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Most people I know who are unemployed or underemployed majored in liberal arts like Sociology or Graphic Arts while business, science, and engineering majors are not having as much trouble finding employment.
Do you think this will effect future college students decisions to major in more practical fields?
Most people I know who are unemployed or underemployed majored in liberal arts like Sociology or Graphic Arts while business, science, and engineering majors are not having as much trouble finding employment.
Do you think this will effect future college students decisions to major in more practical fields?
They say you shouldn't feed a troll, but I'll bite anyway.
I must have missed the memo whereby "Graphic Arts" became one of the liberal arts.
Yes, I do think more practical fields of major will come into play when a future college student thinks about their major. Some of it will come from what they hear in the news, from friends, from family/parents, etc.
Didn't see anything in the first post that hinted to the possibility of one. Poster who is one will usually have very few posts.
A fair point. Considering the voluminous number of threads devoted to this topic or variations of it, my conclusion was that the OP was trying to flare passions in order to see the same people bash each other over the head with the same arguments that have already been discussed ad nauseam. But, hey, this is an Internet forum. That's what it's here for, so why not? I should have been more judicious with my choice of words.
Most people I know who are unemployed or underemployed majored in liberal arts like Sociology or Graphic Arts while business, science, and engineering majors are not having as much trouble finding employment.
Do you think this will effect future college students decisions to major in more practical fields?
No. Many of the unemployed people I know have very "practical" degrees. The degree itself isn't so important; it's what you do with the degree. And once you have that first job the degree itself really doesn't matter much, other than the fact that you HAVE one, and can make it past the initial screening. Maybe people will stop and think about just how much debt a degree is worth, and won't fall into the trap of "all student debt is good debt." But choice of major itself? No, I doubt there will be any huge change.
I don't think that the original posters point is completely true. I know a lot of people who majored in things like sociology, psychology, or even art that have had no trouble getting jobs. Be it that they may not be the best paying ones in the world, most of the people who major in things like art aren't expecting that and don't really care about money. Then I know people like my sister who majored in anthropology and political science and can't find a job anywhere. Then I know just as many people who have majors in scientific fields like engineering or chemistry and also can't find jobs, but some that have. I just don't think your degree weighs much on the probability of a person finding a job unless they major in something completely ridiculous, as a poster said above, "underwater basket-weaving". Otherwise I think that finding a job with one is just as hard or easy for each major. That is just based on what I've seen personally though, so maybe others have seen different. As far as if it will affect what major people decide to pursue, I hope it doesn't, because I'd rather people major in something that they love and want to work in for the rest of their lives than whatever brings in the most money or the best job (if at all). Especially considering that this economic situation isn't going to last forever.
Last edited by Chokhmah; 11-13-2010 at 06:24 PM..
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