Are colleges dishonest when it comes to a Nuclear Medicine Technician program?

College Majors Science Majors
1

I was considering going back to school for this a few years ago. I already had an undergraduate degree but no skill set. I was working in a dead end job that only required a high school diploma. A few experts in my field informed me that my experience was essentially worthless. In high school I was diagnosed with multiple learning disabilities. Although, I would love to go to medical school my grades and my disability made this impossible.

Here were my preferences for going back to school: I wanted to continue to work while I was going back to school. I wanted to do something in the medical profession. I’d prefer if it took two years or so in order to obtain a degree. And, of course, I wanted to do something that I would enjoy.

After an extensive research I determined that becoming a Nuclear Medicine Technician was the best fit. My local community college had night classes at the best rate available. Not only did this fulfill my aforementioned requirements but career choice had good hours and starting pay. But my research was not over.

As I discussed in another thread, I researched my college major at length to ensure I wasn’t wasting money. It wasn’t until after I graduated that I found out how much turnover was in that line of work. So, after four years of school and years on job I decided to leave the field. I had one degree that wasn’t paying dividends and certainly didn’t need another. To ensure a degree in NMT was not in vain I spent hours researching their disadvantages. I went to a number of sites about the career outlook and none of them mentioned any overt disadvantage. After watching a YouTube video on the subject I noticed someone left a comment stating that there were no jobs in this field-something the research sites certainly did not mention. Could this guy be accurate? In my city alone there are four school that provide this major and another school in another within a short drive. How could they justify providing a program that has no jobs for its graduates.

Boy, was he ever right. I found additional online threads consisting of thousands of posts from individuals who spent all this time, effort, and money going back to school only to find out that there are no jobs.

Most people had the same sad story. They went back to school while working full time, finally graduated only to find out there are no jobs. Some claimed they applied to every NMT job throughout the country, even in Guam and Puerto Rico. Most said they had just a couple or no job interviews at all. There is simply an oversaturation of graduates.

One poor woman stated she was an NMT for nearly 30 years and was a professor on this subject as well. She was laid off of both jobs, went through a nasty divorce, burned through her savings, and at the age of 52 moved back in with her parents.

Another individual claimed they worked in the HR department at a hospital. After one NMT technician left their position, they claimed to have received between 2-3 THOUSAND applications for the one position. Another guy stated he graduated a couple years ago with a degree in NMT, has not found work but was willing to do anything possible to get work in the field. He asked the HR rep what to do. The rep said, “Cut your losses and move onto another profession. With thousands of applicants we had to shred any resume with the slightest blemish.”

One gentleman stated that he recently left the army after an extensive length of service. He used up his financial assistance he received on this.

Someone said that there is one local institution shells out more graduates per year than offices there are for them to work at in their home state.

There is the same issue in Canada. One woman stated that she actually sued her intuition and they discontinued their NM curriculum at least temporarily.

My question: Is it ethical for the schools to provide a major that has no available jobs? I certainly did my due diligence and chose to go back to school for something else. Something I am probably not going to enjoy as much but something that is in demand. I know we all should research our desired majors prior to going to school but at the same time our local colleges shouldn’t be providing majors we have no chance of finding work in. It would be like a cafeteria would serving a meal that wasn’t digestible. One technician actually stated that all NMT programs should be halted for the next decade. Sounds reasonable to me.

2

From a community college website: “Thank you for taking the time to consider an excellent career opportunity in GateWay Community
College’s Nuclear Medicine Technology Program.”

It turns out that it is not an excellent career opportunity. My guess is that whoever penned that simply doesn’t know the facts that you have discovered (and which I find corroborated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics - among medical occupations only medical transcriptionists, pharmacy aides and respiratory therapy technicians have lower expected growth - http://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_table_102.htm). If your community college said some such untrue thing, I trust you have communicated to them (hopefully in the matter of fact way I find effective) their error.

