<p>Hi everyone! I am currently a Sociology honors major and in my second semester of Junior year with enough credits to graduate this coming winter (December 2014). My school (state uni) requires its students to have a major and a minor in order to graduate and after this semester I would have completed my business minor. I am in a dilemma whereby I am unsure if I should turn this business minor into a major because all that is required is to spend another semester to complete the Marketing major concentration requirements.</p>
<p>My worries?
- Financially:
My parents are helping to fund my undergrad degree and even though they approved, I know it will be very burdensome on them because my sibling will be going entering college this year. And on top of tuition, business classes' materials are very, very expensive.</p>
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<li><p>Experience:
Because I lack the experience both in internships and job skills (none at all) for both Sociology and Marketing majors, I am extremely worried I won’t be able to find jobs that pays relatively well as compared to my peers who have those experiences. (I am applying for internships this coming summer, fingers crossed)</p></li>
<li><p>Route after undergrad:
Even with some exposure in the soc honors program, I am also unsure if I would want to go to graduate school for MA/PhD because of the amount of money required and I’m not sure I am ready to spend more time in school.</p></li>
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<p>I am really not convinced the amount of money and time I am/will be investing into this Marketing major is worth it. Now here’s the catch and the reason why I am weighing on double majoring – I am an international student, whose home-country is very business oriented and not many jobs are offered to Sociology BA holders. Most of my friends who are in the Finance and/or Accounting path has either already found a job or landed an internship back home.</p>
<p>And now I still cannot make a firm decision that I can stick to myself. Hence I would like to ask for some advice/opinions/suggestions from everyone on CC especially from the parents’ point of view – I did asked my own parents’ they are supportive of the idea but they think that I should be the one to make my own decision. </p>
<p>Any advice or input would be greatly appreciated! TQ!</p>
<p>Why not major in Biz and minor in Soc? If that’s not practical I’d say do the double… As you note, the biz degree will get you many more job opportunities.</p>
<p>Think about whether you really need the extra major. Do you have the classes to be proficient in business? It will be the classes you took and not the title on the top of the degree that shows what skills you’ve learned. </p>
<p>If you could get a job upon graduation without a minor then I would say not to worry about the minor, but if you should not be able to get a job then it may make sense to stay in school one more semester to get the business minor.</p>
<p>Is there a way for you to take those extra marketing classes or finish up your sociology major/distribution requirements during the summer while you’re doing the internship through taking a few summer classes at a local public college and get them counted for your requirements? You will need to verify this with your college’s academic dean and departments involved beforehand. </p>
<p>If not, how many more courses would you need in that extra semester? What’s your average course/credit load now? Is course overloading a possibility?</p>
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<p>First, if you must pay to attend a Sociology PhD program, I wouldn’t accept the admission offer as not being funded WILL ACTUALLY HURT YOUR FUTURE CAREER PROSPECTS IF ACADEMIA IS YOUR GOAL. There’s a common attitude in academia that if you’re paying to do a PhD, you’re a dilettantish student as the department isn’t willing to take a risk in funding you. It is considered a serious negative mark against you if you have no funding or few scholarship/fellowship awards on your CV during your graduate career. </p>
<p>There’s also the consideration of accumulating large grad school debt for dubious job prospects…especially considering the large opportunity cost incurred(average time to completion is around 8 or so years from admission to getting the PhD). </p>
<p>Also, if you don’t have a strong idea of a focused area/subfield of sociology you’re interested in studying and communicate it in your PhD admissions, you’re not likely to get strong recommendation letters from Sociology Professors critical for admission, much less given funding. </p>
<p>At this point, I hope you’ve already cultivated strong positive student-Prof relationships with at least 3, if not more Professors…especially in Sociology who can speak highly of your academic strengths in the Sociology field and your potential to make a contribution to it in their letters of recommendation. If not, you need to start cultivating them now and contact prior Professors so they will be more inclined and be effective in mentoring and writing those LORs for your application should you decide to pursue the Sociology MA/PhD. </p>
<p>Can you combine an internship with the extra semester in Business? I agree that a business major would be more marketable but most importantly you would need work experience (internships). You could do CPT?</p>
<p>As an international student, are you allowed to work in the US? Is an internship considered employment? Are you planning to go home to intern, or do it here? Could you take a leave of absence and do an extra internship during the school year? It can be a lot easier to find good ones when one isn’t competing with everyone during the summer.</p>
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<p>Well, there are several things to consider here. Firstly, do you WANT to go into marketing, or perhaps market research? Secondly, are you planning to return to your home country after graduation, or are you required to by the terms of your visa? In your home country, do hiring managers and HR just look for the name of the degree, or do they look further into your coursework? (And do you really know?) If so, would they see sufficient quantitative skill to convince them to give you a shot?</p>
<p>If you have a reasonable idea of the kind of job you would like, I would suggest contacting some people who work in and hire for that sort of position, and ask their advice.</p>
<p>In the US I would venture to guess that the honors soc degree plus marketing minor plus internships would be convincing enough to get you in the door, especially if you could make a case as to what your soc work brings to the table. In a more credential-oriented setting, that may not be true.</p>