Thursday, October 14, 2010

Georgetown, The President And MTV

MTV News hit the streets of the nation's capital on Tuesday and spoke to students at Georgetown University about how they've been impacted by the so-called Great Recession. They told us what they would ask the president, just as other young voters will do during "A Conversation With President Obama," Thursday's one-hour town hall event airing live and commercial-free on MTV,."Everyone's attitude about money has changed," said Georgia Shibley, 19, who said she's considering going to graduate school rather than trying to wade into the tight job market. It was a sentiment echoed by a number of her fellow students at the private Jesuit university.
Link (here) to MTV
Link (here) to the staged town hall set up

6 comments:

Glenna said...

Someone should kindly point out to Georgia & other 19 yr olds that going to grad school will, in all likelihood, simply increase the student loans that she'll be held accountable for on graduation...which won't necessarily be a big problem IF she can get a job with that master's degree. This is becoming less & less likely.
The dirty little secret of higher education is that the loans needed to finance it (at GU & other universities) are similar to credit card debt. Very easy to accumulate & very hard to pay back!

Anonymous said...

It all depends on what you study at GU. Womyn's studies or the like is a bad investment; economics, pre-med etc. a sound one.

thereserita said...

Sorry, I can't let that go, Anon, bc it's not the truth. In the world outside of academia at this time, NO ONE knows what healthcare will look like even a year from now, so advising "pre-med" is not necessarily wise advice. Of course there will always be a need for docs but probably not at the six figure salaries that have come to be expected in that profession. Again, my point was that many, many kids get out of medical school with six figure debt. Not advising 19 yrs old (& their parents) of this financial fact of life is, at the least, doing them a disservice and, at worst, dishonest.

Anonymous said...

Would that you knew what you talk about before you imply that others are mistaken.

* Even if your claims about the impending death of medicine were true, degrees from top tier universities are not only about showing employers WHAT you've learned, but that you have the brains to hack the coursework. A (real) degree from a top tier university opens you many doors.

Premed (unlike womyn's studies) teaches you how to think, and proves that you can think precisely.

* You can't compare your hohum pre-med program to GU's, which gets you into many particularly remunerative doors, if you so wish.

* The connections a *very bright* person makes at a top tier u are alone easily worth the price.

Anonymous said...

Wow--someone doesn't like women's studies! I would argue that a program that directs a student to consider how gender relations play a central role in the shape and character of our society does make you think.

Anonymous said...

The issue is not whether the goal of women's studies is worth study, but whether it is a prudent investment (it pays to read things precisely) that is whether it is worth being the centerpiece of a Bachelor's degree, whether potential employers and others generally see it as being academically rigorous rather than schlock, and whether it is seen as good preparation for the job market.

The BU womens' studies major who was making a bit more than minimum wage working at an abortion clinic - the best job she could find - should tell us something.