<p>Suppose that you have a S or D that got acceptance letters from two colleges that offered the major one wanted, both had very similar quality in their respective programs, and that both offer financial aid that would make the school affordable in your particular context. And it is a major where job prospects does not seem to depend on how prestigious the school graduates earn their degrees from.</p>
<p>However, the biggest difference is that the first college has a cooperative environment for the people in that major while the second college is really cutthroat.</p>
<p>So what majors would be best prepared for future jobs in a cutthroat environment and what majors would be best prepared for future jobs in a cooperative environment?</p>
<p>How happy would most college students be in a cutthroat academic environment? I personally think college is a time for learning, not knifing your fellow classmates in the back to get ahead. There is plenty of that in the working world, unfortunately, although I think more employers are looking at fostering cooperative working environments.
If I were a student in an antagonistic environment, I would switch schools.
So if your kiddo is like me, the more cooperative environment would be better.
So</p>
<p>I think it would depend on the preferred style of the student - some folks thrive in a competitive environment and others find it unpleasant. It’s more a question of “fit” than one of preparation.</p>
<p>But for so many in overtly pre-professional majors, or in majors whose practicality on the job market is clear enough to consider choosing that major on the basis of practicality, college is not just for learning but also to prepare for a career. Perhaps students are better prepared for cutthroat careers if their college was cutthroat, and vice-versa.</p>
<p>Some parents are concerned for how a given college would prepare students for careers in their kids’ chosen fields (while not influencing their choice of majors, which can be difficult) and may favor a college because the college’s environment may prepare them better for the rigors of a career even if the difference in educational quality is not significant between major A at college X vs. the same major at college Y.</p>
<p>In my opinion, competitive is NOT the same as cutthroat. Cutthroat means you are trying to undermine the performances of others to advance your own. Competitive means everyone is striving to do their best, and be a top student (but not at the expense of others).</p>
<p>I agree. Engineering grad school at UT-Austin was competitive, because it was a top-ranked program that attracted excellent students. We wanted good grades, but we studied together and were happy when others did well. I’ve found structural engineers to be like that in the real world, too - we send each other work and collaborate on some jobs.</p>
<p>No major prepares you to be a shark in the shark-tank or play nicely with the other children. That’s an inherent personality trait, which can be reinforced or not by the environment. There is nothing inherent in a pre-professional major the predisposes anyone to sharp-elbows.</p>
<p>That doesn’t mean there aren’t majors that are more easily marketed, more likely to produce well-paying or stable jobs, etc…whether those majors appeal is also a matter of individual preference.</p>
<p>I’d let your kid’s personality be the guide as to ‘fit’ at a school, rather than with a major. Most kids change majors at least once anyway.</p>
<p>Even within a college, some majors have a more competitive/cutthroat environment than others, sometimes wildly enough from a major to another to factor majors into the fit equation on top of the college. </p>
<p>Keeping the major out of a fit equation is doable if you have a kid that is accepted at multiple colleges that don’t require one to declare a major on the application.</p>
<p>Different industries as a generality attract people with different personalities but as an additional generality…most businesses are competitive. The “fit” thing works for chosing a college and also “works” for chosing a job. I recently joined an organization that has a minority of dominant type personalities and it is so refreshing even though I’m a “D” after years of being surrounded by aggressive D type people in the organization. So I would say in the OPs case - go for fit. I’m even more of a believer than I was 20 years ago. You can sometimes shove a round peg into a square hole, but it’s so much easier to put a round peg into a round hole.</p>
<p>Sometimes the atmosphere in a department is more cooperative once students are past the weeder classes. The exception might be majors such as biology that attract large numbers of pre-med students at some schools.</p>
<p>I would look at the attrition rate in any major of interest and try to get an idea of where your student stands in relation to peers not just wrt stats, but in level of preparation, if your student will need to get through a gauntlet of weeder classes that are graded on a curve.</p>
<p>Attrition rates could be caused by a variety of factors, and not just the presence or absence of weeder classes. I can speak for physics at my school; the physics program loses about 1/3 of an entering class to engineering and business schools and 1/6 for other reasons.</p>
<p>In graduate school, fit is a question of academic environment too and, if you have to TA, the undergraduate environment for your given field is a factor also.</p>
<p>I am aware that there are many reasons for attrition, but I would not knowingly send a student into an atmosphere where attrition occurs in response to a cutthroat atmosphere in a major or in classes necessary for a major. In fact, we crosssed specific schools from our lists when we read about these types of behaviors in college guides and school newspapers.</p>
<p>I just found out that my last alma mater has instituted a program where you need a 3.2 freshman gpa in engineering to be guaranteed a spot in 2nd year and later in your major. Now, considering what 1st year engineering looks like there and the grades common in calc/phys/chem, I can only wonder whether this creates the mother of all cutthroat environments…</p>
<p>We had a similar policy (3.0) for foreign students only at Cajun State for engineering and it created a fairly noticeable weed-out environment for engineering students, especially foreign students.</p>