Anyone here figure out how important the rank of the school really is for a non-stem major? I’ve glanced through the last dozen posts but I’m not sure I’ve gleaned a definite answer. At some point, we may be deciding between a top 15 LAC and a top 40 that offered us merit money. I know there are other factors in play but we are starting to wonder if paying full price may be more worth it than we thought if we have a history or political science major on our hands. My husband was an Econ major and I was a poli Sci major and I think having Northwestern on our resume has always opened doors. At the very least, we think it’s gottten us interviews and then it was up to us to make the right impression.
Find LACs with strong career services and/or a strong alumni association. I’m not sure that an extra $80-100k over 4 yrs (assuming 20k of merit per yr) will buy you that much more opportunities than a lower ranked but still strong college.
I strongly agree. Many years ago I told my kids to concentrate on two areas of academic pursue-English and Math, and the other courses will take care of themselves. They attended a commerce program in Canada that has a strong quantitative emphasis, but select a minor in the humanities to showcase their other strength. Worked out very well in the grand scheme of things.
The data came from 07 and 08. In the Conner article I posted, the author asked his friend at CLA to run some numbers for him. Since the article came out in 2011, I was always of the opinion that the stuff was “hot off the press”, and the results are absolutely startling. I am surprised that no one picked up on it.
More research is still needed. There is no doubt about that one.
The study mentioned in # 81 is suggesting that for non-stem majors, the reputation of the school is import. It is difficult to work out the cost/reward calculus though; so much depends on your student…and luck.
I don’t know why the results @Canuckguy linked to in the article don’t appear to match the study I found. The study I linked to showed business majors had the lowest adjusted CLA performance. I don’t believe the way business is taught changed enough from 2007 to 2011, to explain going from the bottom to the top in adjusted CLA.
I was a history major at a top 15 USNews, to be honest I didn’t really bother much with pre-professional coursework, but had 3 decent internships, however employers were not really interested in me at all (applied for 100s of jobs). I decided to pursue a business masters at another top 25 and within a week of putting that on my Linkedin/Resume I got contacted by recruiters.
I do think liberal arts/social science is very important for being able to understand other people, other POV, and incorporating interdisciplinary ideas in any industry, and very important for civics (huge issue in modern america). I don’t regret doing it for undergrad but it is not really a great option unless you are going to do preprofessional grad school or are really dedicated to getting into a specific industry from your first day of college.
The other studies quoted are all over the place. Kalamazoo study of 2007 was replicated at 2009, suggesting that natural science majors do the worse. Shavelson had social science doing the best. Arum and Roksa only studied sophomores, not seniors. They found business and education doing the worse. The study you posted had health joining business and education as the worse.
The major flaw with these studies is that they categorized students into gross groupings. (I think they did that because they did not have the sample size). Can we really assume that economics majors are similar to sociology majors? The graph I posted earlier (GRE and major) would certainly disagree.
Connor asked Roger Benjamin, who ran the CLA, to get more information for him. If anyone has all the official test results, it would be the CLA. I suspect that was the reason Connor was able to provide data on the performance of specific majors, and not just general groupings such as physical science, social science etc.
Of course, an actual study would have been preferable.
@Canuckguy The study I posted was produced by the CAE which runs the CLA. Presumably, the study authors would have had access to all the data they wanted.
^Yes, but they have only chosen 12,959 students from years 07 and 08. I think the problem has to do with the time it takes to do the research and then having it published. Conner’s work did not have to go through such a vigorous process and the information can be out a lot faster.
To me, the more interesting thing is how the majors cluster, with sociology, multi- and interdisciplinary studies, foreign languages, physical education, math, and business comprising the top group, and communications, physical sciences, nursing, engineering, economics and architecture bring up the rear.
I can not make any sense of it. While a lot more research is needed in this area, it does confirm @suzyQ7 thought that liberal arts do not have a monopoly on critical thinking, however defined.
Top Liberal Arts College graduates seem to be doing fine income wise. At the #1 LAC (Williams) according to US News, the median individual income at age 34 is $62,600. More than 13% of their graduates end up in the top 1% by income and only 8% end up in the bottom 20% of the income distribution at age 34.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobility/williams-college
It would be helpful to hear about specific things that liberal arts majors or kids at LACs did or do to lead to a good job down the road or good opportunities right out of school. Is it just that those who are smart with good critical thinking and writing abilities and who work hard will do well with a liberal arts major? Or are there some specific things students should keep in mind during college to make those opportunities more likely? D is starting this fall as a likely English major (possibly double majoring in political science). She does well academically but is sort of a dreamer, and I don’t want her to wait til senior year to start thinking about what she will do after college. However, I also want to enjoy her learning experience without the constant pressure of what she will do to find a job.
@elena13 My advice is to use summers wisely to gain experience through jobs and/or internships. Same advice I’d give any young person - LAC or large university.