By Joy McMasters
Daily Bruin Staff
In the early days of higher education, bachelors went to a
university to become more well-rounded people, but for many
graduates today the bachelor’s degree has become little more
than the means to obtaining a high-paying job.
Making more money, getting better jobs and preparing for a
career have become as important as seeking self-improvement through
learning among reasons students decide to attend college.
Last fall, three of the four top reasons students gave for
attending college related to getting better jobs and preparing for
a career, according to a survey of American freshmen conducted by
the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA .
“People like to talk about “˜to be able to make more
money’ as most important, but only slightly more than the
item “˜to learn about things that interest me,'”
said HERI Associate Director William Korn.
The survey also looks at students’ overall life objectives
and values.
“Those trends that we see in the life objectives seem to
support the idea that students are more interested in money now
than they were in the ’60s or early ’70s,” Korn
said.
In the ’60s, 40 percent of freshmen marked becoming
financially well-off as one of their essential or important life
objectives. Developing a meaningful philosophy of life was most
important in 1967, with about 80 percent of students surveyed
marking it their top priority ““ a number that fell off
steadily until hitting a low of 39 percent in 1987, Korn said.
“Those two trends have been the strongest and also go in
opposite directions,” he said.
Korn said while making more money is not the only motivation in
going to college, it ranks as a stronger reason in certain
fields.
“In the engineering field, people are looking to get out
into the industry and start at $50,000 (a year),” said
Vincent Hua, president of Engineering Society of UCLA.
“Everyone wants to be an engineer right now,” Hua
added.
Many students study engineering because they know they can make
a lot of money with the degree, but some may also be interested in
teaching or research, Hua said.
Alison Nickerson, director of counseling for the College of
Letters and Science Honors Programs, said she encounters students
who are here both for learning’s sake and to advance their
careers.
“I do talk to students regularly who are here for the joy
of learning and for the challenge and the adventure of studying for
a bachelor’s degree,” Nickerson said. “The
reality is that everybody has to go out there at some point and go
to work, and of course we acknowledge that.”
She said what students study impacts what they do with their
futures, and since many at UCLA are preparing to enter professional
school they are inherently career-oriented.
Students studying business are among those motivated more
directly by career goals.
“They’re here to learn, to extend their mind, also
knowing that it’ll extend their careers,” said
Christina Hsieh, president of the Alpha Kappa Psi business
fraternity.
She said students pursue those things they think will help them
become successful, from joining clubs to studying what they do.
“I see more people finding a major based on their career
goal and to prepare for a future occupation,” Hsieh said.
While this may be true of a large portion of the student body,
some corners of campus are less focused on economic success.
“In the (World Arts and Cultures) Department, it’s
not as much geared toward training for a job,” said
graduating senior Cindy Chung who is studying both world arts and
cultures and international development.
“Some people here are here just for the sake of studying
and learning,” Chung said.
Chung helped found the World Arts and Cultures Undergraduate
Society to give students a place to talk about changes that might
need to be made in the department and meet people from the
program’s other concentrations, which for some students is a
good networking opportunity
“There are people who are very career-oriented and
degree-oriented involved and participating. Most of the people
really want to get to know people,” Chung said.
As an international development student, Chung encounters
students with a different focus than the WAC students, whom she
says are mostly here just for the education.
“That is more for the training; people there are much more
motivated to get the degree and go further,” Chung said.
“I would prefer that it’s for education’s sake
““ personal interest and wanting to learn ““ and not for
a degree to get a better job. But I couldn’t say that
that’s necessarily what the view is,”Chung said.
Learning may have once been the focus of education, but few
consider that to be the case any more.
“In terms of students’ focus on their careers, I
have not seen a dramatic change lately ““ it’s almost
always been that way,” Nickerson said.