Endless Purple
Full Member
I had a HS friend from a middle class family that got into Yale and then earned a degree in Philosophy. He ended up being a major newscaster for ABC, then NBC. His name is Stone Philips (Dateline, etc.) Did his philosophy degree help inform his adult work? You bet it did. Would you have projected that when he entered Yale's philosophy program?
A college degree has a major impact on the individual. It teaches upper level thinking skills/critical thinking. It can often broaden one's perspective on humanity by including a diverse student body, where students think, work and play together. Some degrees have a 'trade' attached to them, eg STEM, and it is less obvious where some other degrees will lead.
TCU, as an educational institution, should understand and articulate this even better than I just did. A good education is the best "thing" that one can have in life. Students should follow their talents, desires and life's calling when they chose a major. No matter what they end up doing for a living, that degree will help.
But choosing a major is not the same as choosing a career. See the Stone Philips example. I graduated from TCU with a degree in music, and now I'm a physician. And yes, that music degree has broadly informed me as a physician. If I could rewind my life, I would not change my TCU degree choice.
I don't know any underwater basket weavers, teachers, ministers, dancers, musicians or social workers who are financially able to pay back a TCU-sized student loan. Does that make their work less valuable? Should TCU be excluding these people from their student body? Personally, I think that would be egregious and unethical. I think it would go against the soul (no, I don't mean 'sole') purpose of a university. A university is there to create thinkers, who then can figure out what they do with that education.
I think this is well stated and mirrors my thoughts mostly.
I have an art degree (technically design), I still ended up at NASA for 8 years with the shuttle program doing design and photo work.