:27AM

Pyramid schemes were to baby boomers what a BS degree is to millennials. While fantasizing of a future net-worth, they pride themselves on admittance and deceive themselves into false accomplishment. All of them are suckers.

Pingback| 9.25.09 @ 10:09AM

Steynian 385 « Free Canuckistan! links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…~ DR. HELEN – PJTV: Interviewing Michelle Malkin …. (drhelen.blog) ~ EWWWWW– The average British man or woman has slept with 2.8 million people …. (soberingthoughts.blog) ~ EDUMACATION– “Every parent knows the fear. Mortgage signed, crucifix pawned, uglier child given up for adoption so precious Heather can pursue out-of-state perfection at a pricey college…all for her to…

Matt| 9.25.09 @ 10:11AM

How much does anyone want to bet that Liberal Reader gets her pay (or welfare) check from the Central Government?
If she had taken a few courses at the School of Hard Knocks she might be more appreciative of real work that contributes to the growth of a nation. http://conversations aroundawoodstove.blogspot.com

Margie| 9.25.09 @ 6:22PM

"How much does anyone want to bet that Liberal Reader gets her pay (or welfare) check from the Central Government?"

~Or perhaps Hitlery Clinton or Obama's "Send out the Trolls" office? I believe Toddard is Liberal Reader as well as many other trolls that fill this place every day. I was engaging her on another thread and she, as Liberal Reader suddenly answered one of my questions as Toddard. A troll by any other name is still a troll!

Neo| 9.25.09 @ 10:51AM

Going to a pricey college for anything other that the Law, Medicine (i.e. doctor) or Engineering is a waste of money. Even then, the Law and Medicine could also be served better with a low cost undergrad degree (if you know enough folks on the entrance committee).

Handy| 9.25.09 @ 2:33PM

Man oh man. You are definitly an English major. Pedantic to the n'th degree.

Howevvv..., as the Valley Gals might say, I agree with every thing you say.

Pingback| 9.25.09 @ 2:53PM

Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : The BS Degree [spectator.org] on Top links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…Klein amspec American Spectator 111 Show more Shortened Links Linking to the spectator.org page http://bit.ly/M2Gl2 info http://url4.eu/W5o6 http://tinyurl.com/y883e3r 4 tweets Tweet The American Spectator : The BS Degree spectator.org/archives/2009/09/24/the-bs-degree – view page – cached Every parent knows the fear. Mortgage signed, crucifix pawned, uglier child given up for adoption so precious…

Eeevilconservative| 9.27.09 @ 3:06PM

Holy moly, Liberal Reader is an absolute moron! Humorous and sad at the same time. If only I cared to waste time to respond...

Laurie| 9.28.09 @ 4:42PM

Up here in Alberta Canada we have the same thing happening with B.S degrees. One thing different though is that the smart ones soon figure out that a real degree ( Engineering, Doctor,commerce, Ect) will earn you a lot more than a Bachelors of Arts. Our trade schools are filled to capacity as a skilled worker up here can easily earn well over $ 100,000.00 a year. Although there were some loses here in Alberta when the rescission hit most of us decided not to participate.

Pingback| 9.30.09 @ 10:25AM

Amy Louise Sword Walter Kirn Time Collaborator « DIY Projects links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…GALLERY] Up In the Air, a film by Jason Reitman – Up in … digitalpencil – Green Neon Circuitry NEW BOOKS: "The Story About the Story" Listmania! The Millions and Wasafiri weigh in The BS Degree Tags: grant heslov, jason reitman, men who stare at goats, sore knees, time collaborator, walter kirn This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 at 10:08 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You…

B.C.| 10.5.09 @ 6:55PM

It seems that many people responding here tend to measure their worth in money. I hold a couple of degrees myself -- including one from that now-shuttered A&M journalism school -- and I know I made the right decision. I'll never be rich, but I love what I do, which is its own form of payment.

I would say the larger problem is that most people expect a student to enter college knowing what they want to accomplish in life. Even after two years of schooling at a university level, many students don't really know what jobs in their majors will entail -- or even what's available. Better vocational guidance combined with lowering the expectation that most people should go to a four-year college or university could do wonders for fresh-faced high school graduates.

Trackback| 12.1.09 @ 3:08AM

repair credit, on repair credit, links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

a place where different opinions can be expressed.

Pingback| 2.20.10 @ 3:44PM

A Word Fitly Spoken ~ Epiphany links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…by-lines and resource box are included. A courtesy copy of the publication would be appreciated sent to email address listed after the article. Thank You. cmareydt@yahoo.com Related blog posts The American Spectator : The BS Degree

Denis Posage| 4.29.10 @ 3:41PM

It seems like there is always a 50-50 split with people when you start talking about degrees vs high paying jobs

scholarships for dads| 4.29.10 @ 3:43PM

I think that if you have more real world experience that you should be chosen over a someone who is fresh out of college with a degree.

acai berry blast| 4.29.10 @ 5:16PM

I agree with a lot of these comments, but some are swayed too far in either direction. I guess I'm just middle of the road...

A Profit Instruments Review| 6.8.10 @ 12:10AM

I agree with some of these comments, but some are too far left or too far right...

The American Spectator