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If you went to college what did you major | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Languages & Work |  | |
| Belardur Octoglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5614 days ago 148 posts - 195 votes  Speaks: English*, GermanC2, Spanish, Dutch, Latin, Ancient Greek, French, Lowland Scots Studies: Biblical Hebrew, Italian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Korean | Message 57 of 169 29 September 2009 at 7:54pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
I think the core here though is that they are working in a field different from what they studied, aside from the professors, yes? I'm not saying don't major in what you are passionate about, just that you have to have a plan - much like you've said. And realize that even though you are passionate about it doesn't mean you will have a successful career in it. Addendum: I think this sort of decision, furthering one's education for personal development and not to learn a skill set and earn money is actually better than the alternative - so please don't misconstrue my position.
Completely untrue. Period. Care to substantiate why you think this? Because I can give you regional average salaries for professors of all subjects at all levels of education, from community college to high-rep institutions. I think there's no region/institution/education combination that hits below 40k PLUS benefits. (In the US, as that's where you have the location and where I have the info for). Edited by Belardur on 29 September 2009 at 7:57pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| OneEye Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6853 days ago 518 posts - 784 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, Taiwanese, German, French | Message 58 of 169 29 September 2009 at 8:39pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Your point? I answered the question. And you're kind of emphasizing my whole point here. Your undergrad major (or lack thereof) has little bearing on your success in life.
Again, your point? You asked me what types of jobs people had been successful in with a liberal arts degree. I answered. Those people are successful, and they had liberal arts degrees in undergrad. If a lawyer hates his job, it's his own fault for choosing the wrong career (or for the wrong reasons). It is NOT the fault of a liberal arts degree, which is what is being discussed.
Like Belardur said, this is completely untrue. Hell, I could make more than that teaching high school here in TX (I've seen starting salary as high as $45,000 for elementary school teachers). Average salary for full professors at University of Texas is $132,000 and for Assistant Professors it is about $82,000. Not too shabby, and that's without considering any other income a professor may earn (through presentations, publication, translation work, etc). Another thing to keep in mind is how fast the salaries are rising for higher education. Ten years ago the same positions would have earned $89,000 and $54,000 respectively. This increase is quite a bit higher than inflation in that period. I guess I'm curious why you seem to dismiss the examples I gave as invalid just because of your personal feelings about the specific jobs. I wasn't trying to give you a recommendation for a career choice, I was trying to give you an idea of how diverse the possibilities are with a liberal arts degree.
Well, the curators too. Art history degrees, both of them. I agree with all of this. People can't expect to just major in anything and then go out and be successful. I think that this is part of the problem with people's perception of a liberal arts degree. So many people are told "just do what you love and you'll be successful," and then they do just that only to discover that it takes much more than liking something to be successful with it. I discovered that with music. I love music, but I don't have the drive it takes to really have a successful career in music. And it took me a while to figure that out, which is ok because in the meantime I discovered that I do have the drive and passion for language and academia. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6382 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 59 of 169 30 September 2009 at 2:46am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Data on faculty salaries are available so we can at least remove that aspect from the debate. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education (a well-respected paper if you don't know it), the average salaries for faculty in 4 year colleges and 4 year universities in "Foreign languages, literatures and linguistics" for 2008-09 are as follows:
Instructor $42,080 New Assistant Professor $61,377 Assistant Professor $61,851 Associate Professor $73,510 Professor $92,875 A couple of points to consider when interpreting the data. 4 year colleges and universities will offer the highest salaries so these numbers are an overestimate of average salaries of all college and university professors. Also, the salaries of an Associate Professor and Professor seem high, but these are hard positions to obtain. Many intelligent, hard-working PhD holders will never get there. Edited by newyorkeric on 30 September 2009 at 4:47pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Glendonian Bilingual Diglot Newbie Canada Joined 5720 days ago 26 posts - 37 votes Speaks: French*, English* Studies: German, Italian | Message 60 of 169 30 September 2009 at 3:24am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Indeed. I think that young people choosing their majors take this way too far. In reality, people who tell them this have a sort of secret agenda. That agenda is for them to study what they like, so that they'll meet people, discover new things they weren't interested in before, and find out about options that they never knew they had over the course