Interesting Nuggets from the Census

[farmerjumperdon]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/15/us/15census.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Gotta love stats. Well, you don't gotta, but I do.

The last line threw me. Seems very low; their criteria for professional degree must be that it is a PhD? I always thought of all degrees as professional; or maybe it is that I never thought of degrees as professional & non-professional.

[Doodler]

Personally, I can only consider a Liberal Arts degree professional in context with the question "Would you like fries with that?"

I'm somewhat in limbo on my own Associates Degree in Computer Aided Design, which as a purely practical major would seem more professional than some of the more eclectic degrees at a four plus year university.

[Trebuchet]

Americans...remained the fattest inhabitants of the planet, although Mexicans, Australians, Greeks, New Zealanders and Britons are not too far behind.

Greeks -- so much for the vaunted Mediterranean diet! At least I'm doing my part to keep us in the lead!

[Doodler]

Greeks -- so much for the vaunted Mediterranean diet! At least I'm doing my part to keep us in the lead!

Heh, they're probably laughing their butts off at having made all the pathological dieters jump through the hoops they set up. :D

[farmerjumperdon]

Personally, I can only consider a Liberal Arts degree professional in context with the question "Would you like fries with that?"

I'm somewhat in limbo on my own Associates Degree in Computer Aided Design, which as a purely practical major would seem more professional than some of the more eclectic degrees at a four plus year university.

I think you are selling yourself short. Maybe it is our criteria for the term "professional." In my eyes, what you do is every bit professional.

A good portion of the people I work with have Liberal Arts degrees. I do not think there are many French Fry makers worldwide that could match the levels of challenge, pay, and contribution of these folks.

For the record, what I invested, in terms of money and effort, to get my Liberal Arts degree has paid off more generously than I ever imagined. To enjoy the latitude, compensation, benefits, work/home balance, challenging work, respect, etc that I do either makes me an outlier, or destroys the myth that a Liberal Arts degree is worth no more than a fast food job.

[Gillianren]

Amen! My older sister has a liberal arts degree, and she's doing web design for a bank these days. My younger sister, last I knew, was working toward a degree in marine biology, and she, so far as I know, hasn't even graduated yet. Ergo, my sister that went in for sciences is far more likely to utter the "fries with that" question.