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I haven't read every single post yet, but I will answer some questions....
I went to the local university and stayed at home so I would not be in debt after graduation and I am not in debt. The local university is in a college town. With less 50,000 population and and being aa spread out/rural county, there is not many jobs. There are hardly any large firms here. In fact, one of my internships I had to commute 23 minutes into a small city/large town of 100,000 population just to get experience I needed. I am lucky I got two internships because some of my fellow psychology and sociology students could barely get one internship during college. I also had experience as a teacher aid, customer service at a grocery market, and other past jobs that would relate to entry level sales jobs.
So far, the only jobs I can find are ones that are willing to pay a college graduate the wage of some one with high school degree, and those jobs also have HIGH turn over rates. Pretty much they just want a body and I'm not willing to move out to only get fired after a month of not being ridiculously high standards.
I have one cousin who went to CSU Dominguez Hills, basic commuter school with not a lot of reputation, and he had been hired by Enterprise out of college and from there by Grainger. Another cousin went to CSU Fullerton and started with Grainger. Before that he was a bell boy.
There is not enough jobs around here for all the college graduates. There is not enough places to intern around here. I was told before I went to my college that 88% of students who graduated had jobs within 6 months of graduation (note never mentioned what type of jobs they had or if they were jobs graduates wanted). Now, I realize those statistics pretty much are of science and math graduates.
Peace,
the city
Dude, it's pretty clear to me you are in San Luis Obispo. You are crazy if you think you'll graduate with a liberal arts degree and find a nice cushy job handed to you on a silver platter. SLO will NEVER have a thriving industry to accommodate the hordes of Cal Poly students who would like to stay. And that is how it was designed; it's what keeps a gorgeous destination on the California coast with pristine setting small and rural. If people had there way this place would be overrun and saturated in money; look at Santa Barbara. When I graduated CPSLO I was upset like you, thinking 'why are these locals so anti growth, so anti industry'. I learned the wisdom of the elders; there's a good thing going here, no need to ruin it. Take it for what it is.
VT/UVA have good reputations that can allow someone to go most anywhere in the country. Charlottesville isn't isolated to the extent Blacksburg is either. I know a few JMU grads, but they were mostly women who ended up being SAHMs.
LOL! I am a woman, 28, JMU CoB graduate, Senior Business Intelligence Analyst.
My point was that most people who go to college in a college town should know what they're getting into, realize it's probably a 4-5 year deal, and then move on to their markets. If it is a decent school that you can go to with little to no debt, don't worry about the job market in that town, but focus on making alumni connections and interning elsewhere. Your point - I should be a SAHM.
I just graduated from a very well-known large university in a college town. Now, I am realizing, unless I was a science or math-based major, my odds of finding a job are very hard and I pretty much have to start at the worse of jobs. Heck, I'm starting to think if I was at least in a town outside a major metro like Santa Cruz outside San Jose or Davis outside Sacramento, my odds would have been better.
I feel bad because so many liberal arts majors are out of jobs and some even have big college debts to pay off.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MaseMan
Well, liberal arts majors have never been known as highly employable anywhere.
Math and science are liberal arts. What you really mean is non-STEM or non-quantitative.
Dude, it's pretty clear to me you are in San Luis Obispo. You are crazy if you think you'll graduate with a liberal arts degree and find a nice cushy job handed to you on a silver platter. SLO will NEVER have a thriving industry to accommodate the hordes of Cal Poly students who would like to stay. And that is how it was designed; it's what keeps a gorgeous destination on the California coast with pristine setting small and rural. If people had there way this place would be overrun and saturated in money; look at Santa Barbara. When I graduated CPSLO I was upset like you, thinking 'why are these locals so anti growth, so anti industry'. I learned the wisdom of the elders; there's a good thing going here, no need to ruin it. Take it for what it is.
.02 cents
Buddy, I think you had too much of the cool-aid while you were here. So let me enlighten you, while they tout unemployment has gone down, there was still a rise in homelessness and people losing their homes here during this recession and because of our small economy. There are people who commute 20 minutes or more to work. Many people, like myself, grew up here and have friends and family who can't leave . We would like to be here to support the ones who get left behind. The jobs in this area don't pay enough for most people to own homes close to where they work. This is typical elitism trying to push middle class and working class families out of the area.
I know some people who made the sacrifice to stay in the college town and take less pay, but they will probably be paying the consequence and be renting for the rest of their lives and maybe hope to own their own condo one day. Others move north and commute or move south and commute.
I am agreement we don't need more retail jobs and low paying jobs, but we need is more affordable housing and head-of-household jobs in the area where my college town is. Problem is we are 3 hrs from the nearest big city and this makes it less desirable for companies to come here. We also have a concentration in tourism and farming and not any diversity.
It bugs me when so many kids go to college towns, they lose sight of what people in the real world go through and live in a bubble. They don't step outside their comfort zone and see the poverty and people struggling around them.
20 minutes for work for a commute is nothing. I've done an hour..hour and a half and on fridays with route 128 traffic getting home could take several hours perhaps two to two and a half. An alumni from my graduate program drives 90 miles each way going from western to eastern mass, granted on the pike it is only 90 or so minutes but still.
20 minutes for work for a commute is nothing. I've done an hour..hour and a half and on fridays with route 128 traffic getting home could take several hours perhaps two to two and a half. An alumni from my graduate program drives 90 miles each way going from western to eastern mass, granted on the pike it is only 90 or so minutes but still.
Coming from the north side of the college town u have to go up a long grade and it's gas consuming. It'd prob what you'd have to pay doing 30 min commute. And if there is a car accident, it's really backed up.
I can't think of any truly great schools that are isolated in small towns or rural areas. There may be some in specific fields, but nothing immediately comes to mind.
Deep Springs, Rose-Hulman and Dartmouth are three very different, but great schools that I always thought were pretty isolated. Definitely more of the exception than the rule, though.
Are any of the ivy league or public ivy league schools out in more rural and small town locations?
Gosh seems the ones in CA-Stanford, UCSB, UCDavis, UCBerkeley, UCSC, UCLA, UCSD, and UCI are all some what close to a large city or in a large city. Stanford is a small city outside San Jose, SB has is it's own small city and is also not too far from LA, Davis is not too far from Sacramento, Berkeley is not too far from Oakland, UCLA is in West LA, and UCIrvine is a small city. and UCSanDiego is not too far from downtown San Diego. And Santa Cruz is a small city, but is still relatively close to San Jose. Prob the most far out of all the public ivys in CA from a large city.
Shoot I feel like my uni was only good to get me into a good grad school, but if I'd known that, then I would have gone to the uni that gets me a job and not bother with one getting me into grad school.
I'm starting off with a cold calling job out of college....
I wouldn't be crying about how terrible a 20-minute commute is. The average commute isn't a 10-15 minute trip.
Newsflash: When there is a car accident, rush hour traffic backs up in other cities too. There is nothing unusual about that.
You have no idea what it's like outside the little college bubble. On a list of long tortuous commutes, a 20-minute trip doesn't even qualify. I would love to have a 20-minute commute to all the jobs in my career.
You are coming up with small stuff to not find employment.
Last edited by move4ward; 07-26-2014 at 07:08 AM..
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