A google of “student sues college for not getting job” shows that so many people have felt burned by an expensive educational program which didn’t lead to a job that many have attempted to sue their alma maters over it. I haven’t found a successful suit, but I have found that the laughter about such a lawsuit subsides when the details of the petitioner’s plight are known (http://nymag.com/news/business/bigmoney/58307/).

At least what you have lost is a lot less than what has been lost by law school graduates who can’t find work as attorneys (http://www.businessinsider.com/thomas-jefferson-lawsuit-2015-12).

New progress in the federal effort to curb colleges’ recklessness in unuseful programs (“gainful employment rule”) is reported (apparently today) at http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/education-department-proposes-new-regulations-protect-students-and-taxpayers-predatory-institutions.

3

Wow. GateWay Community college is flat out dishonest. At the absolute least they shouldn’t proclaim this to be an “Excellent career opportunity” if there are no jobs in this field. In reality, if they wanted to be straight with the public, they should disband this major altogether.

How are these colleges allowed to get away with this? This really seems like a flat out scam. Perhaps, a scam is too harsh of a word but it isn’t far off.

4

There is no reason to “disband” a major – especially one that people are CURRENTLY IN – based on the job market. Petroleum engineering sucks right now. That doesn’t mean you kick out everyone who was in that program and say, “You’re on your own!”

5

@bodangles I would kick every out. What I would do is let everyone currently enrolled finish up with their education and then discontinue it. If would kick everyone out, we’d be doing them a favor anyways.

What is the point of continuing education if there is zero chance you will be employed.

6

@BigD124 There are jobs that require a degree, ANY degree. If you don’t finish you’re stuck at a HS diploma level with the added waste of having sunk money into something you didn’t complete.

Maybe this particular degree’s job prospects scare off the OP. That’s fine. They can study something else. It doesn’t mean that the school is somehow scamming people by offering it.

Let’s disband everything but engineering while we’re at it – if you believe some people, you have no chance of getting a job if you study anything else. Although the engineering students on another forum I follow seem to think that even engineering is a terrible choice for getting a job. Let’s just get rid of college entirely.

7

@bodangles
Some of these colleges are publicly funded. How are they benefiting society when they’re providing a major that has no job openings?

jjwinkle stated that one local college states the following on their website, "“Thank you for taking the time to consider an excellent career opportunity in GateWay Community College’s Nuclear Medicine Technology Program.” How could anyone make the argument that this is an “excellent career opportunity” if the graduates will not able to find work?

A scam is too harsh of a word but we’re not far off.

"Let’s disband everything but engineering while we’re at it – if you believe some people, you have no chance of getting a job if you study anything else. Although the engineering students on another forum I follow seem to think that even engineering is a terrible choice for getting a job. Let’s just get rid of college entirely. "

Straw Man Argument!

8

Colleges are not obligated to keep up with the swings of the market by adding or dropping programs from year to year. Can you imagine how chaotic that would be? Just because a field has more supply than demand now doesn’t mean it will always be that way, and it’s silly to take marketing statements like “Our program offers great job opportunities” at face value without doing any research – won’t every program everywhere say that? OP was smart to look further into it.

9

I am the OP.

I don’t think it is out of the question for us to look at what majors will not pay dividends omit them from a list of options. If they’re government funded they should do what is best for society.

“Just because a field has more supply than demand now doesn’t mean it will always be that way, and it’s silly to take marketing statements like “Our program offers great job opportunities” at face value without doing any research – won’t every program everywhere say that?”

I understand that but they shouldn’t be flat out lying either.

10

Interestingly, GateWay Community College HAS stopped accepting new students for its Medical Transcriptionist program (http://www.gatewaycc.edu/medical-transcription), which, according to the BLS, is a field actually expected to shrink (http://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_table_102.htm), so perhaps there is some awareness and responsible action - through complaining graduates or otherwise - at play.

