maryfamilyresearch

There are some degrees that a lot of people are interested in studying, but that don't have a lot of jobs in that field. Some science subjects are like this. Anthropology, history, biology, sociology, etc. Humanities as well. Basically, the number of graduates exceeds the number of job openings.

In order to have a fighting chance to get a job that is related to your degree and pays more than pittance, you must have a masters degree and sometimes even a PhD in these fields. So when you finish your bachelors, you have two choices: Give up on your dream career and a subject you are passionate about and find a boring office job that takes anybody with a pulse and a finished bachelors. Or you do your hardest to continue on and finish your masters and hope you are one of the lucky ones.

Far too many choose the latter. It is a bit of a sunk-cost fallacy, in for a penny, in for a pound. You already got the bachelors, you might as well continue down the path you started.

Think of all the English majors who dream of becoming a tenured professor for English. Far too many realise after they have already done their masters or their PhD that their chances of becoming a tenured professor aren't good and that their dream is not going to happen.

Not the person you asked, but I like the German system: In Germany, 90% of all universities are public and funded by the government through a set of public foundations. The universities are self-administrated and relatively free to do what they want. Because they are funded by the government, all public universities are tuition-free. Only private universities charge tuition.

Basically, paying the universities directly and reducing the amount people have to take on in loans would be a much better way to keep people from going deep into debt.

The government would have far more control over how much money is spend that way and where it is going. They could ensure that public universities in rural Midwest get an equal amount of funds as big name universities in big cities at the coasts. The German government has successfully used this tactic to revive dying areas: establish a university in a low-COL area and ensure it has unique and innovative degrees that are only taught at this university, so that students will move to the city in question.

Any trails that you'd like to hike that you haven't touched yet? Especially international trails?

Like the old European Pilgrim routes or the European long distance hiking trails (E-routes)?

Or trails in Canada or Mexico? South America? Asia?