College Matters

Calling all English majors out there! What have you done, or what do you plan to do, with your degree? A student is considering the option and requests advice.

Check out the latest post, about a senior in high school stuck on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. What do you think? Should he pursue the military, game design, or should he rethink altogether?

I’m currently in Houston, Texas, visiting my grandparents before I move to Maine to work with an AmeriCorps program. As many of you already know, I’m very excited. The particular program is called The Game Loft, and it’s a youth program that utilizes non-electronic gaming (from Risk to historical war games to Dungeons and Dragons and everything in between!). I’m actually a little envious; I would have been really grateful to have this kind of organized gaming community during my especially crazy teenage years - I’m telling you, most people should get a medal for simply surviving adolescence.

During this “grand finale family tour,” as I’m calling it, I’m reminded of the evolving nature of family influence. I’m independent, and have been for many years. Often broke, but not to the point of requiring financial support of family. I’m unwilling to do that, and have been since I turned 18 - which is why I used federal financial aid to get through college (a mistake, but hindsight is 20/20). I didn’t want anyone to tell me what to do. And now, in my twenties, my family certainly can’t give me orders, and they know it. If any of them said so much as “Don’t go to Maine” I’d tell them exactly where to put it. I’m exaggerating, I would be nice and reasonable, but pretty direct: “I’m going to Maine. Period. Love you, please come visit, see you soon!”

However, if I relied financially upon anybody, I would definitely have to answer to them. To repeat the above used euphemism, “Period.” End of story. And this is why, at 18, if you go to college with financial support from your parents, you are essentially taking the next step in high school. It doesn’t matter that you’re “legally” an adult. Financially, you’re not - just like this student. So they have a say (rightfully so, too) about where you live, what you spend “your” money on, and yes, even your chosen course of study. That’s not a terrible thing - you probably won’t make the mistake of getting a fine arts degree with an emphasis on the deeper meaning of play-doh while under economic parental supervision.

If you’ve been completely dependent on your parents through high school, especially to such an extent that you’ve received an allowance rather than working part-time, you’re not ready to make your own decisions at 18 anyway. Want to learn to make your own decisions so that you don’t have to adhere to your parents’ directions? Get a 40-hour a week job and move out for at least a year before making the trek to college. Otherwise, they get a say. And parents, listen up: yes, you have a right to tell your kids what to do, regardless of age, if you’re financing the operation.

I didn’t learn the meaning of “spousal accommodation” until I was well into graduate school. For the uninitiated – spousal accommodation is the unspoken yet widely practiced policy of offering a position to both a hiring candidate for a professor position as well as his or her spouse.

At first glance, this policy seems unfair, allowing one person to ride the coattails of another person’s achievement. A student who complained to me about spousal accommodation mentioned that it’s not something that goes on in corporate America. While both observations have merit, the practice is not as black and white as it seems.

First of all, spousal accommodation in academia is not such that a person who is completely unqualified for any given position can be hired just to accommodate his or her spouse. When an accommodation is made, it’s for an individual who has the credentials necessary for a position. If, for example, a PhD in political science is offered a position as a tenure-track professor in the political science department, his or her spouse with only a B.A. will not experience such accommodation.

This makes further sense because the B.A. spouse will actually have less trouble finding a job than the PhD. As I’ve found in my personal quest for job opportunities, the further you go in graduate school, in many fields, the fewer options for employment you have. Political science PhDs don’t have a realistic chance of becoming politicians, for example, because too many people in this country are suspicious of “too much” education. “Regular” jobs such as retail aren’t going to hire a PhD, for fear that the person will be a snob or know-it-all, without having much (if any) relevant experience. A B.A. doesn’t carry such stigmas. A B.A. (or B. of whatever else) says that the person has the drive and tenacity to complete a degree, but is still trainable in any given field.

As I’ve said before, many people meet their spouses in school, and graduate school is an even likelier place for long-term romance, because students are slightly older and nearer to feeling like “settling down.” So, you have two people working on graduate degrees in the same field that happen to fall in love. Each one is likely racking up enormous student loan debt, yet they’d still like to get married and have a family. And both of their job options are limited because of the graduate degrees. So academia steps in, and almost as some sort of “thank you” to students who spend tons of money on graduate degrees, offers spousal accommodation.

Right or wrong? Neither one nor the other, in my opinion. It is certainly a choice to pursue graduate school, but most students don’t go in knowing it will in fact limit their job options, and that is the fault of academia itself. But spousal accommodation arguably does little for improving the quality of teaching at a university. It’s a conundrum.

