@crowlady I just showed my son those short answer prompts…he thinks those would be more fun and light hearted than the usual longer short answer questions or doing multiple essays. Is their 500 word personal essay a particular prompt, or just a personal statement?
btw…I got my master’s degree from UMCP. Really enjoyed the proximity to DC, Annapolis, northern VA (used to go to Great Falls to study on the weekends!). Fond memories…
Oh, sorry, readingclaygirl. I must have you mixed up with someone else. But I am hearing impaired as well, and I don’'t think I, or any of my three kids ever had a teacher with a disability. Good luck to you!
@sseamom Thank you.
No essays or applications today. DS16,DS19 and DH hard at work with rest of our BS troop on DS16s Eagle Project. Once this is done, college aps become priority.
Good luck with the EagleScout project! I hope all goes smoothly.
I don’t necessarily think that it will be fruitful to have a back and forth on this, but:
In my comment last night I was in no way denigrating education majors or teaching. The entire focus of my comment was to comment on kids going with what’s familiar when they consider their future. I tell the same thing to my son, who says he wants to be a physician. I tell him that he knows what a doctor does, so it’s easy for him to picture himself being a doctor. But it’s much harder for him to picture himself being a bio-mechanical engineer or an intellectual property attorney or an administrator of an Indian Health Service hospital or an analyst of health care companies/IPO’s. And it’s possible that he might really enjoy doing one of those things, so he might want to cast a wide net when he’s starting his coursework.
Besides, some of my best friends are teachers, like @mysondad and @fretfulmother.
Agreed @asleepatthewheel. The reality is that in five years there will be careers available to our kids that don’t even exist today, let alone careers that they haven’t yet considered. When D got involved with a major theatre group in Los Angeles last year, she had it in her head that the only (very limited opportunities) were on stage or as directors, costumes, set/lighting design. Through the program, she was exposed to a multitude of other career possibilities arts advocacy, audience engagement, arts education, graphic design, marketing and even a department that reads and selects the plays for the theatre. While I think it’s fabulous that some kids know what they want to be when they “grow up” the reality is that most don’t. Some of us never do, lol!
Well, sure there are many possibilities, but kids need to start somewhere. Even if they apply “undeclared” they still need to take courses. So I see nothing wrong with choosing what they think they would like to do and changing their minds later. Some of D’s best teachers were on their second or even third careers. My sister majored in sports management and never worked a day in that field, but DID work in business. Now she’s in healthcare. Another sister majored in design and is now in accounting. But I don’t think anyone said to them to choose other majors just because they were going after something that interested them.
Right @sseamom The government teacher at my school is incredibly popular and teaching wasn’t his first career. He was a public policy analyst. I know at my school there is a ton of pressure to know what are going to do by junior or senior year but some of the brightest people I know still aren’t sure. They know their interests but aren’t sure where they will take them. And that’s normal.
@AsleepAtTheWheel , I was mainly responding to readingclaygirl’s post about people in her life implying that education majors are somehow unworthy…
I majored in Comparative Literature back in the stone age (ok, back in the late 80s - and yeah I know, I know, it was a different time… still…) My first job, right after graduating, was managing an intellectual property law firm’s library. I knew nothing about law or IP… But I knew French very well - took it all 4 years of UG, as well as two years of German, and they had many German clients, too. So, I could help translate documents.
I had also worked for three years in a university library, and knew a classification system and how it should be organized (the library was a mess when I got there; it took me almost a year to finally get it organized by my own version of LC system)
And I knew how to write and communicate. And they hired me.
And it’s because of that job, I decided to go ahead and pursue a Master’s in Library and Information Science. Only worked as a reference librarian for a few years, but I really loved the work, because I love to research things for others.
I do think Humanities and Social Sciences majors especially need to think outside the box when applying for entry-level jobs just after graduating with the B.A. And stay flexible about mobility… Everyone should probably consider the latter.
@BeeDAre I am with you the mobility consideration. Throughout this search process we have discussed how some schools have a local reputation and some have a national one. If the student’s goal is to live and work within 100 miles of the school with a regional reputation that is just fine as long as there is a decent shot at finding a first job. If the student’s goal is to work across the country from a school with a national reputation that is fine as well as long as there is a decent shot at finding a first job. However, if the student’s area of study is rather specialized, the school has only a regional reputation and jobs may be hard to find in that region, the student MUST be willing to go where the work is to get that first job. The unwillingness to relocate can create underemployment situations that are difficult to change. I know not everyone knows what they want to do when choosing a school but I still think going through this thought process helps to point students in the right direction, at least.
