Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: It is better to choose auniversity whose graduates have good job opportunities than a university who hasfamous professors. Use specific examples to support your answer.
There is little doubt that the better choice would be falling into the university who has famousprofessors. I have to admit that “good job opportunities” certainly makes this issue a littlecomplicated but it won’t change several basic ideas about higher education.
University has always, from the great educational patterns set up by the early Germaneducators several centuries ago, tied up quite closely with academia. Once a person decides toattend a university, the implication is to say this person chooses to devote himself toacademic research and has the willing to have knowledge and truth as his life-spanningcompanions. Famous professors are the essential part of college system. They are responsibleto impart the methodology of research to the next generation in order to maintain andexceed the existed human knowledge. Students with the expectation of learning the “art” ofacademic research apparently to attend universities within which famous professors arededicated in “pure” academic instruction.
One of my friends from college spent three summers, summing up to nine months, in thejungles of Southeast Asia, researching the customs and religious tradition of indigenoustribes. That she did this was because she was inspired by a famous anthropologist inColumbia University and willing to be part of his program. She made it eventually and rightnow she is still on the way exploring the foreign lands in Latin America and Sub-Sahara,dwelling with her dearest new friends. She loves it and she deserves it.
I have seen so many heated discussions about the relationship between higher education andjob market. I have also found it disappointing because historically we would not be expectedto have a “good job” if we chose to receive any form of serious academic instruction. Besides,I have found the widespread assumption of “good job”may mean a job with a deal of goodmoney. However, higher salary does not necessarily mean a milestone or a significant goal tomost people. A Wall Street financial analyst might hardly be considered as among the happiestpeople in the world. Diogenes, I amvery assured, was living a much more delightful life thanAlexander the Macedonian.
Apart from all the argument on how better the university with famous professors than that withgood job opportunisties, haven’t we ever considered a student of a famous professor will havemuch more chances to get a better job than those who follow the study of second-ratedminds? My collegues I am working with now mostly studied from famous professors in thoseamazing universities. They eventually chose to give up academic research (though they haddone a great job in their fields) and start working in a company. They were brilliant in schooland they are still brilliant in both their resume and their actual work.
So a university with famous professors, with the very possibility, may offer you a way to beoutstanding in both academic development and job market, isn’t the answer to thestatement above clear enough?