Okay, so this blog is not really about the drama of junior high and high school, so it’s misleading to use the title of a creepy song about high school by the Police as the entry’s title…but it’s related. While everyone in college is, for the most part, of legal age, romance between professors and students remains a gray area. Some universities actually have enacted policies against such relationships entirely, while others merely disapprove on an unofficial basis. I keep thinking of the line, “Loose talk in the classroom…”

Dark humor and 80’s music aside, this is a very real issue. Most people meet their romantic partners in either the workplace or at school. Student-professor relationships begin with a combination of the two! And is that really any worse than meeting some stranger in a bar?

Well, perhaps not, if the professor does not happen to be in charge of the particular student’s grades. Frankly, if professor and student met in a coffee shop or at a seminar but have absolutely no official academic contact, there’s absolutely no reason why they shouldn’t pursue whatever feels right, at least in my mind.

However, this isn’t usually the case. The connection often begins in the classroom, and herein lies the problem. It is nearly impossible to be completely fair when grading an individual with whom you share a personal connection– whether friend, relative, or worst of all, romantic interest. And even some sort of anomalous saint who does have that capability risks appearances to the contrary. It’s ammunition that can be used to bolster any other student’s claim of unfairness in grading.

Plus, what if the relationship ends on a sour note? Let’s face it, most do, and relationships that are “uneven” like a professor-student liaison are even more likely to end badly. So what happens then? The professor runs the risk of the student complaining to his or her parents as well as the administration, and thus the professor may risk losing his or her tenure (or opportunity to receive tenure).

This is why, when a student with a crush on her professor wrote to me, I told her that if I was advising the professor on the same situation, I would tell him to run, far, far away, as fast as he could go. My advice to her, in a nutshell, was to tread carefully. Check it out and let me know what you think.

I get questions on a weekly basis asking me about Greek life on the American college campus. It is most definitely an American phenomenon, although the Greek societies themselves may propagate their European heritage. Universities outside of the U.S. have nothing to compare to fraternities and sororities. While all campuses have some sort of social pulse, including student clubs and other organizations, only American colleges offer the clubs that become entire lifestyles: fraternities and sororities.

Even within the U.S., there’s a division in this cultural lifestyle that’s divided by the Mason-Dixon line. Southern America places much more emphasis on size (number of members), exclusivity, and appearances along with historical social customs – manner of dress, initiation rituals, styles of dance, formal events, etc., while in the northern regions Greek organizations are often smaller, with fewer “rules.” They also don’t experience the degree of rivalry expressed by their southern counterparts.

There are numerous reasons to join a Greek organization; the best one I’ve heard is that it’s an excellent way for a shy student to find a social niche and a sense of belonging. It’s a way to facilitate the transition from high school to college. However, the reason I hear the most often is for “networking” purposes. I agree that networking is an important part of pursuing a career, and definitely a part that should begin in college. However, I disagree with the idea that Greek life offers the best way to network, especially in the south, where the rivalries between the different Greek societies by definition creates as many negative connections as positive.

I’ve had greater success in one week with career-oriented networking on Twitter than my former roommate had during three and a half years as an active member in a fraternity. After graduation, he spent nearly a decade at a job he hated, because he didn’t get into the grad school program he chose and he couldn’t find a job he liked through his connections with his fraternity brothers.

Edustir posted an interesting article about the responsibilities and uses of online social networking tools – like Twitter – to higher education. It’s an excellent article, and it does emphasize the work that must be put into social media in order to have a positive experience. The work put into social networking media on the internet, though, is much less than the efforts put into four years of Greek society, and it seems to have greater lifetime potential.

College is expensive. It’s rate of price increase exceeds general inflation so exponentially it’s disgusting. While colleges across the nation tout their devotion to diversity and education, it seems that instead their focus lies in profit. That’s fine, I’m a capitalist, but I am continually disturbed by this effort of higher education to perpetuate an image of lofty idealism. It’s tantamount to that used car salesman telling you he wants to sell you the old beater because he has your best interests in mind…which is to say, it’s absolutely ridiculous.

So, costs continue to rise, and the latest suggestion by some lovely university admin was to lessen the course hours required by a degree to “combat costs”. I’ve mentioned before that I’m appalled by this notion; it further reduces the value of the actual learning that you’re supposed to gain in college. How about they stop paying university administration triple digit salaries? Maybe cut down on the modern art fund - or at least limit the budget to attractive pieces of work rather than spending gazillions on deep and meaningful eyesores?

