Is a degree in liberal arts a good investment?

Parents' Fears Confirmed: Liberal Arts Students Earn Less
by: Andrea Fuller
Nov 04, 2015
Click here to view the full article on WSJ.com
Click here to view the video on WSJ.com 

TOPICS: Education, Labor Economics

SUMMARY: For the first time, government data back up what some parents have long suspected: Students who choose elite liberal arts colleges don't earn as much early in their careers as those who attend highly selective research universities.

CLASSROOM APPLICATION: Students can evaluate whether the information provided by the College Scorecard is valuable to high school students who are selecting colleges and universities. They can evaluate whether providing information about the average earnings of a university's graduates, without providing information about the distribution of majors or about the earnings by major, is potentially misleading.

QUESTIONS: 
1. (Introductory) Does the Education Department's College Scorecard provide valuable information to high school students who are choosing colleges?

2. (Advanced) Does the Education Department's College Scorecard mislead students in any way?

3. (Advanced) Does the Education Department's College Scorecard provide valuable information to high school students who know they will major in English? Does the College Scorecard's information salary information about liberal arts colleges and major research universities suggest that these students should attend major research universities?

4. (Advanced) How do the percentage of students in each major and the majors offered, affect the average earnings of a college or university?

5. (Advanced) What type of slightly more-detailed information about earnings and college choices would be helpful to high school students selecting colleges and universities?

Reviewed By: James Dearden, Lehigh University

What should schools do?

Here is some advice from BloombergView: http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-11-03/disruptive-students-hurt-high-achievers-most.

Here Thomas Sowell argues that people often draw the wrong conclusion when someone points out that one reason students in charter schools perform well academically is that charter schools exclude and expel disruptive students: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/11/03/ignoring_the_obvious_128623.html. Critics of the schools argue that the charter schools should not exclude and expel disruptive students. Sowell argues that the correct conclusion is that public schools should exclude and expel disruptive students.

Should instructors allow students to take notes on computers?

Evidence exists that students learn better when they take notes by hand than the when they take them with a computer. I agree.

1. Taking notes by hand makes students think more about what to record and why.
2. Taking notes by hand makes the student touch the material at least three times. The student must
1. think about what to print before coming to class,
2. listen and take notes in class, and
3. transcribe the notes to electronic records if the student wants a digital copy.
3. Taking notes electronically forces the student to open a Google doc.
4. Touching the material three times is better than touching it once. John Wooden, a legendary basketball coach, says that “Repetition is the final law of learning.”
5. Transcribing notes promotes learning. Studies show that if you review and organize your notes within 24 hours of taking them you will retain 80% of the information for 8 weeks.

Is Fundamental Science Useful?

A recent opinion in the WSJ says no.

Letters to the editor rebut the opinion.

For a careful study showing the fundamental science is crucial for useful applications in ways the the scientist never imagined, read Scientific Basis for the Support of Biomedical Science. Author(s): Julius H. Comroe, Jr. and Robert D. Dripps. Science, New Series, Vol. 192, No. 4235 (Apr. 9, 1976), pp. 105-111. (Link requires membership to JStor.)