Bachelor27s degree.doc

unit1Bachelors degree: Has it lost its edge and its valueOnce the hallmark of an educated and readily employable adult, the bachelors degree is losing its edge. Quicker, cheaper programs offer attractive career route alternatives while the more prestigious masters is trumping it, making it a mere steppingstone.学士学位曾经是受过良好教育、随时可以就业的成年人的标志，但现在它正在失去优势。更快、更便宜的课程提供了有吸引力的职业路线选择，而更有声望的硕士课程则胜过它，使之成为一个跳板。Studies show that people with four-year college degrees earn more money than those without over their lifetime, that they are more likely to find jobs and, once employed, are almost twice as likely to be selected for on-the-job training.研究表明，拥有四年大学学位的人比没有大学学位的人一生赚的钱更多，他们更有可能找到工作，而且一旦找到工作，被选中接受在职培训的可能性几乎是没有大学学位的人的两倍。This has prompted a stampede through college and university gates.这促使人们蜂拥着穿过学院和大学的大门。But studies are like photographs: They record the past. They say nothing about the clear and present danger that the bachelors degree is losing value.但研究就像照片:它们记录了过去。他们对学士学位正在贬值这一明显而现实的危险只字未提。As more and more people get a bachelors degree, it becomes more commonplace, says Linda Serra Hagedorn, immediate past president of the Association for the Study of Higher Education and associate dean and professor at Iowa State University in Iowa City.“随着越来越多的人获得学士学位，它变得越来越普遍，”现任美国高等教育研究协会会长，现任爱荷华州立大学副院长兼教授琳达塞拉哈格多恩说And, she adds, not all bachelors are equal. In many communities around the country, the bachelors is not enough to make you stand out. A bachelors in what? thats the question, Professor Hagedorn says.她还说，“并不是所有的学士学位都是平等的。”在美国的许多社区，学士学位不足以让你脱颖而出。“什么专业的学士学位?哈格多恩教授说:“这就是问题所在。”A bachelors is what a high school diploma used to be, suggests Caryn McTighe Musil of the American Association of Colleges and Universities.美国学院和大学协会的Caryn McTighe Musil说:“学士学位就是高中文凭过去的样子。”After World War II and through decades of postwar economic growth, college attendance morphed from an exception into the desired norm. In 1950, some 34 percent of adults had completed high school; today, more than 30 percent have completed a bachelors. In 2009, colleges and universities handed out more than 1.6 million bachelors degrees, a number the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) expects will grow to almost 2 million by 2020.二战后，经过几十年的战后经济增长，大学入学率从一个例外变成了理想的标准。1950年，大约34%的成年人完成了高中学业;如今，超过30%的学生完成了学士学位。2009年，各学院和大学颁发了160多万个学士学位。国家教育统计中心(NCES)预计，到2020年，这个数字将增长到近200万个。Spiraling degree inflation is what Richard Vedder, professor of economics at Ohio University and adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, calls it. The danger he sees is that growing numbers of Americans will be unnecessarily saddled with hefty student loans.俄亥俄大学(Ohio University)经济学教授、美国企业研究所(American Enterprise Institute)兼职学者理查德维德(Richard Vedder)所称的螺旋式学位通胀。他看到的危险是，越来越多的美国人将不必要地背负沉重的学生贷款。The fact is that it is not a sure shot youre going to get the high-paying job, Professor Vedder says, and the notion that the earnings differential is continuing to grow and expand is somewhat suspect.韦德尔教授表示:“事实是，你不一定能得到高薪工作。”收入差距“继续扩大和扩大”的说法多少有些令人怀疑。Bachelors degree-holders may well earn 66 percent more than high school graduates and 35 percent more than people with two-year degrees, he says. But for every bachelors degree-holder earning more than $54,000 a year, he notes, there is a mail carrier, taxi driver, bartender, parking attendant or other worker with a bachelors earning less. Indeed, almost 16 percent of the countrys bartenders and almost 14 percent of its parking lot attendants have a bachelors or higher.他说，学士学位持有者的收入可能比高中毕业生高出66%，比两年制学位持有者高出35%。但他指出，每一个年薪超过5.4万美元的学士学位获得者，就有一个邮递员、出租车司机、酒保、停车场服务员或其他年薪低于学士的工作人员。事实上，该国近16%的调酒师和近14%的停车场服务员拥有本科或以上学历。Vedder predicts more and more college-educated people will be in jobs that do not require a four-year degree.韦德尔预测，越来越多受过大学教育的人将从事不需要四年学位的工作。Michael Hughes and Amanda Kusler met in just such a job, working as servers in a restaurant in Ann Arbor, Mich. It was 2007, and both had graduated from high school three years earlier.迈克尔休斯(Michael Hughes)和阿曼达库斯勒(Amanda Kusler)就是在这样一份工作中认识的，在密歇根州安娜堡的一家餐馆当服务员。那是2007年，两人都提前三年从高中毕业。Soon after they started dating, Kusler encouraged Hughes to reenroll and pursue a degree. Especially nowadays, she believes, its a norm to get your BA doesnt matter what its in.在他们开始约会后不久，库斯勒鼓励休斯重新注册并攻读学位。“尤其是在如今，”她认为，“拿到学士学位是一种常态不管你拿的是什么学位。”That was certainly the case for decades, says Anthony Carnevale, director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, but not anymore.乔治敦大学(Georgetown University)教育与劳动力中心(Center on Education and the Workforce)主任安东尼卡内瓦莱(Anthony Carnevale)表示，过去几十年的情况确实如此，但现在已经不同了。It used to be that just getting the bachelors made you employable, Mr. Carnevale says. But the research increasingly shows that the BA in and of itself is not whats valuable. Now, it more and more depends on what the degree is in.