I am really trying to get the 411on this. A Harvard student wants to be on creative side of music and entertainment business. I don’t think he plans to go to grad school because he just can’t see how a masters in history/English/psych or even film will matter and can’t easily afford it. But each time he says this the family and friends say that all a non stem college degree qualifies you for is being a secretary. He says he has to get started in the business right a way. Who is right?
That is silly. It is saying that every non-STEM Harvard grad goes to grad school or does not achieve career success? And pretty much nobody coming out of Harvard is a secretary (honestly, that job barely exists any more in today’s society anyway).
The answer is no. What this individual needs most is experience and networking. Jobs. Internships. Contacts.
According to http://features.thecrimson.com/2015/senior-survey/ , 2015 Harvard graduates planned the following:
71% work
15% graduate or professional school
4% travel
9% indefinite
Of those going to work, the industries that they intend to go into immediately after graduation:
18% finance
16% consulting
14% technology and engineering
8% public service or non-profit
7% education
7% academia or research
5% health related
Sometimes I feel that the purpose of attending one of these top colleges is that they do not have to go to grad school. Kind of ironic.
Curious about the breakdown of the 15% graduate or professional school.
Will the breakdown be 5% for grad (maybe a few other, say, MPH) school, 5% for law school and 5% for med school? I suspect the percentage of the third one is higher, but the other two are lower - especially the grad school. If this is true, it is indeed the case that the benefit of going to a school like Harvard is that you do not need further education at a traditional grad school after college.
Many years ago (not norw), I once read from somewhere that if the percentage of Asian American students at a college is higher, this college tends to send more of their students to the (traditional) grad school. This may not be the case anymore today. They may also choose finance, consulting or technology/engineering now.
A lot of people work for a year or few before going to grad school as well.
Note that those are immediate post-grad plans, not long term plans. It’s common to work some before pursuing grad degrees, particularly MBAs. If you look at long term plans or a survey for a longer period out, you’ll get far higher grad school numbers. For example, the article at http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/03/the-hub-of-the-post-college-universe/ states, “Close to 70 percent of Harvard students eventually return to school to earn a graduate degree.”
I think a lot of people who are “good at” college go on to grad school eventually because they can, they like school, and they see some career benefit. And students at a place like Harvard tend to be good at college.
The Harvard student need not go to grad school to just continue his major at the graduate level. There are professional degrees - law and medicine are just two. Others mentioned MBA after two or three years. There are also Masters in Public Health, Public Policy, Social Work, Dentistry, Vet, City Planning, Architecture - you get the idea. People entering these programs may have majored in history/English/psych. If the student isn’t sure what he wants to do, working is a good option, even as a secretary or office manager, for a few years.
The boy is right. If he wants to get into the music and entertainment business, he needs work experience. An MBA may help some day, but he’ll know after he’s been working for a while exactly what kind of additional training would make the most sense (and maybe he’ll find an employer to pay for it.) He should be using his alumni network for informational interviews on how to get into the industry/target companies of interes.
Although I must say I don’t know anyone from Harvard in the music business. Plenty in TV/movies, but none in music. Doesn’t mean there isn’t anyone, but it’s likely going to be a tougher road to hoe than e.g. going into comedy writing from the Lampoon. N’s Mom’s suggestion about informational interviews is a good one.
(I do know one guy from Dartmouth who works in Nashville.)
"But each time he says this the family and friends say that all a non stem college degree qualifies you for is being a secretary. "
Oh god, don’t tell me - what country are his family and friends from such that they spew this nonsense?
Most of my sons friends from top 20 LAC are working. Some for only a year or so before planning on going back to school. Honestly, after 4 tough years a lot of them want a break from academia.
S likely will go back and get an MBA, but I doubt he’ll go full time. He is in Boston so a lot of MBA programs available, plus his company has tuition reimbursement program.
Btw, he was a Poli Sci major and was accepted into exec training program of multinational company. This notion that non stem majors can only get jobs as secretaries or baristas in just silly.
I think it would be more telling to look at the numbers 10 years out of graduation. I don’t have those, but I’d guess that most do.
Very, very few people from my Yale class did not go to some sort of graduate or professional school within 5-6 years of graduation. The ones who didn’t, however, tended to be creative types like writers, journalists, and musicians. Or people who went to work in their family’s businesses. Based on everything I know, Harvard would be indistinguishable from Yale in this regard. I happen to know several Harvard alumni who never went to graduate school, but they are all writers or journalists. Also one musician whose only graduate school was on a fellowship in France studying French literature the year after he graduated. (He wound up as an A-list artist manager and then CEO of a large management company.)
Hardly anyone, by the way, complains about this or says that the undergraduate years at Yale or Harvard were a waste.
My sister, who went to a similar college (Stanford), is a real outlier: she has had a great career as an investment manager with nothing but her BA in Spanish (and professional certifications she got without going to school). There are people who do that now, too, but they tend to be math or finance majors, not humanities types.
I don’t think any of my comp sci friends went to grad school. Many others went straight to publishing, journalism, film making, advertising. Many took a year or two off and worked before going back - Business School, Law School, Med School, Architecture School, Divinity School and PhD programs among my friends.
A lot of those Harvard graduates who said they were going to work will end up in some sort of graduate program eventually.
They’re just not going that route immediately.
My nephew works in the music business. Went to Bowdoin, then worked for one of the big music companies as s talent scout and other roles for several years. Left there to become the business manager for a well known solo singer. Lives a good life now – does not have to live where his employer lives, is able to do a lot of work remotely. He rarely goes on the road with the act anymore. Flexible hours, decent pay, and a job he enjoys and is good at. And he didn’t even go to Harvard – imagine that!
One of my kids went to an Ivy and is now in a PhD program for music. But that route will hardly lead to a career in the music/entertainment business. The student in question could do a program in business/management or music industry but honestly, there are plenty of internships with non-profits as well as profit-making agencies that handle talent. I could list some in the areas near Cambridge but won’t for obvious reasons.
The son should look at craigslist and hireculture.org, a great site with internships and jobs in non-profits and cultural organizations of all kinds. The career office will have listings too. A degree from an Ivy opens doors (but also results in teasing, labels like “smart girl” and high expectations from employers-it’s not all golden).
Grad school is NOT necessary for these goals and getting experience in the workplace, whether paid or unpaid, is the best way to go.
My opinion is this: if you can obtain your professional goals without grad or professional school, no need to go and delay further your ability to earn a living. If you need the credentials (academia, law, medicine, etc) then go.
This applies regardless if you attend a top tier or not. Top tier will probably help in entering the workforce directly.