Regardless, funding is a problem, and I’m receiving indications that it is in some ways the worst for middle-class America’s students. Many of these students have grown up sheltered from financial woes, and thus, it doesn’t occur to some that they may be responsible for seeking their own funding for college, until it’s pretty late in the game, as with the student that just wrote to me. Perhaps her parents wanted to shield her from financial realities? Or perhaps they didn’t know how much college costs have escalated in the past 15 years. It makes the fluctuations in gas prices look microscopic. I referred her to both FAFSA and a new site I’ve discovered, Funding-College, a fantastic resource.

How many people go to college with a concrete plan or career path in mind? How many more change that path numerous times, all while paying for classes?

Well-meaning guidance counselors and advisors often encourage incoming freshmen to experiment with various coursework and find a “passion” before choosing a major. However, students taking 12-18 hours of core curriculum college classes are hardly in a position to rationally analyze their “passions” and choose corresponding career paths. Instead, such a course load encourages students to find the easiest path - which is usually far from the best path - either in terms of finding a career to be passionate about or in terms of financial gain.

An enterprising and forward thinking high school senior wrote to me amidst choosing a university, trying to determine the most “efficient” degree plan with the greatest marketability. While I would never advise someone to pursue a mathematics degree if he or she is terrible at math, I think this student is on the right track by considering other criteria beyond what comes easy. So many people choose a degree plan in the second year of college, settling for the easiest and least stressful path - and then wonder why they end up in low-paying jobs with little or nothing to do with the chosen degrees.

If you’re still in the process of figuring out what you want to do with your life, I vote for taking classes on a part time basis and actually getting a job that doesn’t require a degree in the meantime. It gives you the time to learn about different types of careers in the world around you while also giving you the chance to learn responsible money management - something that eludes most college graduates.

Update: I’ve just received an article, from eCampusTours, that discusses this very subject, and it’s very helpful. Check it out!

As cold-hearted and uncultured as it may sound, I’ve often wondered why most universities offer fine arts degrees at all. I’m willing to accept the validity of fine arts degrees from specialty schools like Julliard, but what, realistically, is someone going to do with a fine arts degree from your run-of-the-mill state funded university? And yet, even smaller public universities, like the commuter school I went to, offer fine arts degrees. Generally, it’s an easier degree to get than either a B.A. or a B.S. - because you don’t have to take a certain number of language hours or hard science and math hours. Employers know this, and when they look for general, non-major specific employees (for intern jobs in general retail management positions, etc.), they’re going to gravitate to pretty much everyone else before the B.F.A.s.

And in the world of the fine arts, a degree means squat next to experience, skills, and talent. A formal college degree is completely unnecessary. So why have fine arts degrees at all? I have two theories: one, it’s a way to employ more people with Master’s degrees in the fine arts, with faculty positions in academia, and two, it helps those people feel justified in their choice of degree. I sound asinine, but I’ve noticed that fine arts majors are often the most arrogant - they feel like they have something to prove.

This particular fine arts student, though, is very nice and self-effacing; the student just wants to work in theatre, loves lighting design, and is about to finish a B.F.A. I think I gave out fairly decent advice; please read it and tell me what you think!

Interesting issue: is it beneficial to allow students to bring pets into the dorms? With all of the new trends in pet therapy, isn’t it obvious that pets provide comfort, especially in stress-filled situations?

My answer to the second question would be, “Yes, of course,” but the first - hmm. I’d have to say it depends. While yes, pets are an essential part of many people’s lives (myself included, that’s my buddy Merlin in the picture at the top of this post) and bring great joy to their human companions, in the wrong hands they can be a great big hassle, too. It’s obvious that a specific building would have to be set up for students with pets, so that those with pet-allergies could avoid pet dander. The potential problems extend far beyond that, though.

I have this image of college students coming in from the bar and not letting the dog out or changing the litter box or whatever. Then, when they do walk the dog or other outside-trained animal, I can see many students conveniently “forgetting” to pick up the waste - and then suddenly, you’ve got an entire campus covered with poo (or a campus that has to hire an extra-expensive gardening team!). There are certainly ways to combat this, with written policy, but actually enforcing such policy would be costly and time-consuming.

Even worse, I read an article that quoted one female student as saying pets in dorms would be a problem because “We’d all abandon them.” Excuse me? So much for “comfort.” There are universities across the country that are trying to ignore irresponsible examples like that one and offer pet-friendly dorms, as in this, a different article; I’m looking forward to seeing the results.

My advice to the student who wrote to me involved deferred admission and a year at community college; see what you think here.