College Majors and Occupation

A few days ago, my post linked to an article in The Wall Street Journal asking how narrow an undergraduate academic focus is too narrow, considering how rapidly the job market changes.  I agree with the article's assertion that pushing students just towards majors in fields that currently seem "safe" (high starting salaries, plenty of jobs) can be problematic.  That's not only because of the rapidly changing job landscape, but also because one's college major frequently doesn't have a whole lot to do with what one actually pursues as a career after college.  And here's a really beautiful graphic from the University of Virginia's Office of Institutional Assessment that shows how varied the outcomes really are.  For the graphically disinclined (I had to stare at it for a minute), the majors are colored on the left; the occupations are the gray bars on the right. 

Indeed, "the path you take as an undergraduate matters, but your major is just one of many decisions that contribute to your occupational choices."  You don't have to be a business major to succeed in the business world; you don't have to be a biology major to be admitted to medical school.  And yes, you can even be a philosophy major and be successful.  Interested in grad school?  An undergrad major in philosophy might actually be your best preparation.  According to George Washington University (whose philosophy department was happy to share this info on my visit a few weeks ago), philosophy majors scored the highest of all majors on the GRE verbal, the second highest on the GMAT (outscoring business majors by 15%), and the third highest on the LSAT.  48% of philosophy majors who applied were accepted to medical school, compared with 43% of biochemistry majors, 42% of pre-med majors, 35% of biology majors, 25% of nursing majors, and only 22% of pharmacy majors.  Those oft-made-fun-of philosophy majors even make a good living.  So when someone asks what in the world you're ever going to do with that major in philosophy, there's your response.  Although I can't promise people will stop asking.

Moving right along.

Well, we've made it through the first big deadlines (Nov. 1 and Nov. 15) with minimal drama and (knock on wood) few Common App snafus.  If you sent an application, you now must sit around and wait - arguably just as challenging a proposition as actually working through the applications.  And I wouldn't be surprised if the waiting lasts a little longer than initially advertised by some colleges this year.  If a college extended the deadline for you to turn in your application, odds are they may need to request the same courtesy from you; they may ask you to wait a little longer to be notified so they can read all those files that didn't come in quite as early as they had planned.  Flexibility and adaptability will continue to be the themes for this application year.

On Campus at Furman

Colleges have been accepting applications since the mid 19th century.  Here's a good history of the evolution of application requirements at Tufts, from Latin to YOLO.  Aside from the interesting history, the other thing to note here is that though this is your first time ever applying to college, this is not the first year colleges have had to receive, process, index, and read applications.  It's not a perfect process and never has been.  But high schools and colleges partner to make sure everything works and to troubleshoot problems when things go wrong.  The post I've linked to is written by Patrick O'Connor, college counselor extraordinaire, who is consistently the most rational, steady voice among the anxious noise and misinformation that circulates online about college admissions.  I'd like to be like Patrick when I grow up.  If you like the link above, Follow him on Twitter and subscribe to his blog.     

There's other news out there, though, besides all the Common App chatter.  Here's what else I've been reading and thinking about in between writing recommendations and visiting Furman and George Washington University (pics to the left):

How narrow an academic focus is too narrow?  What are the appropriate outcomes to expect from a college education?  What is the real return on investment?  The argument over vocational training versus a liberal arts education continues, and shapes college academic offerings across the country. 

The Lincoln Memorial, not far from GWU

Just how valuable are rankings?  Can playing to a ranking system actually be counterproductive for a university or for its undergraduates' experiences?  Personally I think there's minimal value in rankings, and only when their reader fully understands the methodology used and how he/she would assign his/her own value to the criteria used...which usually isn't the story for the typical reader.

Happy weekend, friends.