Liberal Arts College Job Placement

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hey! I'm a rising junior in NJ. I have a few questions about LACs. Until now I've basically looked at the well-known schools(by that I mean even big state schools). However, I came across a few LAC's that looked amazing. My question is would a degree from any one of these LAC's--these are the ones I found to be amazing--get me a good job(one that I would get if I graduated form a well-known school)? </p>

<p>Northwestern University
UChicago
Kenyon
Haverford
Swarthmore
Middlebury
Oberlin
Wesleyan University</p>

<p>I realize that it depends on the major;I am thinking about economics. I also realize that a Chicago econ degree would get me pretty much anywhere, but what about the other ones? And how is grad school placement for these schools(in case I decide to do grad school)?Thanks a lot!</p>

2

<p>I understand, I meant to say colleges with a small, LAC atmosphere; not necessarily LAC's.</p>

3

<p>I really think that people confound the idea of the degree "getting" you a job rather than your own blood, sweat, and tears getting you the job. The Chicago, Swarthmore, and Northwestern names do tend to carry a lot of weight for those who care about prestige of a school (for better or for worse, Chicago's reputation out here on the East Coast is inseparable with "humorless, work-obsessed young economists"), and any employer who cares enough about the prestige of his future employees to bother opening up the USNWR rankings would see all of the other schools on your list ranked quite highly.</p>

<p>Many Swat, Oberlin, and Chicago grads go on to pursue PhD's, with Wes and Haverford also showing strongly-- again, I don't know how much this says about the school itself but rather the personalities and motivations of the students those schools attract. Data on PhDs, divided by subject: <a href="http://web.reed.edu/ir/phd.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://web.reed.edu/ir/phd.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

4

<p>Here's something you may be interested in:
<a href="http://www.collegenews.org/prebuilt/daedalus/cech_article.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.collegenews.org/prebuilt/daedalus/cech_article.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

5

<p>NU doesn't have a small, LAC atmosphere.</p>

6

<p>It depends on the major and on the kid. If you graduate with a business/econ degree and a strong GPA then you can probably get a good job at a firm right out of school.</p>

<p>But if you're graduating with a degree in english lit or visual arts, you'll pretty much be in the same boat as anyone else with a 'useless' degree.</p>

7

<p>ses, it's quite clear that you are against liberal arts schools and that you don't know much about them.</p>

8

<p>I love liberal arts schools; I'm going to one. It's just that job placement is markedly better across the board in tech/business majors than for humanities kids.</p>

9

<p>The best placing LACs in terms of recruiting are Williams and Amherst. After this, Middlebury and Bowdoin do well followed by Colgate and a few others. Dartmouth is outstanding at recruiting and offers a very LAC-like environment, I personally believe it offers the best of both worlds better than any other school except maybe Princeton. People confuse the value of a Chicago econ degree, in terms of getting a business job Northwestern is better. Employers don't care about econ dept ranks</p>

10

<p>lol ses you're going to Columbia. I know Columbia College utilizes a liberal arts curriculum but the whole place is a university at the end of the day.</p>

<p>hawkphoenix, consider majoring in math (double in econ). If you distinguish yourself wherever you go, I'm pretty sure you'll land quite a few business jobs, esp finance. And grad schools luuuve math majors for econ phds.</p>

11

<p>they did a poll of Wesleyan B.A. alumni (0-25 yrs after graduation) and the results were interesting:
business - 26%
education - 20%
health - 9%
law - 8%
entertainment - 6%</p>

<p><a href="http://www.wesleyan.edu/crc/assess/wesinworld.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.wesleyan.edu/crc/assess/wesinworld.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

12

<p>What's the other 31%? I've found that Wesleyan grads seem to have less of a business slant than those from other schools. Or, at least, there was no one in my IB analyst class and no one in my MBA class from Wesleyan. I wonder why considering there were people from Brown in both. Maybe a coincidence?</p>

13

<p>I've actually heard the opposite: that many students from Wesleyan do go on to the business world, as can be seen from a look at their famous alumni. </p>

<p>I know that many go onto law (135 last year or about 19%) and imagine a comparable amount head to med school. As has been shown by this year's Washington Monthly rankings, Wesleyan also sends a very good deal of students onto advanced graduate degrees and has a strong artistic community, meaning many go straight into that business.</p>

14

<p>I think that 31% represents one big, Other. I mean, where would you categorize someone like Bill Bellichick? Is professional sports a business or entertainment? If you coach scholastic sports, is it in the educational field or is it a health field? Or, journalism? An awful lot of Wes alum attempt to make a living through some form of writing.</p>