11

There’s a difference between a four year degree and a terminal two year degree. Students with AA degrees or any bachelor’s degree can look for jobs that require 'a’degree. (IE., with a degree in English, you’re able to apply to lots of jobs that require college-level skills.) But terminal, vocational degrees are supposed to be nimble, responding to local needs. They may be one year or two years, focused on just one subject, with limited general education, which means that if you train for hairdressing that’s what you’ll be allowed to find jobs in. Same thing for NMT.

12

@MYOS1634 Exactly. All the more reasons colleges shouldn’t be providing this major if there are no jobs in the field. Especially the publicly funded schools.

Here is an article on a government education website that either has no idea that they’re talking about or flat out lying:
http://www.whsd.k12.pa.us/userfiles/1635/Classes/8083/12%20Smart%20Majors%20That%20Will%20Land%20You%20a%20Job%20After%20Graduationx.pdf

Go to page #8. They call NMT is a “Smart” major that will land you a job right out of college. What a joke!

13

Nowhere in http://www.whsd.k12.pa.us/userfiles/1635/Classes/8083/12 Smart Majors That Will Land You a Job After Graduationx.pdf can I find that very key piece of information: the date. As the internet ages, absence of date in lingering articles is going to become more of an issue, adding yet another way that information can be unconstructive/misleading.

However, judging by the statement “expected to grow by 16 percent through 2018”, they’re referring to a BLS prediction issued approximately 2008. I don’t find it totally clear whether the article is saying it is NMT or medical imaging in general or what that had 16% predicted growth, but it wouldn’t be the first radical change I’ve seen BLS do. Anyway, for 2014-2024 BLS is predicting 1.5% growth for NMT. (The average across all occupations is 6.5%.)

14

@jjwinkle I found the same article on another site: http://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/Pittsburgh-Magazine/September-2011/12-Smart-Majors/index.php?cparticle=2&siarticle=1

The date is from September 2011. Back five years ago, we still had this same issue. It has been an issue for some time now.

Did the writer not do his/her research? Were the schools asked to provide a major for this article they thought was a major that would land a job right out of school? Was RMU purposely being deceitful?

15

It looks like the Bureau of Labor Statistics was forecasting growth ~20% for NMT as late as 2012 (See Salary and Employment Outlook at http://learn.org/directory/category/Health_Professions_and_Medical_Services/Health_Diagnostic_and_Treatment_Services/Nuclear_Medicine_Technology.html).

I suspect what happened is people rushed into this fairly small field and saturated it ~5 years ago.

16

@jjwinkle I know I have heard of this issue more than five years ago. It was closer, if not past, ten years.

17

One is not guaranteed a job once they complete a degree. You said that there are three different programs graduating students with that major in your area. The market is glutted. I think that it is inaccurate to say " there are no jobs" in a certain field. I think what may be a more accurate statement is there are no jobs in your area, or any area you prefer to live in or for any shift that you choose to work . They may be part time, temp or as needed positions . Unless a college guarantees a position at graduation , they really have done nothing illegal. Colleges are a business, especially for profit colleges that advertise frequently on the TV and Internet .

18

@carolinamom2boys As I said in the OP, there are graduates who claimed they applied all over the country to no avail. I read this from multiple graduates.

One hospital got 2-3 thousand applications for just one position.

My city alone must shell out 50-100 graduates a year. I can assure you there is nowhere close to that many openings per year. They’re all forced to search out of the area to find work.

One school in South Dakota shells out 50 graduates a year. There isn’t 50 NM offices for them to work at in that entire state. I’m sure that the vast majority if not all of them will have to search out of the area to find work.

Unwilling to relocate is NOT the issue. The issue is that there are far too many graduates for what the market can bear.

19

You’re stating exactly what I did. It may require relocation OOS . There are no guarantees for anyone that graduates college with any degree.

20

@carolinamom2boys No. I’m saying essentially the exact opposite of what you’re saying. There is no jobs even if you’re willing to relocate. Does it not raise a red flag when one job obtains 2-3 thousand resumes?