thoughts on education rot and studying business.

The default major.

The majority of the reactions I get when I tell strangers that I'm studying business falls into 2 categories: they are either impressed, or perplexed. But to be fair, I got the same reactions when revealing that my major was philosophy, although there was a third reaction that consisted of the majority (pity).

The people who are impressed by my business curriculum tend to assume that I'll be studying finance or economics and I'm headed to scale the ranks at a Fortune 500 company.

The people who are perplexed by my study-of-choice assume that I'm interested in general business, in which case spending money at a major university is probably a waste.

The truth is, I'm not interested in either. I'm well aware that in business you don't need a degree to succeed, and I'm especially aware that education in the university sense isn't even remotely relevant in terms of the hotel industry. If I had it my way, the world (or at least this country) would be different: jobs would be earned on merit and college education would be education in the purest form, as opposed to a standard stepping stone in the path towards career success. However, this is not the case. Unfortunately, due to the norms of our society as it currently stands, I am less marketable, less profitable, and less worthy of a fair salary due to the fact that I am sans degree.

My reason for choosing business was not because I wanted to learn or study business. My job gives me more than enough practical knowledge than any comprehensive business degree could possibly offer; on top of that, I have minimal interest in business as a theoretical study. In a nutshell, as quoted in a user comment to above-referenced article, "One does not have to go to college to learn how to learn, much less to learn how to work."

After a lengthy discussion with my boyfriend on the benefits of college, I will admit I have enjoyed my experience. I agree with his assertion that the general liberal arts requirements are enriching on both an educational and personal level. I don't know that I'll ever put my knowledge from the Greek Mythology course I took to practical use, but I cannot deny that it expanded my horizons. That being said, I am hella frustrated having to spin my wheels in another semester of college so that one day I can have the letters BBA follow my name on job applications.

The skills that I have that will one day land me a job as hotel manager, the same skills that will help me become a GREAT hotel manager, are skills that no school could teach me. The things that I know and the things that I know how to do well came from experience and practice, and the seat that I occupy in my business courses are a self-realization of the stereotype "default major" student discussed in the article.

I chose business because
1. It's related to my life goals,
2. I knew it would be easy, and
3. Since I have to get a degree by society's standards, I didn't see the harm in picking the route that would require the least engagement.

But that's the problem with young society today: lack of engagement. People are loftily cruising through the college experience with minimal engagement with the absurd expectation to demand a job at the end of their four party years. Of course, I'm talking about the bottom-dwellers, the people who never bothered to do an honors project or take an internship or get a job; the people who went to school with no idea how to pay for it, expecting to land a job without having to work too hard that would afford them a lifestyle un-parallel to the amount of effort they put in.

In an educational sense, I am cruising. I show up to class, contribute what's necessary, spend at most 2 hours a week doing work outside of class, and I'm sitting on a GPA truly unrepresentative of my effort. I have no intention of joining any student business associations or doing an honors project, but the truth is that as a Bachelor's-holding member of society, no one would care. And that's the saddest part, that the educational system (not just the "default" business major) is pumping out an unprecedented number of graduates that aren't contributing to society.

So what's the point?