Lately, since beginning to work at generic Higher Education Association, I've started to debate what I value in higher education versus what relevant trends are in today's universities. Today's question: How much should universities interfere in career placement? Is the goal of college to get you a job? Or, on the other hand, is the goal of college to teach you to think complex thoughts to enable you to figure out the rest of life on your own?

Until just before I graduated, I would have told you that there's no way a college should emphasize career services over academics. As a graduate in the humanities, I believed in the lofty ideals of training the mind and maturing the soul in order to make a strong human being who could get through this world because he or she was smart and resourceful. In short, I believed that training in complex thought, analysis, and research skills were enough to help a person get by in life.

However, in looking for my first job out of college, I've learned that the job market is complex, and navigating it requires a set of skills that are more technical than analytical. Building resumes and writing cover letters draws upon the good writing skills that a student hopefully learns as a part of his undergraduate education. There are also a number of internet helps However, an average humanities major will probably flounder through the process. I say this because I have friends who are humanities majors (above average ones, I believe) and who have, in fact, floundered through the process of finding their first job out of college. We need help navigating the system because our pretty thoughts won't pay our rent and egregious student loan bills.

The Princeton Review has made a clear statement of its position on the matter of career training versus general academics. In releasing its annual college and university rankings lists for 2007, the Princeton Review has replaced its Top- 20 list ranking Academic Excellence for one which ranks career services. To me, this communicates a shift in the goals of universities from intellectual training to job market preparation.

There's still a part of me that thinks this is a shame, even if I'm glad that I'm not an impoverished thinker all the time sans employment.

Read an article by The Chronicle of Higher Education on the change below.

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Princeton Review Starts Ranking Career Services, Drops Top-20 List for Academic Excellence

The Chronicle of Higher Education (Aug. 21, 2007)
By SARA LIPKA

It is rankings season once again, and on Monday the Princeton Review added its annual "best" and "worst" lists to the fray. Gone this year is its "best overall academics" category, leaving room for a new one: "best career/job-placement services."

The University of Texas at Austin offers its students the best career counseling, according to the test-preparation company's rankings. But it is no longer home to the best parties, having dropped from last year's No. 1 spot on that notorious list (The Chronicle, August 22, 2006) to third place, behind West Virginia University and the University of Mississippi.

Austin made it to the top in the new category by operating not only a career-exploration center, where job counselors with backgrounds in psychology help students determine their professional goals, but 15 career centers affiliated with specific colleges at the university. Each center employs specialists in the students' field, said Lynne Milburn, director of the career-exploration center. As the state system's flagship campus, Austin also draws "the more prestigious recruiters," and it offers a "Hire a Longhorn" database for prospective employers, she said.

As for the university's slipping image as a party school, Donald A. Hale, Austin's vice president for public affairs, said the honor was meaningless. "We didn't take it seriously last year," he said, "and we don't take it seriously this year."

The University of Texas flagship campus appeared on 10 of the company's 62 lists this year, giving prospective students the expectation that in Austin they will find a good campus newspaper, a lot of pot, packed sporting events, and a good library -- but not much homework.

Such information is vital to college-bound students, said Robert Franek, lead author of the company's Best Colleges guide. "We are providing a public service," he said.

Many colleges beg to differ, but Mr. Franek has noticed something about the outcry.

"Generally speaking, schools on good lists tend to trumpet the fact that they're on good lists," he said. "Schools that are on bad lists tend to discredit the Princeton Review for ever putting pen to paper."

Unlike U.S. News & World Report, which released its latest annual college rankings last week (The Chronicle, August 17), Princeton Review does not decide who ranks where on its lists; students do. This year 120,000 of them from 366 colleges responded to the company's survey. "It is the opinion of current college students informing college-bound students," said Mr. Franek. "We're simply the messengers."

The decision to include career-center rankings this year was based on students' -- and parents' -- demand for that information, Mr. Franek said. "We know that those students are focused on the practical advantages of their liberal-arts degrees," he said.

Academic ratings are still included in individual colleges' profile, but there is no top-20 list. According to Mr. Franek, more than 90 percent of his audience did not find such a list helpful. Most students are not looking for the best academics, he said, but the best college for them.

If they want good food, according to the guide, they should go to Virginia Tech, and stay away from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. If it's happiness they seek, they should enroll at Whitman College, not the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

All 62 "best" and "worst" lists are available on the Princeton Review's Web site.