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Comment by csydas | Hacker News Reader

Non-STEM seeking students really are not a majority in colleges. Per the National Center for Education Statistics on conferred degrees, the number of liberal arts degrees has been on a decline for quite a few decades while STEM and more vocational degrees have been steadily increasing [1].

Slam universities for many reasons, but the students going aren't graduating in arts; they're doing what employers say they want and still not getting jobs.

Universities have many problems, but they still are useful. We have all these STEM graduates but no one seems to be hiring them.

[1] - https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d16/tables/dt16_322.10.a...

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Big difference between, say, a MIT Physics grad (essentially qualified for anything not requiring psychiatric stability) and a third tier or for profit "Information Systems Management" grad.

Note where I work and where my wife works. She works at a public university and I work at a private liberal arts university. We see resistence to skills and competency being taught. Teach them critical thinking and history and they will be fine we hear. We witness lack of critical thinking in some senior administrators which does not give comfort.

Students are encouraged to study what their hearts tell them and not consider outcomes. That is employability. I personally know recent grads that are dramatically under employed. They could earn more, much more if they were trades people.

Unemployment is at record lows. Where are you getting that people aren't getting jobs?

Unemployment isn't the metric to look at. Just because someone is employed doesn't mean the job is at all related to the degree. Our office cleaner is a recent IT graduate.

Not to mention under employment and people that have just givin up.

People giving up is a different problem. If you have looked for work and determined there is nothing for you out there, it's rational to re-evaluate this periodically, no?

If you can't get on the computer once a month, spend some time on dice and send a few resumes, the problem is not the economy; the problem is your mental health.

I mean, I'm not saying those people shouldn't be helped; but having more jobs available won't help them if they aren't looking. They need a psychologist or social worker or something. Depression is way more treatable than it used to be.

>Our office cleaner is a recent IT graduate.

Dirty secret about the "IT" degrees. I know managers with MIS, CIS, CIT, and similar degrees, but I don't know anyone who got such a degree before they had a solid IT job, who went on to get a solid IT job.

Yes, the guidance councilor will imply that it's like a CS degree without the math, but as far as I can tell, it's the "management addon" to your existing IT skills.

As far as individual contributor jobs, at least in my experience? you are better off with a philosophy degree.

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