I'm honored to see Major Trade-Offs reviewed in Sociological Forum by the brilliant Daniel Douglas. It's such a treat to see a scholar I respect so much engage so thoughtfully with my work. Check it out if you're interested. Thanks, Dan! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

<citation type='book' id='socf70091-cit-0001'><bookTitle>Major Trade‐Offs: The Surprising Truth About College Majors and Entry‐Level Jobs</bookTitle> By <author><givenNames>Corey</givenNames> <familyName>Moss‐Pech</familyName></author>, <publisherLoc>Chicago, IL</publisherLoc>: <publisherName>University of Chicago Press</publisherName>, <pubYear year='2025'>2025</pubYear>. <pageFirst>212</pageFirst> pp. $22.50 (paperback). ISBN: 978‐0‐22‐68402‐2</citation>

Click on the article title to read more.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Things that should not be run like businesses: universities, hospitals, and government. Things that should be run like businesses: businesses. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

Josh Chafetz@joshchafetz.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I think I'd say ... Don't run universities like a business; run them like universities. Not everything is assimilable to some other market-based category. Universities have their origins, and in many ways find their deepest purposes, in a medieval world very different from our own.

Private equity destroying the bowling industry is a great microcosm of how leisure in the US has changed over my lifetime. Bowling used to be low-tech, relaxing, and inexpensive. Now it’s overstimulating, garish, and expensive.

Lawsuit Claims Lucky Strike Built Bowling Monopoly

A proposed class action claims Lucky Strike Entertainment dominates the market through “illegally acquired scale.”

frontofficesports.com

This is an insane and concerning story

Happening tomorrow! Register here: go.rutgers.edu/majortradeoffs or on the QR code on the flyer. It should be a great conversation, and there will be plenty of time for Q & A!

Economist discovers secondary socialization and habitus, gets a write-up in The Atlantic. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

What an Ivy League Education Really Gets You

Economists have a new theory of why graduates of top colleges have so much career success.

theatlantic.com

Check out my new article in the Review of Higher Education! Based on the incongruity between which college graduates use skills at work and which have good employment conditions, I advance a framework for the college-to-work transition that considers majors as unique sites of cultural value. Link 👇

We know higher education prepares students well for the workforce, but there's a sticky cultural narrative that suggests it doesn't. Check out my blog post with Kyle Albert, where we discuss strategies universities can use to further signal their skill relevance to society. Link 👇

At #ESS2026? Don't miss a chance to meet Corey Moss-Pech and discuss Major Trade-Offs, an eye-opening look at the relationship between students’ majors and their entry-level jobs, today at 9:30am. Learn more about the book here: bit.ly/UCPEXESS #ESS2026

It's always a blast doing events for my book. Here I am presenting at the Labor Studies and Employment Relations department at Rutgers. Next stop, ESS in DC. If you're attending the conference this weekend, stop by and say hello, and/or come see my book’s AMC session this Sunday at 9:30.

Interesting this doesn't apply to the state's two public R1s. A further example of the increasingly bleak bifurcation of higher ed in the US into the haves and have-nots.

Megan Zahneis@mzahneis.bsky.social · 6mo ago

I wrote last week @chronicle.com about the Oklahoma executive order to "phase out" tenure, and what it might mean for the rest of higher ed. It's the most sweeping attempt at eliminating tenure to date, and likely the first to come via EO, one expert told me. www.chronicle.com/article/okla...

Ooof...not good

Nathan Kalman-Lamb@nkalamb.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Nothing to see here other than a university telling its research community that AI can appropriately be used to "generate first drafts." unbcloud.sharepoint.com/sites/AI-at-...

This is unfortunately, unsurprising. From my perspective, the best advances in education technology are those that broaden access to traditional learning (e.g., an online course that can best replicate an in-person course). There's just no substitute for traditional old-school learning.

Ed tech is profitable. It is also mostly useless

Independent research identifies few learning gains

economist.com

Next was "Major Trade-Offs" by @cmpech.bsky.social, who uses deep qualitative research to crack the foundations of economic skills dogma, showing technical college majors rarely use their acquired skills in their first jobs. Highly recommend Full review: bookwyrm.social/user/bwaber/... (3/5)

Major Trade-Offs

An eye-opening look at the relationship between students’ majors and their entry-level jobs. Humanities majors are used to answering the question, “So, what are you going to do with that degree?” The ...

press.uchicago.edu

The endless dismissal of bad behavior in the name of “being an adult” or “focusing on the things that matter” has become a powerful force enabling Trump. It’s conflict aversion, masquerading as seriousness. Nothing is a distraction, go after all of it.

Being on the EdUp Experience podcast was a blast! If you’re interested in college majors, early careers, and how AI is impacting entry-level hiring/work, check it out! www.edupexperience.com/coreymossper...

