经济学人选专业还是选学校英国高考生的抉择

原标题：经济学人 | 选专业仍是选校园，英国高考生的挑选

布景介绍：

每个人的终身往往会做出无数次的挑选，而大学选专业能够说是咱们人生中最重要的一次挑选。选专业仍是选校园，这个问题让无数人感到头疼。英国学生相同被这个问题所困扰，是挑选在牛津剑桥学艺术，仍是在一般高校学经济学呢？

British universities

英国大学

The cost of studying the arts at Oxbridge

在牛津和剑桥学习文科的价值

High-scoring students leave £500,000 on the table by eschewing economics

高分学生不学经济学，无异于丢掉了50万英镑

Sceptics of higher education often complain that universities offer too many frivolousdegrees with little value in the workplace.

对高等教育持怀疑态度的人常常诉苦说，大学供给了太多在职场上没有实用价值百科的无用学位。

Since elite universities tend to produce higher-earning graduates than less selective institutions do, you might expect them to teach more practical courses. Yet data from Britain’s department for education show the opposite.

由于名牌大学比一般院校更倾向于培育高收入的结业生，因而你或许认为名牌大学会开设更多实用性的课程。但是，据英国教育部的数据显现，状况恰好相反。

Undergraduate students at prestigious universities are more likely to study purely academic fields such as philosophy and classics, whereas those at less choosy ones tend to pick vocational topics such as business or nursing.

名牌大学的本科生更有或许学习哲学和古典文学等纯学术范畴的专业，而一般院校的学生更倾向于挑选商业或护理等工作范畴的专业。

What could explain this seeming contradiction? One reason is that employers treat a degree from a top university as a proxy for intelligence. This means that students at elite institutions can study bookish subjects and still squeak by financially.

怎么解说这种看似对立的现象呢？其间一个原因是，雇主们把顶尖大学的学位视为衡量智力的目标。这就意味着，在名牌大学攻读学术性专业的学生还能牵强拿到不错的薪水。

The median Cambridge graduate in a creative-arts subject—the university’s leastlucrative group of courses, including fields such as music—earns around £25,000 ($32,400) at age 26. Economics students from less exalted universities, such as Hull, make a similar amount.

剑桥大学艺术构思专业（该校收入远景最差的专业）的结业生在26岁时的均匀年薪为2.5万英镑（约合32400美元），和赫尔大学等不太闻名大学的经济学专业结业生的收入差不多。

Yet even though Oxbridge students can pretend to read “Ulysses” for years and still expect a decent salary, they end up paying a large opportunity cost by pursuing the arts.

但是，虽然牛津和剑桥的学生能够花几年的时刻伪装研读了《尤利西斯》，而且仍能拿到不错的薪水，但他们终究仍是要为寻求艺术支付巨大的机会成本价值。

That is because employers reserve the highest starting wages for students who both attended a leading university and also studied a marketable subject.

这是由于，雇主们会把最高的起薪留给那些既身世名校又学习了契合市场需求专业的结业生。

Cambridge creative-arts graduates earn £11,000 more at age 26 than do those from Wrexham Glyndwr University, whose arts alumni are the lowest-earning in Britain.

剑桥大学艺术构思专业的结业生的均匀年收入比雷克瑟姆格林多大学同龄同专业的结业生高出了1.1万英镑，在英国文科专业结业生中当属雷克瑟姆格林多大学的结业生赚得最少。

In contrast, Cambridge economics graduates make £44,000 more than do those from the University of Salford, where the economics course is the country’s leastremunerative.

比较之下，剑桥大学经济学专业的结业生均匀年收入比索尔福德大学结业生高出了4.4万英镑，在英国经济学结业生中当属索尔福德大学的结业生赚的最少。

Many gifted arts students would struggle to crunch numbers. But for those who can excel at both, the cost of sticking with the arts, in terms of forgone wages, is steep.

许多有天分的人文社科专业学生都不拿手和数字打交道。但关于那些文理科都鹤立鸡群的人来说，挑选文科专业的价值不菲（就抛弃的薪酬而言）。

Cambridge creative-arts students have A-level scores close to those of economics students at Warwick, but earn about half as much. That is tantamount to giving up an annuity worth £500,000.

剑桥大学艺术构思专业的学生的A-level分数和华威大学经济学专业的学生适当，但前者均匀年收入只要后者的一半左右。这适当抛弃了价值百科50万英镑的年金。（小编注：A-level是英国学生的大学入学考试课程，适当于英国的高考。）

Who can afford such indulgence? The answer is Oxbridge students, who often have rich parents.

那么谁能够这样有钱固执呢？答案是牛津大学和剑桥大学的学生，他们一般家境富裕。

At most universities, students in courses that lead to high-paying jobs, such as economics and medicine, tend to come from wealthier families, partly because such applicants are more likely to have the examination scores necessary to be accepted.

在大多数大学，经济学和医学等高薪专业的学生往往来自富裕家庭，部分原因在于这些申请者更有或许取得选取所需的考试成绩。

At Oxbridge, however, no such correlation exists. History and philosophy students there come from richer parts of Britain, on average, than their peers studying medicine do.

但是，在牛津剑桥就不存在这种相关。均匀而言，牛津和剑桥前史和哲学专业的学生比医学专业的学生有着更富裕的家境。

小编说：

总有些专业的工作远景不太好，即便是在牛津、剑桥这样的顶尖学府也是如此。比较于华威大学的经济学学生，高考分数适当的剑桥大学艺术专业的学生未来均匀年薪要少一半，适当于每年丢掉了50万英镑。不过，剑桥牛津的学生往往家境富裕，因而他们为艺术而抛弃高薪也是能够了解的。回想你考大学填志愿时，你是先选的校园仍是先选的专业？关于大学选专业，你有什么观念，欢迎在留言区写下你的观念。

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