@sevmom I think s/he means it works both ways: success isn’t guaranteed by being an engineering major just like lack of success isn’t guaranteed by majoring in IR, sociology, anthropology.
That is obvious, about success. So what’s the point in going on to make a point about these engineers lacking vision and having limited experiences. You can’t make any comments here about IR majors but okay to make comments about engineering majors?
I’m the last one you need to worry will dismiss engineering majors. You know I love their minds, creativity, collaborative skills, and more.
For the ones I know who don’t have good jobs, in my experience- and only my experience- it may be the individual, NOT the major. Same could be said of kids in other majors, if they don’t have the get-go. The individual. How do we get to that dismissing engineering? Ok?
Likewise, a kid might major in something some feel is “less valuable,” to quote the title, and still come out ready to leap into employment and young adulthood.
You have now clarified what you meant. Thanks.
I looked at Actuarial Science major at Temple. The graduation requirements are 2.0 GPA in major, 2.0 GPA cumulative and no actuarial exams passed. If you graduate with GPA <3.0 without passed exams - it will be a least valuable major. Hopefully students will self-select out before this happens.
The above is true for most majors. Fulfilling the minimum requirements never means being the one who gets the job with any major.
The initial list included gaming. I think anything in the tech sector is going to be at least somewhat lucrative in the coming years as it is one field that constantly evolves to meet the demands of society.
Honestly, I’m not sure about medicine. I’m not saying it won’t remain lucrative, but depending on how the country goes in the coming years in regards to socialized care, it could go either way. I do think specialties that target aging baby boomers will still be valuable, i.e. cardiology, orthopedics, diabetes, and plastic surgery. Most are either “elective” or require sustained long-term care.
As IR is a branch/subset of Political Science, it also attracts students interested in studying politics through the IR paradigm as opposed to say…comparative though there’s a few similarities between the two.
It also seems like the default major at Tufts where it is regarded by the university as one of their top academic gems.
For most, studying IR is no different than studying most undergrad fields…a way to explore a field intellectually in some depth for 4 years before going off to a working career/professional grad school or if they feel a need to explore further…PhD.
I could say the same of pre-professional fields undertaken not because of interest in the major, but rather because they were the only majors which are perceived to lead to a high-paying job(whether true or not) and didn’t require heavy reading loads and writing 10+ page essays/research papers.
Older relatives recounted observing this mentality with college classmates who were ChemE majors who ended up graduating into un/underemployment in the '70s due in part to the oil shock and I recalled observing the same with folks in the fields of CS/IT/MIS who ended up being laid off in droves or graduating into un/underemployment once the dotcom bust occurred.
One standout example was finding out the customer service rep at a car rental chain my friend and I were chatting with while looking to rent a car was a CS major from a regional private U with a respectable CS department who graduated into the dotcom bust and ended up un/underemployed* for nearly a decade.
Basically, this customer service rep job was his first “real” full-time job a decade after graduating college.
- Stocking shelves part/full-time in retail sector, waiting tables, supermarket checkout clerk, etc.
However, the point is that computer game design, like some of the other listed majors, is specialization that is not necessary or preferred when aiming for the career paths that the major aims for, but can be more limiting than a more generalized major (e.g. computer science instead of computer game design) if one chooses or has to change to some other career path.
The NACE does a survey each year asking employer a variety of questions, including which majors they’d hire. The most recent survey I found online is at https://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/career-development/documents/getting-started/job-search/NACE%20Job%20Outlook%202016.pdf . The majors with the lowest and highest percent who will hire at the Bachelor’s level in the survey are below.
Highest
- Accounting (54%)
- Computer Science (54%)
- Finance (51%)
- Business Administration (48%)
- Mechanical Engineering (46%)
- Information Sciences (42%)
- Management Information Systems (41%)
- Electrical Engineering (39%)
- Logistics (37%)
- Economics (36%)
- Marketing (36%)
Lowest
- Area & Gender Studies (0.6%)
- Education (1.6%)
- Philosophy (1.7%)
- Visual and Performing Arts (2.8%)
- Foreign Language (2.8%)
- History (3.3%)
- Petroleum Engineering (3.3%)
- Nuclear Engineering (3.3%)
- Social Work (3.8%)
- English (4.4%)
They also talk about what attributes and other factors they are looking for. The 3 highest ranked attributes were major, held leadership roles, and involved in ECs. The 3 highest ranked skills were communication, work in team, and problem solving. The criteria the largest % of employers desired was work experience, although only 64% said they cared whether it was relevant to the position.
^ Post #29 shows while some of the international majors are not bad. My daughter is leaning towards international development though the specifics of the major varies by college. One thing I like is most curriculums have at least 15 hours of economics and there is room to build more in. Econ is #9 on the preferred majors list above. I majored in business and though I’ve not worked in a field directly related to my major in decades, it has served me well. I think a well structured curriculum in international development can do the same.
Data10, yes but. That’s about job outlook and demand for certain majors. Few dispute, eg, that there will long be a need for bright, savvy accounting professionals. “Regardless of degree level, graduates of the business, engineering, and computer and information sciences categories are once again most in demand.”