Are Practical Majors Just Better at Cultural Signaling Than Skill Building? - with Dr. Corey Moss-Pech, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Florida State University

Are Practical Majors Just Better at Cultural Signaling Than Skill Building? - with Dr. Corey Moss-Pech, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Florida State University page for EdUp Experience

edupexperience.com

"The lesson of our century so far is clear. After a decade book-ended by a once-in-a-generation financial crisis and a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, flagships proved unusually disciplined at solving for both access and excellence."

Opinion | Why Flagships Are Winning

Battered by decades of disruption, they are now more frugal and more resilient than elite privates.

chronicle.com

I’m hiring a postdoc! Flexible in terms of details, but I’m looking for someone to collaborate with on research about labor market inequality. I’ll review applications as they come in and the posting just went up here: apply.interfolio.com/178873

I'll take any excuse to share this article by Gary Shteyngart on the last iteration of Google Glass. I used to require it for my intro students when we covered technology. Unfortunately, it's now too old to be in rotation. It's a great article though! www.newyorker.com/magazine/201...

O.K., Glass

Confessions of a Google Glass Explorer.

newyorker.com

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 8mo ago

Glassholes were driven from polite society. It could happen again.

The New School is ending its BA in Sociology and has paused PhD admissions. When I got my MA there in 2013, it was such an intellectually vibrant place, and without that experience, there is a 0% chance I'd be a professor today—such a shame. www.newschoolfreepress.com/2025/11/26/u...

University to cut or pause 23 programs next fall amid restructuring - The New School Free Press

This story was updated on Dec. 4 at 5:45 p.m. More than 20 academic programs will be cut or paused next year, according to information shared with faculty in an email from the provost’s office sent No...

newschoolfreepress.com

EdTech research consistently shows that students learn better with pen and paper. This semester I have a no laptop policy in my graduate theory seminar, and I have to say it’s been a complete and total success. Highly recommend.

Adam Grant@adamgrant.bsky.social · 9mo ago

It's time to remove laptops from classrooms. 24 experiments: Students learn more and get better grades after taking notes by hand than typing. It's not just because they're less distracted—writing enables deeper processing and more images. The pen is mightier than the keyboard.

This is a good thread, but it's important to remember the Roberts court is radically pro-business and always has been. Throughout Roberts' tenure, there's been the occasional "moderate" opinion, but as far as I know, that's never been the case over economic questions.

Liza Goitein@lizagoitein.bsky.social · 9mo ago

To date, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority has backed Trump in almost every case, even when lower courts found his actions flagrantly illegal. And tariffs are Trump’s signature policy. So one might have assumed the argument would go smoothly for the administration. 10/25

My article in the Review of Higher Education is live! I show highly "employable" majors pay off for graduates even in the absence of technical skill use. As a result, I advance a conceptual framework that views majors as unique sites of cultural value. Check it out! muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

Great article on how the AI bubble is just the latest ed tech grift that's part of a "broader effort to snatch away decision-making power over teaching, learning, and research from subject matter and pedagogy experts and give it to donors and administrators."

Dominique Baker@bakerdphd.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Really well done this defector.com/higher-eds-r...

FSU is hiring 2 APs in spatial data science! Open to any social science discipline, including sociology. This makes at least 5 faculty jobs at FSU this year open to Soc PhDs. Consider applying if you do spatial research! (ad says Geography, but it's open field) jobs.omni.fsu.edu/psc/sprdhr_e...

I had a great time chatting with Andrea Weckerle on The Ready Living podcast about my new book, Major Trade-Offs, and the value of college majors. Check it out if you're interested! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

The Truth About College Majors

Podcast Episode · Ready Living Podcast · 10/07/2025 · 28m

podcasts.apple.com

Most trans folks live in the South. #SOGIdata #transdemography

A day late, but in honor of Labor Day, I want to recognize UFF, our incredible union here at FSU. I am thrilled to be part of a unionized faculty, it’s b/c of UFF that the material conditions of my employment are so exceptional. None of it would be possible without labor. Solidarity forever!

I had a blast chatting with Dan Berrett about Major Trade-Offs, and I'm so glad he posted our conversation on @chronicle.com. If you're interested in the relationship between college majors, internships, and entry-level jobs, check it out! www.chronicle.com/newsletter/t...

The Surprising Truth About Which College Majors Are Actually Useful at Work

A sociologist studied how students get internships and jobs, and who really uses their degrees.

chronicle.com

In my book I argue that liberal arts skills *are* employable skills. Hopefully, more studies like the one below can help us shift the harmful and inaccurate narrative that only technical/vocational majors prepare students for the workforce. theconversation.com/studying-phi...

Studying philosophy does make people better thinkers, according to new research on more than 600,000 college grads

Philosophers are fond of saying that their field boosts critical thinking. Two of them decided to put that claim to the test.

theconversation.com