<p>Major in something you love and that you’re good at. Spend the rest of your time (both academic and non-academic) showing that you are more than your major- if you’re majoring in Art History, take Econ 1 and 2 and statistics; if you’re majoring in Math take comparative literature or philosophy; get involved in either a job or some meaningful volunteer activities or both.</p>
<p>Employers want to see that you’ve developed depth (that’s your major), breadth (taking things outside your comfort zone) have good work habits (GPA, can balance and multitask with your EC’s), potentially some leadership experience (EC’s and job) and that you can write well and read graphs, charts, manipulate numbers on a spreadsheet. Foreign language skills a plus.</p>
<p>Don’t triple major in an effort to show that even though your true passion is anthropology, you are also a committed computer scientist and political scientist. Pick one thing and do it well rather than three unrelated disciplines which make you look like a dilettante. But even if you’re in a STEM field, make sure you’ve taken enough writing intensive courses to improve your communication skills, and even if you’re in an artistic or classic liberal arts type major, make sure you have one or two quant courses to show that you’re not afraid of numbers.</p>
<p>The OP is wondering if a degree in most anything from an elite school…will net him/her a high paying job…or is a guarantee of a high paying job.</p>
<p>Short answer…no.</p>
<p>Longer answer…the degree from these schools MIGHT open doors for you in terms of getting interviews or having someone look at your resume. After that, it’s your accomplishments and how YOU present yourself that will count. AND at the end of the day, if you are hired for a position or get accepted into a fully funded grad program, it will be your PERFORMANCE that will determine if you continue in those positions and move up the salary ladder. Your Ivy or equivalent degree doesn’t do that for you.</p>
<p>To follow up on a discussion from another thread, get work experience. Do internships during the summer months between semesters, or go to a school that offers co-op arrangements with employers. The experience gained and relationships established during that time will be extremely helpful in the job market and pursuit of employment.</p>
<p>In the hypothetical situation, everything else (EC’s, work experience, you know them both equally well, etc.) equal, would you hire a STEM major or a humanities major? Does major impact on your decision at all, or, if an applicant is qualified in the relevant ways, is the major ambivalent?</p>
<p>^Goodness that depends completely on the job surely! If I was hiring say the new community relations director at the library (a job that looks like a lot of fun and we have a relatively new hire), I’d go for the humanities person. She (or he) has to write press releases, edit a newsletter, decide on programs (everything from ESL classes to art shows and music concerts.) Why would I hire a scientist unless they had a lot of relevant experience?</p>
<p>Major is never ambivalent. If I’m hiring for our rotational management program and I have a choice of a kid who shows no interest or curiosity in other cultures, vs. a kid who majored in Latin American studies and is fluent in both Spanish and Portuguese, I’m going with the latter kid- he/she will be more likely to accept a promotion to our Caracas subsidiary in two years. If I’m hiring a financial analyst and have a choice between someone who studied urban planning and wrote a senior thesis on transportation and traffic density, vs. a kid who studied something else and never did anything that showed a facility for numerical analysis-- who am I going to hire? </p>
<p>But no, I don’t prefer philosophy over history, or linguistics over anthropology in terms of actual content---- it’s the skills that different kids bring to the table. Like I said, learn to write, learn to compute, learn to assimilate new information quickly, demonstrate curiosity outside your comfort zone.</p>
<p>And like JYM says- get work experience! Any kind of work experience! Prove that you can show up at 8 am even when you don’t want to. Employers know that many college kids don’t take classes on Fridays so that Thursday night can be the beginning of the w/end. My company likes our employees showing up on Fridays. Show that you can be one of them.</p>
<p>“Investment banking base salaries and management consulting base salaries are similar, but the biggest difference lies in their respective bonuses. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) states that the median base salary for investment bankers was $70,190 in 2010. Investment bankers can easily earn six-figure incomes when including bonuses, which are common in the industry.”</p>
<p>If I was hiring a new grad to be a science reporter, and my two candidates were a whiz-bang journalism major who had taken the minimum science needed for his or her gen ed requirements, versus a science major who has never had a journalism course but who could write clear and effective declarative English - assuming the same general level of smarts and motivation - I’d hire the science major in an instant. I can teach basic journalism skills and rely on further OJT and experience to develop solid reporting skills; I can’t teach curiosity about the way the world works or an understanding of how real science gets done.</p>
<p>OTOH, if I was hiring a general assignment reporter, with the same two candidates, I’d opt for the journalism major, who could presumably hit the ground running, whereas the science major would require some break-in time.</p>
<p>For the science reporter I might require a writing sample from both of them. I’ve known too many people who really can’t write. But I agree the science reporter probably has hte edge.</p>