“This year’s list of majors most in demand at the bachelor’s degree level is heavily composed of business majors. The top three individual bachelor’s degree majors in demand are accounting, computer science, and finance.”
That doesn’t mean our friend, blossom, is/was prioritizing accounting and CS majors. Not at all.
Granted, in part, ucb asked about “not preferred or advantageous.” But once again, we start to line up those who value the education and those whose college goal is a profession, not the unique educational opp. Did I say, once again?
At the president’s speech at my son’s orientation he spoke of the idea that students are not only preparing for jobs imeadiatly after graduation but also for 30 years from now. He also pointed out that many future jobs don’t actually exist yet.
He warned of fields that aimed at a specific type of job today, because that field may not exist later, but he said that the idea of college is to come out with broad skills that might include strong writing, and quantitative abilities, foreign language, critical thinking. The major is less important. Internships, research projects and other opportunities and college experiences are more important that the right major.
I think there is way too much emphasis on choice of majors, some of which involves confusing nomenclature (e.g., what does IR really mean – at come colleges it’s interdisciplinary, at others not).
It’s much more valuable to focus on core skills. Math, statistics, foreign language, writing, coding, GIS, graphic design, etc.
It’s true that majors are signals about skill-sets and interests, but they don’t make someone marketable by themselves. I’ll take an example of two of my brothers. One majored in history at UCLA. Joined ROTC, went into Army, returned to MBA at USC. Became executive in major cosmetics firm. His real skills? Energy, leadership, team building. Another majored in physics at Caltech, most of career at a national lab, publication mainly focused on statistical physics, retired and now does mathematical work on signal processing in private industry. No 1 did not work as an historian; No. 2 worked mainly as a mathematician.
This link is from Forbes magazine and, granted, it’s 4 years old, so don’t shoot the messenger, but here was their list of top 10 worst college degrees:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jennagoudreau/2012/10/11/the-10-worst-college-majors/#6b20f17953c9
- Anthropology & Archaeology
- Film, Video, and Photographic Arts
- Fine Arts
- Philosophy and Religious Studies
- Liberal Arts
- Music
- Physical Fitness and Parks Recreation
- Commercial Art and Graphic Design
- History
- English Language and Literature
Top degrees in demand (bachelor’s degree level), according to http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2015/11/25/top-degrees-for-getting-hired-in-2016/#5574f9796d48 from Nov 2015:
- Accounting
- Computer Science
- Finance
- Business Admin/Mgmt
- Mechanical Engineering
- Info sciences & systems
- MIS
- Electrical engineering
- Logistics/supply chain
- Econ & Marketing
Top degrees in demand at Master’s level:
- computer science
- electrical engineering
- mechanical engineering
- Info sciences & systems
- MBA
- accounting
- finance
- software applications
- computer engineering
- MIS
Where is health care?
In our state, nursing has the most job openings at this time. Of course there are AD RN’s (and also LPN/LVN the one year program that is a licensed nursing degree but not RN), but with home health care, and also nurse practitioner jobs for advanced degrees, that is an excellent field.
Pharmacy, PT, OT, etc. - of course those are advanced degrees.
In the spirit of LKnomad’s post above, as well mine just following it, here’s a recommendation: “Don’t just study something, DO something.” Whatever you major in, the question is “What can you do well?” That depends on your innate and learned skills, your character and determination, your physical and mental health, your experience.
I have advised a number of young people on how to prepare a resume. In the first draft, degrees and awards are always near the top of the credentials, followed by employment history (if any). But I always advise, “This resume is incomplete. Tell them what you can and want to do, not what you formally trained in or where you’ve worked.” Provide a list of skills and interests, illustrated by activities and projects that have accomplished or contributed significantly to.
@SOSConcern This was posted today in another thread. Nursing seems to be one of those professions that provides a good income and also ranks high on “High Meaning” ( percentage who say their work makes the world a better place). http://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report/majors-that-pay-you-back/bachelors
Of course, any survey like this is limited and much depends on the individual, but still interesting .
tusconmom’s post about Forbe’s in demand degrees is based on the employer survey I linked to earlier in this thread. In this survey, health care was near the bottom. I expect this reflects the participating companies in the survey, which are listed in the appendix. Nearly all are large private companies, not the type where nurses are typically employed.
You can interpret it in several ways, depending on what you are looking for. For example; specialized Hospitality Management had tremendously less % hiring than generalized Business; specialized Petroleum Engineering had tremendously less % hiring than generalized Engineering; specialized Actuary Science had tremendously less % hiring than generalized Math or Accounting; specialized Gender/… Studies had tremendously less % hiring than generalized Liberal Arts; etc. One could say any of these are not preferred or advantageous from a general employer perspective. Although it is also possible that the the small minority of employers that are especially interested in specialized areas may have a demand that outpaces supply, which often leads to high salary; or they may have one that may fluctuate rapidly due to the limited specialized employers, such as the case for Petroleum Engineering.