Agriculture as a college major?

[fried1765]

The first thing you learn is to not ask questions like that. People who say they don't need it don't know what it is that they missed. Its the only time in life where you will get exposed to a wide range of topics, ideas, and people that will bear fruit in unexpected ways throughout your life. It gives you an enriched view of your world through art, science, math, philosophy, religion, literature, music, sociology, statistics, anthropology, language, history, etc. that most people will never brush up against in the normal course of daily life. It makes you a more astute consumer of the flood of information that swirls around us in professional and private life.

And armed with this, you will do much better at whatever vocation you choose for having a broader view of the world and all its implications. St. John's of Annapolis has a curriculum focused on the great books -- read in Greek and Latin. They say that when you come out, you are not prepared for anything but are prepared for everything.

Studies show that what you get in the classroom is pretty much the same at any school -- there is a general mix of great and disinterested teachers at Howard Community College as well as Yale. But its the out of classroom experience that makes the difference -- hanging around with smart people of widely varying backgrounds and participating in a world of activities aimed just for that population -- things like concerts, film festivals, art exhibits, minor sports [when I went to college you had to be able to swim to graduate], design competitions, visiting lecturers, and other parts of a wider society.

All of this is missed in the current rush to on-line education. I taught management courses in two major universities and when one went to a "distance learning" model it was amazing how much was lost if only because there was no student-to-student interaction.

And yes, there is a decidedly liberal bias but if that tests your beliefs -- and you can hold fast to them -- then all the better.

Someone once asked me if I knew anyone who graduated from Harvard and I had to say "no." He replied "that's because they are doing other things."

So call me a traditionalist if you want but I don't apologize for it.

POINT WELL MADE !!!

 

[smstonypoint]

4 years at Purdue costs only $88,000?
That's damm cheap in today's world.

If memory serves, the President (Mitch Daniels?) has been very effective at holding down tuition increases.

I have read that Purdue has a program that allows students to borrow funds for their education and then repay the funds through a percentage of their future earnings. I believe that the program is based on a proposal made by Milton Friedman many years ago.

Steve

 

[DrRod]

And another thing people don't understand [I promise I'll quit after this]. You aren't paying for classroom instruction per se. If that was the formula then you would be right to scream at the cost of tuition. But the faculty of every college and university is engaged in research that advances thee knowledge of physics, history, geographical statistics, etc. They are centers of knowledge generation that advance the worth of our society. So your tuition goes in part to supporting that "other than classroom" activity. And being a part of that is a significant portion of the value of the college experience.

And let me be clear, this is not to say there is anything wrong with vocational training and other avenues to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Not everyone has to go to college and Bernie Saunders couldn't be more wrong in his "college for everyone" proposals. And if elected, I promise to . . .

End of screed.

 

[MossRoad]

4 years at Purdue costs only $88,000?
That's damm cheap in today's world.

They told us to plan on $22K per year. Tuition has not gone up for 5-6 years now. It ended up being less than that because of lesser meal plans and cheaper dorms.:thumbsup:

 

[MossRoad]

If memory serves, the President (Mitch Daniels?) has been very effective at holding down tuition increases.

I have read that Purdue has a program that allows students to borrow funds for their education and then repay the funds through a percentage of their future earnings. I believe that the program is based on a proposal made by Milton Friedman many years ago.

Steve

That program didn't start until our first one had already graduated. 2nd one is looking into it.

 

[DrRod]

My daughter has a friend who borrowed pretty much everything for four years of undergrad and then three years of physical therapy school. They went to a government website that is made to help set up a schedule to repay the loans. When she entered her data, it came back with something like "no workable payback path exists." In other words, even the government figures that she can't repay the loans in her lifetime.

 

[fried1765]

They told us to plan on $22K per year. Tuition has not gone up for 5-6 years now. It ended up being less than that because of lesser meal plans and cheaper dorms.:thumbsup:

You are very fortunate!
My eldest grandson is a senior at Emory University, in Atlanta.
Emory total this year, is $69,502, and was a little less, each of the 3 previous years.
I told his dad it is crazy (dad will pay some),but his son will have 100K+ student loans to repay.
Sister goes to Georgia Tech (similar cost) on a tuition free ride.

 

[MossRoad]

So my oldest was talking with her coworkers at her new job just out of grad school, and was complaining about making student loan payments of a $500 per month. Coworkers asked how much do you owe? Kid said about $28,000..... coworkers told her to shut up... all of them owe about $100K just for the first 4 years!

 

[smstonypoint]

Speaking of student loans and debt, here's a portion of a post that I made in another thread.

Correlation does not prove causation, but it can be suggestive. Here are three charts -- the first from Student Loans and Graduation from American Universities Third Way and the other two from 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable that I will allow to speak for themselves.

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Here's an anecdote that supports the view that Federal aid has led to increased college costs (Making college affordable - The Boston Globe)

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I was never privy to the workings of the administrative committees that handle tuition and fee issues at Clemson, but I have no reason to think they differ from those at Boston U.

I haven't surveyed the scholarly literature on the topic, but here's the abstract from a New York Fed study:

"We study the link between the student credit expansion of the past fifteen years and the contemporaneous rise in college tuition. To disentangle simultaneity issues, we analyze the effects of increases in federal student loan caps using detailed student-level financial data. We find a pass-through effect on tuition of changes in subsidized loan maximums of about 60 cents on the dollar, and smaller but positive effects for unsubsidized federal loans. The subsidized loan effect is most pronounced for more expensive degrees, those offered by private institutions, and for two-year or vocational programs." https://www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/media/research/staff_reports/sr733.pdf

Steve

 

[riptides]

Late to this posting.

ONE daughter has two degrees. Agriculture and Business. Her mindset is on farming. I told her back-office work with big corporations. Or field work with government (local, State, FED) agencies.

Her mindset is on farming.

Needless to say, she is not applying her degrees, IMHO. And she has not found a job since graduating with her second degree in December.