I got what you were saying, @AsleepAtTheWheel. And it’s a good point.
I’m wondering though (and going off on a bit of a tangent here) what’s the best way to encourage kids to explore? There’s such a huge focus on college as a vocational avenue-- to major in something you know there are jobs in, in other words. And there are valid arguments on both sides of that issue, but as we were saying a bit upstream, there are a lot of kids who are starting school now who’ve seen their families bruised by recent events and are very concerned about their ability to find a well-paying career. So how do we get them to look at far-flung options, when all the people they know are teachers, doctors, engineers, bankers…how do we get a kid to consider being, say, a digital archivist? Those interest inventories they insist on giving at the high school are kind of a joke.
Re career development and expanding students’ goals: I think college kids get inspired about new career goals through their exposure to their general education courses, faculty careers, and courses in their majors that cover aspects the teens were not privy to in high school. They also can develop a visceral distaste for a major once they start it and that inspires them to seek career alternatives. Minors, internships, practica, and service learning experiences also help introduce new career options. I really think it’s part of youth development and can’t be overly rushed. However, colleges should do a much better job on the vocational mission and ensure they’re operating academic programs with the best job market info to help students.
Or you can be like me and choose a career that has so many different options that you can transition into and never tire of the profession after 30 years of practice. I’m very lucky.
@petrichor1 One of the reasons my son is interested in the small liberal arts school is for the very reason you are stating. He knows his areas of strength (math and science), but he really doesn’t know what kinds of jobs are in that area. I pushed him toward the SLACs, however, for this reason. I think that one of the problems of the very large state schools is that there may be less of an opportunity for some kids to explore. I think the SLACs have more professor to student time where the faculty can really get to know a student and suggest ideas, projects, internships, in areas new to the student. I know the SLACs really encourage internships, and many of them will pay the student for that internship even if it is unpaid. This gets students out there, exploring new things and totally different job ideas.
The whole purpose of college is to give students an opportunity to learn about options that they will only find away from home, with new people. This is a reason I would not be concerned about a student who has an idea stuck in their head. They simply have not been exposed to new things yet. This is why they are going to college, isn’t. For this exposure.
I think that we, as parents, should be encouraging our students to test things out once they are at college. Try that internship or take a class in something new and interesting. Only then will students find what is out there.
One of the things that my son really likes about his first choice is the core curriculum. Which sounds weird coming from a seventeen year old, but he’s looking forward to being pushed to broaden his horizons and likes knowing everybody else will be, as well. Pushing them alone is no fun.
The colleges which direct you toward your declared discipline right away would be a poor fit for both my kids, I think. And when we discussed New College, Build-Your-Own-Major just sort of made D’s head explode. I think there’s something to be said for doing it old school, sometimes.
@petrichor11 Again, sons are so similar .
A make your own major school would be great for some kids who have really broad interests. I can remember, so many years ago, my sister in college. She wanted to combine chemistry, anthropology, and English. She wanted all three majors. She finally ended up getting her degree in university studies, which was the only way to make your own major at her college. Now, 25 years later, she is an academic editor, working on the papers of scientists throughout the nation. A perfect use of all three majors.
I think kids today are more capable at finding out about options than we might give them credit for. They’re the Google and Youtube generation, after all. Any one of them can look up in a few seconds a ton of “jobs one can do with a chemistry major” or “good majors for kids who love art”. And that’s actually what her school has the kids do during College and Career time starting in 6th grade. But I’m sure plenty of kids are Googling and Youtubing on their own when they see something interesting. I don’t think the kids are that clueless. Undecided, maybe, but not clueless.
Wow, work had me so busy I fell 150 posts behind. First welcome to the newcomers. Second, congratulations to all the acceptances.
Being a teacher myself, it is a job I love. I am in a somewhat rural area, but the salaries here compare to bigger cities in California. I have fun everyday at work, it’s a blast. I work at a great school where the kids have are selected, so I don’t have the discipline problems other teachers may have. I am proud to tell people I teach even though the LA Times has weekly articles about how much teachers stink and our union is ruining education. My sister is a lawyer and she always wishes she went into education.
As for Donald Trump, I have been more conservative than liberal my whole life, but if any Democratic Presidential candidate wanted to come speak at our graduation I wouldn’t mind at all. In actuality, I am trying to get a celebrity to come speak at graduation, but I have not been able to get in touch with them.
On another note, S has written two essays and his friends have to,d him they both stink so he is starting over. Only 14 days until the SAT and we are done forever regardless of his scores. He has been studying like mad so we are hoping things go good.
@AsleepAtTheWheel, thanks for the compliment, I consider you a friend as well.