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I went to the Harvard College webpage today on a whim and looked up their list of majors. There was a special undergraduate program called 'Environmental Science and Public Policy', abbreviated as ESPP, that seemed rather interesting. I wondered which types of careers graduates would go into with that degree. Does anyone know anything about this particular major? I'd especially like to hear thoughts from people who are majoring in, or have majored in, this area.
<p>i think the title of the major is pretty self explanatory. environmental science and public policy probably has to do with being an expert in environmental science and then working for a government agency like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).</p>
<p>^ Cool. I’m actually considering it as a possible major for myself (not necessarily at Harvard). Since my passion is foreign languages, I was wondering how much of an impact my knowledge of 4 languages and counting would have, should I choose to go into this field of study. Would it be of any importance at all?</p>
<p>Well, international issues loom very, very large in the environmental policy biz, so being a polyglot could be a nice plus. especially if one of the languages is Mandarin.</p>
<p>Two of my good friends graduated with this degree. One has worked in the clean energy field since graduation, first as a consultant, and currently in business development at a solar energy firm. The other went straight from Harvard to a career as a music teacher in a private school.</p>
<p>Hanna’s post hints at an important truth about Harvard – there’s frequently little to no connection between what someone studies and what they do after graduation.</p>
<p>English concentrators become financiers, economist concentrators write novels, etc. </p>
<p>I think one of ways Harvard’s prestige actually has a tangible benefit for students is that employers/graduate schools/etc are frequently willing to give Harvard students a chance to excel outside of their field of study.</p>
<p>Many (not all) come from well to do wall street families, have connections and move to investment banking/wealth management side of the wall street companies.</p>
<p>You will not see many English concentrators moved to quant side of hedge funds. There are some. </p>
<p>I know only one english major (there may be others too) at harvrad who is graduating in 2010 class can challenge any math major at harvard or any other college math major for that matter. But he truly loves english and extremely gifted bright individual from south who could have chosen to major in any subject. Smart man whom I truly admire.</p>
<p>I was reminded the other day of a great example of just<em>forget</em>me’s point, when I saw a picture of my AP French Lit teacher in the New York Times Sunday Styles section.</p>
<p>He graduated from Harvard as a French major, and did two years of graduate study in France on a Fulbright. Then he taught high school French for five years (great teacher, too). All along, he was also a really serious pianist, and he got a reputation as a good accompanist for singers and instrumental soloists who were coming through the city where we lived to give recitals. Finally, a well-known flautist convinced him to move to New York to be her regular accompanist, and to market himself in that role for others, too. </p>
<p>Four or five years later, he was managing the flautist’s career, and the careers of several singers, too, and he got hired as the manager for an established superstar violinist. He formed a management company with another manager, they were fairly successful, and a decade later he got bought out by a huge management company. He stayed on for a few years as CEO and helped build it into a dominant classical music management company, then retired to found an AIDS charity. His old company – which had since changed hands once more, and hit some snags – recently hired him back to serve as CEO again.</p>
<p>He has a great reputation as a businessman, as an artist, and as a human being. Much deserved.</p>
<p>Anyway . . . there you have it: Harvard French major.</p>
<p>I see your point as “Not everyone at Harvard is cut out to be a quant.” and I agree with you entirely. You certainly need a certain type of brain to do derivatives analysis or high frequency trading or whatnot.</p>
<p>My point though is a little different. At Harvard, you can be an English concentrator or an ESPP concentrator and still be able to get that quant type of job, so long as you can prove yourself in an interview. My perception is that at schools with less prestige, there’s no way you’re getting a hedge fund interview if you aren’t a CS/Econ/Math major. Does this jive with your experiences?</p>
<p>I know my personal experience backs this up - I ended up spending a summer working as a software designer (PM) at Microsoft, never having taken a computer science class. I now have a few friends working full time at companies like that who concentrated in things like Classics and Social Studies. Having been at big companies like that, it seemed that the only people with a “liberal arts” background were from schools like Harvard, Yale + Stanford.</p>
<p>Yes I agree. But I also like a PSD financier (poor smart and driven kid) as long as person is ethical in terms of personal belives and believe in helping others. </p>
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<p>I have seen that too. </p>
<p>By the way good luck in your career ventures.</p>