Vocation or Avocation in Post Secondary Education

[Redflash]

For me higher education was mostly about the experience of it - living away from home, managing money, 'socialising' (hurr hurr) and all that.

The secondary motive was to spend a few years studying something I loved before things got serious, namely history (I'm in England so I didn't so much major history as study it exclusively with one or two political philosophy courses thrown in).

The caveat to all that is I've already got a very promising career in script-writing lined up and if all goes according to plan I'm never going to need to show anyone my degree, ever.

I could of course have gone a more vocational route and done a creative writing course or something in media studies, but all my research in that regard suggests it doesn't help you much at all.

So I definitely would weigh in on the side of Avocation in higher studies, taking those years to enjoy yourself and of course find yourself a little, but at the same time you have to be realistic. If you're going into a nebulous media/literature career path like mine then that's fine, but that just doesn't work for everyone.

Some people know they want to be engineers or mechanics or what have you and study accordingly. Some people don't necessarily know in which case non-vocational study is the best option - if employers in the business or public sectors pay attention to degrees at all (they probably don't tbh), then you'd might as well study something you love as some boring-ass business management course... they're both going to be equally irrelevant in terms of transferable skills beyond basic comprehension, information presentation and writing, its just one of them you actually enjoy.

 

[shootthebandit]

snip

History is pretty useful in a lot of fields though. It teaches you how to write a report on something and weigh up the evidence. It teaches you to look at a source of information and question its reliability and also cross reference different sources to compile an accurate report

I done AS level history (only because I needed another subject after Id picked maths, physics and chemistry) despite being out side of my science/engineering remit (and a last choice) I really enjoyed it and its actually quite similar in a lot of respects to science. In science you experiment and look at the results of different evidence given to ensure something is true or not. History is no different you analyse different pieces of evidence in order to state if something is fact or not. Not only that but much like science you dont just prove that something has happened (correlation =/= causation) you look the events leading up to it and why it happened

The only thing that let me down with history is that im not a great writer (as you can see by most of my posts) but the analytical thinking is very much useful in almost every profession

I would love the social side of uni but I prefer to go out when ive actually got money to spend and not have to worry about my next meal when I spend £100 a night on booze, cigs and taxis. The whole living away from home wasnt really and arguement for me because I had to move out at 17 to get my job anyway and ive moved a lot since

however I can see the benefits of uni and if theres a particular career you need a degree for or if you are studying something in particular then go for it but dont just go to kill time, because you feel you have to and/or study any old subject just to facilitate going to uni. You will not have a good time

 

[Redflash]

snip

You make some good points about a history degree! I have to agree, my general writing skills and my analysis mojo definitely benefitted.

And to be fair history isn't a dead-end for conventional careers. Pretty much everyone I was studying with wanted to be a teacher, but I gather its also a good in for the civil service or legal professions - my law school buddy's lecturer said something crazy like 50% of people going in for post-uni legal training (can't remember the technical term for it haha) actually did history rather than law.

I couldn't agree more about the dangers of going to uni just for the sake of it, without having a drive for a particular subject whether for reasons of personal interest or career. One of my housemates did exactly that and is now going to be graduating a year behind the rest of us on a different course than the one he started off on, having been unwilling to take enough of an interest in first year. If you're really that stuck to figure out what to do with yourself but you have access to the kind of disposable income that allows you to go to uni with no real aptitude for it, just take a gap year!

Captcha: 'that will not work', no it will not.

 

[dyre]

on the other hand I can't deny that I don't believe a BA in creative writing or women's studies gives you any greater insight into the writing process or women than just plopping down in a library and studying for less money and less time.

Sure, but how many people really do that? The education system caters to your average guy (give or take two standard deviations), not your tiny fraction of diligent, self-taught experts. For every person who really spent that time learning history, writing, etc. on his/her own, there are a thousand posers who probably just read enough on wikipedia to fool people completely ignorant to the subject. At least getting a BA proves a basic level of dedication.

A history BA represents having spent four years studying history and passing some basic requirements (aka exams) to prove it. It's just a piece of paper that proves something. If I have to make a snap judgement between two people, one who has a certificate from a reputable institution indicating that he has dedicated four years learning a subject to the satisfaction of that institution, and the other who simply claims to have studied it on his own time, I'm going to choose in favor of the first person.

I think that more depends on the individual university/college. Sure there are those with standards high enough to require the demonstration of aptitude you mention, but there are too many to name that would let you sleep through. The only thing I really think you know for sure looking at a degree/diploma is that a person was willing to take out a loan and drop 5 digits on school.

Well of course, not all diplomas are made equal! But to dismiss Bachelor's Degrees as completely worthless simply because someone could hypothetically learn all that stuff on their own is nonsense. I'm sure there are self-taught surgeons out there...doesn't mean an MD isn't worth anything.