“过去，仅仅获得学士学位就能让你被雇佣，”卡尼维尔说。但越来越多的研究表明，“BA本身并不是什么有价值的东西”。现在，这越来越取决于学位是什么。Kuslers aim was to work with children as a physical therapist, and there was no way to do that without a graduate degree.库斯勒的目标是作为一名理疗师与儿童打交道，没有研究生学位是无法做到这一点的But even in occupations that do not formally require postgraduate education, some employers have begun using graduate degrees as a filter.但即便是在不需要正式研究生教育的职业中，一些雇主也开始将研究生学位作为筛选标准。Theres been some slight shifting to hiring more advanced degrees, particularly the masters not MBAs, but generic masters, says Edwin Koc, director of strategic and foundation research at the National Association of Colleges and Employers. He notes that a number of his organizations members are now hiring people with a masters in engineering for jobs hed assumed require only a bachelors.美国大学与雇主协会(National Association of Colleges and Employers)战略与基金会研究主管埃德温科克(Edwin Koc)表示:“招聘高级学位的趋势略有转变，尤其是硕士学位不是mba学位，而是普通硕士学位。”他指出，他所在组织的许多成员现在都在招聘工程学硕士，而他原本认为这些工作只需要学士学位。There is, however, also the undeniable fact that the supply of Americans with masters degrees is exploding. There are 50 percent more people in the job market today with a masters than there were in 2000. And the rate of growth is accelerating: When the economy is in turmoil and jobs are scarce, graduate enrollments typically rise.然而，不可否认的是，拥有硕士学位的美国人越来越多。今天的就业市场上拥有硕士学位的人数比2000年增加了50%。而且增长速度正在加快:当经济陷入混乱、就业机会稀缺时，毕业生入学人数通常会上升。This, in turn, fuels the feeling that Green, the accelerated masters student at Emory University, has: The masters seems like what you have to have to get where you want to go.这反过来又给埃默里大学(Emory University)的加速硕士研究生格林(Green)带来了一种感觉:“硕士学位似乎就是你想去的地方必须要去的地方。”With few good jobs immediately available and cuts in such postgrad havens as the Peace Corps, many are postponing these experiences to get their masters sooner rather than later.由于没有什么好工作可以立即找到，而且在和平队这样的研究生天堂里裁员，许多人推迟了这些经历，以便早日获得硕士学位。Ironically, the push for masters degrees underscores the increasing need for the bachelors while highlighting its weaknesses.具有讽刺意味的是，攻读硕士学位的热潮凸显了对学士学位日益增长的需求，同时也凸显了其不足之处。In theory, four years of undergraduate study nurtures critical thinking and the ability to adapt to a rapidly changing workplace.从理论上讲，四年的本科学习培养了批判性思维和适应快速变化的工作环境的能力。But US college education has come under heavy criticism of late, and a bachelors degree no longer guarantees that someone has actually acquired these crucial skills.但美国的大学教育近来受到了严厉批评，而一个学士学位已不再能保证某人确实掌握了这些关键技能。There is this credential race going on, says Richard Arum, coauthor of Academically Adrift, where there is less attention to the substance of the education and more to the credentials that are useful as signals in the labor market.学术上的漂泊(Academically Adrift)一书的合著者理查德阿鲁姆(Richard Arum)表示:“文凭竞赛正在进行，人们对教育的实质关注较少，而更多地关注那些在劳动力市场中作为信号有用的证书。”Even though more than half of this years college graduates have received no job offers, according to a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, and even though a report from the Project on Student Debt bemoaned that the class of 2010 faced record unemployment, college graduates are still faring much better than those without a bachelors.根据美国大学与雇主协会(National Association of Colleges and Employers)的一项调查，尽管今年有一半以上的大学毕业生没有收到工作邀请，尽管该项目关于学生债务的一份报告哀叹2010届毕业生面临创纪录的失业，大学毕业生仍然比那些没有学士学位的人过得好得多If nothing else, says Mr. McKendry, the California recruiter, a bachelors shows that somebody has the mental capability and the initiative to complete something that less than 30 percent of the US population has achieved. But McKendry and his counterpart in a Snellings Staffing Services in New Jersey, Koleen Singerline, have independently lost their faith in the bachelors as a predictor, in and of itself, of workplace success.“如果没有别的，”加州招聘人员麦肯德里说，“一个学士学位表明，一个人有精神能力和主动性去完成”不到30%的美国人已经完成的事情。但麦凯纳利和他在新泽西州斯奈林人力资源服务公司的同事科林辛格林(Koleen Singerline)已经分别失去了对学士学位作为职场成功的一个预测因素的信心。They point primarily to what they judge as a lack of work ethic and an attitude of entitlement in the new generation. Still, they are forced by employers to use college degrees as a benchmark.他们主要指出他们认为新一代缺乏职业道德和权利观念。尽管如此，他们还是被迫以大学学位为基准。There are really good people with a wonderful track record, says Ms. Singerline, but I often cannot get a client to consider them because the company policy is that to become a manager you must have a degree.辛格林说，“有很多优秀的人，他们有着出色的业绩记录，但我经常找不到客户考虑他们，因为公司的政策是，要想成为一名经理，你必须有一个学位。”This is where cultural factors come to bear. People would feel that its unfair to report to somebody who has a lesser degree of education than they have, Hagedorn explains. That usually leads to an uncomfortable situation in the company.这就是文化因素发挥作用的地方。哈格多恩解释说:“人们会觉得，向教育程度低于自己的人汇报工作是不公平的。”