Higher education is a place where we see some, but not complete, diversification in investment. That is,
most colleges require a set of diverse "core" classes, but students must choose and, to some extent,
specialize in a specific major. Label each of the following as either a benefit or cost of diversification in
college course choice.
Your college requires you to take at least one philosophy class.
Unfortunately, you loathe philosophy with every ounce of your being.
You get a degree that involves using a specific piece of technology. Three
years after you get your degree, new technology is invented that makes
your job unnecessary. You have to change careers, and your new career
uses some skills that you learned in your core classes.
Some students may have had to learn to use the slide rule in classes that
were unrelated to their major. For some of these students, the electronic
calculator would have made the slide rule obsolete even before they
finished their degrees.
A leading business newspaper recently reported that nursing majors have an unemployment rate of around
2% while clinical psychology majors have an unemployment rate of over 19%. Suppose school officials want
to maximize student welfare and view clinical psychology as being a "riskier" major (in terms of getting a job
using those skills) than is nursing. Holding all else equal, which of the following would you expect to hold?
Clinical psychology majors must take more classes outside of their field than do nursing majors.
Nursing and clinical psychology majors take the same number of classes outside of their fields.
Clinical psychology majors must take fewer classes outside of their field than do nursing majors.
