@zarathustra I'd guess that a philosophy major is more along the lines of an IQ test than a major (at least to survive the major) - and one that is good at measuring the IQ specifically related to how humans work, as opposed to pure STEM skills. This falls in line with Jacob's ideal education system - except it falls much later and is sort of self-selected. You are uniquely posed to work, and excel, in any human run system.
@jacob
I was taught in high school that free education through high school was supposed to serve the function of having an thoughtful and educated population. High schools seemingly are not up to the task, and now we hope colleges can do it.
You've already talked about the 90% that don't really want to learn as it is... this is not a good prognosis for our society.
--
I don't buy into that first tier, second tier stuff for colleges. That is advertising dollars and our "I deserve it culture" run amok. As far as I'm concerned only applies to a few select situations, such as wanting a professorship, or getting a law partnership. For the majority of people, it just doesn't matter. But these young kids don't know that yet - and apparently their parents are out to lunch and not teaching them things like grad school should be free, least in the US. Instead, these kids don't want to suffer with a 'second tier' school, not realizing that the biggest predictor of their success will be how much effort they put into it. Getting a summer internship is going to take them much farther than paying 30k for a private college, verses 10k for the local university. They should live at home for free, if possible, while studying, instead of working a job to pay for an unneeded car, and rent, etc.
And it's not just young kids that do this stuff - late twenties too. I have an ex-cousin (ex-dh's cousin) who ran up nearly 200k in student loans, because he always had to go to the best school - some design school in Georgia, then NYU for film, while his parents (!!) were making payments on the undergrad loans because he couldn't afford them while waiting tables in NY. So instead of fixing that travesty for his folks (who had no college as far as I was aware), he racked up 30k per quarter private student loans for NYU. And ended up running out of even private money to finish the degree. There was *no reason* to have done that, when the knowledge could have been gained so much cheaper.
Conversely, I was able to find the one (yes, singular) program in the nation where getting a screenwriting/writing MFA was not only free, but it paid the bills for 2.5 years. There was only the opportunity cost of not working and forfeiting the associated higher earnings.
The cousin, btw, was all for Bernie Sanders and tuition forgiveness. That makes me irate, and I'm a liberal type person. I can see some things like, free basic college education in reasonable majors for hardworking kids, not just for them, but for the benefits of having an educated society. I'm not for the equivalent of handing out free Cadillacs to spoilt brats, which is frankly, how I see my that ex cousin's request for free tuition. But he will be living with that stupidity for the rest of his life because it is nigh impossible to discharge that debt...