Most Awarded Degrees

Fareed Zakaria had this post on FB today. It shows the top 7 Bachelor's degrees awarded in US in 2008-09 and the top 7 bachelor's degrees awarded to international students in US in 08-09. It is no news that US is lagging behind in graduating STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) majors. The problem has been discussed for a long time. There are tons of papers that are presented at conferences and published in journals even today that discuss different experiments conducted by many colleges and universities to increase their enrollment in STEM disciplines. Most of the funding for these projects comes from NSF, which funds some of these projects from H1B processing fees. It was heartbreaking for me to read some of the comments on that post. Before I say anything, lets get this straight:

1. I teach at a liberal arts college and hail the idea of a well rounded individual. 
2. I don't think that money is everything and that it should dictate what you study and work as for the majority of your life.

Having said that, we need to accept that this is a problematic situation. While I agree that humanities is as valid a field of study as science, considering the impact of globalization and our competitiveness, we can either buckle up and prepare our children to compete in today's world (which definitely involves success in STEM fields) or we do something ground-breaking in the humanities area that can give us a competitive edge in today's market. This is one philosophy I completely believe in, "Find what you like and then find a way to make it work for you". So, if you don't want to excel in STEM and stay competitive in the global market then find a niche for yourself in what you say you like/do well. Because the rest of the world is not going to stop progressing, just because it does not suit us. And whether we like it or not, success today is greatly determined by innovation and advances in science and technology.

The idea of a liberal arts education is great, because it emphasizes the complete development of an individual. Here is the problem though. Do not assume that these students from other countries who choose engineering or science or math are not well rounded. Many of them probably have more well rounded knowledge than some of our liberal arts graduates. In many nations the education from elementary to high school (and even beyond) is more rigorous and well rounded. From what I have seen, our high-school graduates are not as prepared for college as some of their counterparts in other countries. Let me use my example. My entire education from K-12 was very rigorous. Although the emphasis was heavily on math and science, the other subjects were rigorous as well. When I went to an engineering college, the basic level of math, science, history, geography, etc. that I had achieved was comparable to what I have seen being taught at the Freshmen and Sophomore levels in liberal arts colleges here. So a student with that strong background who spends four years studying a STEM field  during their undergraduate years is obviously more competitive (and also well-rounded!).  So, yes! We need well rounded education, but that needs to happen sooner in a child's academic journey and it needs to be more rigorous. We cannot afford to reduce school hours due to lack of budget.

And then finally freedom to choose is a great gift, if you are capable of making the right decisions. Sometimes, too many choices can actually have an adverse effect. Sometimes an 18 year old may not know what is good for them. If you love History that is great, but have you researched what you can do with a degree in History? Have you researched if you can minor in History and major in something else that might give you better employment opportunities, probably also using your knowledge of History (Since you have so many choices, have you thought about which choices will help you succeed the most?)? Are you choosing History major just because you think it is easy and won't require you to take Math classes? A positive answer to that last question indicates a serious problem that will affect the student's success in any field that they choose, STEM or not. I also think that part of the problem is that upwards mobility is easy and downwards mobility is hard. In this country for the first time the children do not expect to have better standard of living than their parents. And I think many parents do not know how to handle that and how to better prepare their children. Bullying your child's high school teacher for a better grade is not really going to help your child in the long run.