of the four (long) years before they turn 22 or so and get their bachelor's degrees, having turned into completely different people from the ones that they had been four years prior. Then go on to be "successful," very likely in an unrelated field. Except they're not told that this wonderful "success" they're bound to attain will be in an unrelated field. So they get the idea that studying Assyriology or Gender Studies will doom them to failure because there are no jobs that require those qualifications, and then go around telling each other to take "business economics" and what-have-you. Perhaps adults should clarify the situation for them instead of engaging in misleading and saccharine sloganeering. Not so that they'll act differently, but just to have a better idea of the diversity of forms that their future careers may take. I remember this at the end of high school (pretty recently). All that could be heard amongst my graduating class was talk of applications to universities and programmes of study, and there was a strong set that went around saying "what are you going to do with that?" (many adults can be heard asking young people the same question). They were the same ones who thought that all the universities in Canada were part of a hierarchy and must necessarily be "better" and "worse" than each other. How many, at 35, will have the lives that they thought they would have when they were seventeen or eighteen years old? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Belardur Octoglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5614 days ago 148 posts - 195 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2, Spanish, Dutch, Latin, Ancient Greek, French, Lowland Scots Studies: Biblical Hebrew, Italian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Korean | Message 61 of 169 30 September 2009 at 8:49am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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One might also note that for a very long time, the point of higher education was to make one a better person, not teach a skill set. We've largely lost that intent, and it's had an effect on the culture. In the west, at least, we have a great segment of the population that works hard enough to get through and earn money to enjoy the free time, but without said personal development, that enjoyment is "party culture." When the masses of Rome discovered they could vote themselves bread and circuses, what happened?
Mortimer Adler is a good viewpoint on the philosophy of education that somewhat treats this, if anyone is interested. newyorkeric, those figures are with or without additional benefits (health care, retirement, etc.)? I'm assuming without. The easiest source I can lay my hands on is the report for professors of philosophy from the APA (hey, it's my field), and without benefits is the only way I can see a close correlation - though I will say that it seems average salaries for language and literature instructors are somewhat lower. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| ymapazagain Senior Member Australia myspace.com/amywiles Joined 6962 days ago 504 posts - 538 votes Speaks: English* Studies: SpanishB2 | Message 62 of 169 30 September 2009 at 9:06am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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For my first degree I majored in contemporary music and for my second degree I am majoring in philosophy.
Neither of these are particularly useful, but when I was 18 I had no idea what I wanted from my life, and to be honest I am still working that out now at 25. In the mean time I am exploring the things I am interested in and learning more about myself and the world as I go along. When I do finally make the decision of "this is what I want to be when I grow up" (and I'm getting closer!) I know it will be the right decision and one that I will be happy with. Right now I am fine with being a poor muso/student! As for whether or not it would be worth studying a language at university, I think it depends on the language for me. Spanish I learned on my own however my years of attempting Russian have been with little reward. I think I would really benefit from the structure of a university course for learning Russian and I am considering doing a diploma in Russian once I have finished my philosophy degree. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6382 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 63 of 169 30 September 2009 at 10:39am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Yes, the numbers include just salaries. Here is the link if anyone is interested. http://chronicle.texterity.com/chroniclesample/20090313-samp le/?pg=10. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
 Jiwon Triglot Moderator Korea, South Joined 6439 days ago 1417 posts - 1500 votes Speaks: EnglishC2, Korean*, GermanC1 Studies: Hindi, Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 64 of 169 30 September 2009 at 11:36am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Well, I used to think so until a few months ago. But a few personal things I've experienced during that time made me rethink about my outlook on life and what I wanted to achieve in my life. It's not that I want money myself. But it turns out that I NEED money, since my ideal life consists of being married to an understanding spouse, having at least 4 children, with 6 hedgehogs, 2 labrador retrievers, a dachshund and a penguin. If I had other ambitions (such as to just chill out and find out about myself, etc.), I would consider doing different subjects. But since that's not the case, I've applied for Economics and International Relations, since these two don't really irritate me much and I'm comparatively better at them than my peers. Yeah.. and I'm SERIOUS about children and pets part. :) 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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