Xavier's declining enrollment

Oh, now that’s just crazy talk! /s

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When the Old Bobcat headed off to Ohio U, my grandfather (who had to leave school after eighth grade to work on the family farm) told folks in town, “Well, we had to send him off to college because there was no way he was gonna make a livin’ with his hands.”

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Is anyone (or did anyone) using their Miami degree specifically in their line of work?

I graduated in the 90s with a Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs and have been working in healthcare IT for decades. A good buddy of mine graduated from Northwestern with a degree in Soviet studies (d’oh… :frowning: ) and is also an IT guy.

I am using my Miami degree for my field as I have for 35 years

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Wasn’t going to Ohio U basically a step down from a career as a manual laborer?/s

I also specifically used my major (and minor) in my 43 years working.

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Yes, and my degree is one of those “worthless degrees” that is often in the crosshairs of the anti-intellectual crowd. In fact, I doubled down and got a M.A. in the same “worthless” discipline.

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Absolutely, from my initial job through my current one. I was a SAN major.

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Business school grad. still using my degree after 35 years.

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I rode my political science degree to law school and a 42+ year career in law. I am all for vocational training, but the attacks on higher education in this country are just so shortsighted. Yes, something needs to be done about the cost of college, but the loudest folks attacking higher ed are sending their kids to college. You can take that to the bank.

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I agree, but imo the main issues those people have with higher ed are political/cultural (not financial).

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While cultural/political is sometimes the case, for myself (edit: I’m not advocating that my daughter forego college) and others it comes down to return on investment and how much debt you might incur. More than anything, don’t think like Danny Noonan…

B.S. in Business degree w specialization in Marketing Management. Spent my entire 38 year career w Fortune 200 international company in a Sales, Business, Marketing, and International Mgt. roles.

Went to college so I could coach and I did.

I used my accounting degree & MBA my whole working career.

Also diplomacy & foreign affairs, but sadly never got mixed up in the high-stakes game of world diplomacy nor international intrigue.

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Sadly, the same could not be said about Billy Mumphrey.

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A simple country boy. You might say a cockeyed optimist.

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That’s a complicated question. I graduated with major-level concentrations of hours in four subjects (finance, organizational behavior, economics, and political science). Most of “practical” stuff (COBOL anyone?) became outdated quickly, and much of the tactical stuff I learned in finance was probably replaced by quantitative models (or ChatGPT) years ago. I slept through most of the accounting, so let’s not even talk about that.

But I use the broad-based concepts I developed about assessing and predicting human behavior across economic and social realms every day. I also know enough about quantitative analysis (although I haven’t done it myself for decades) to tell when people are trying to bullshit through numbers.

My comparative advantage in my profession to the extent that I have one is based mostly on my ability to learn new things, synthesize them, and communicate them clearly in writing or – these days – via webcast or podcast. Some of the business core curriculum taught that, but I learned even more of it via Miami Plan classes or through the rigorous form of writing required by the UK university system during my junior year abroad.

I did a guest lecture for a Miami accounting class earlier this year, and during the “AMA” portion of the session, I told them that I thought the best way they could prepare themselves for an AI-driven professional world would be to seek out courses that require close analysis, clear-eyed assessment of the accuracy and bias of data inputs and outputs, and lots of writing. Those skills will be vital to ensuring that AI is a tool and not a competitor. And humanities classes are still a great way to learn a lot of those skills.

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The Army already has an AI tool along the lines of ChatGPT. I’ve found it an extremely helpful tool to use.