<p>I found this list of common myths that might be helpful for incoming freshman (picking majors and whatnot). I graduated from college a year ago and the only jobs I could find in the past year were internships... Sigh.</p>
<p>I only disagree with the "Stay in school" one. I really wish I had stayed in school. :/</p>
<p>Basically, I feel better knowing that someone else out there ignored common sense and also ended up unemployed like me. Haha. (Anyone from the Class of 2009??)</p>
<ol>
<li>"It doesn't matter where you go to college."</li>
<li>"It doesn't matter what you major in. You'll end up doing something completely different anyway."</li>
<li>"Your first job doesnt matter at all."</li>
<li>"It doesn't matter where you go for undergrad. It's only grad school where name recognition matters."</li>
<li>"Major in a subject you're passionate about, one that you truly enjoy studying."</li>
<li>"Stay in school! (Especially if you dont have a job offer.)"</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>I disagree to a certain extend. Yes, attending a Harvard/Ivy league school will give you leverage in your first couple of jobs, but after that, it is all down to work experience. GPA and work experience trump “where you went.”</li>
<li>I disagree. A degree in Art, Dance, or Music is not of the same value of Engineering, Nursing, Accounting, or even English. Yeah, you may end up doing something differently anyway because most of the time, liberal art majors CAN’T find a job in their fields of study.</li>
<li>Well, my first job was at McDonald’s, so I guess I can concur.</li>
<li>Agree, particularly if it is law or med school we are talking about. Undergrad, in the grand scheme of things, really is not that important.</li>
<li>I disagree. MINOR in what you are passionate about and MAJOR in the practical. Or double major (Accounting/Dance, Nursing/Art). </li>
<li>As long as you don’t rack up a whole lot of debt and your GPA is good, then I agree that staying in school would be a good idea.</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>The Ivy League isn’t the be-all end-all. Some schools you may have never heard of are the top schools for certain admittedly peculiar majors. And the vast majority of Americans don’t go to Ivy League schools and still lead pretty good lives. Yeah if you want an easy in to investment banking then it helps to go to the Ivy League, but you shouldn’t let greed run your life.</li>
</ol>
<p>2.Half and half. It is true that a lot of people end up changing careers, especially in this day and age.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>See above</p></li>
<li><p>Isn’t this the same as #1?</p></li>
<li><p>Spot-on. You won’t be successful if you do something you don’t want to do. Or rather, you won’t be successful without it being a long and grueling road. Just think about all the homework you’ve done in your life. The assignments that were actually interesting you did fairly easily and well. The assignments that seemed like nonsense took a lot more effort for the same result. If your true passion is, say, psychology (assuming you plan on going to grad school) you shouldn’t major in engineering just because it’s got better job prospects.</p></li>
<li><p>As long as you can afford it, why not stay in school? Unless you’d rather go to trade school and become a carpenter or plumber or electrician, which pay well but are pretty demanding.</p></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li><p>Well, the blog focused more on geographic location, which makes more sense. Many non-HYPS schools do have fairly limited employer connections.</p></li>
<li><p>I agree with you. However, my undergraduate dean kept insisting that my school’s business students were competing with Art History majors from Brown for ibanking positions. She constantly drilled into us that Accounting/Finance majors weren’t the only ones who got decent jobs (or any jobs). She actually managed to convince me that all undergrad business degrees were on equal footing. Thus, I assumed that maintaining a high GPA was more important than the specific major (our degrees only said “Bachelor of Science” and nothing about majors). That’s obviously not true though. Accounting/Finance > any combination of Marketing, Management, International Business. My dean spent my entire college trying to convince our school that there was more to life than finance/ibanking. But now the finance majors with mediocre grades have amazing jobs.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>That’s another point: don’t trust your deans. They pretty much just want your tuition money. I got fed so many “exaggerations” by the deans about how great our b-school was and how rich all the alumni ended up.</p>
<h1>1. The blog was referring to geographic location. Which is true. My school was one of the “top” business schools. But we had no employer connections outside of the nearby metropolitan area. The only responses and interviews I could get were from my school’s career site, which were only local jobs. I went home after graduation and our online career services were completely useless to me.</h1>
<p>I agree with all the other points mentioned above.</p>
<p>If you’ve got the money to study what you’re passionate about then sure, go ahead. If you’re having to take out loans, though, it’s extremely irresponsible to major in something without at least decent job prospects. If you’re THAT passionate about history or whatever then go ahead and work for a couple years to save up money to got o school.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I’ll agree to a certain extent. Make sure the school is accredited (People do waste their money on those kinds of schools)</p></li>
<li><p>True only if you have a BA in something like Chem/Bio. </p></li>
<li><p>Depends on what it is. Mine was a cart person at JC Penney Outlet (hated it) and it got me into some jobs and others was a hindrance.</p></li>
<li><p>Depends on the context. Grad school recognition as far as what? Medicine, Law, Engineering?</p></li>
<li><p>Lie. I can personally attest to this. I loathe engineering classes and the pre reqs for them and I’ll probably hate Chem E, but if I have the ability to get through them then I should do it. Besides, if I majored in something I was passionate about, Id be happy in college but ****ed after college (paying over 100k just to make 60k at best). Wise rapper said, “God will take you through hell, just to get you to heaven.” I do agree with
ThePrincessBride, minor in what you’re passionate about</p></li>
<li><p>Dumb idea. get some experience by working crappy jobs or doing volunteer work</p></li>
</ol>
<p>@katsy how much did those jobs pay? would it have been enough to live in a humble studio for a while? maybe a 1BR with a roomie? I’m just saying that some job options are better than none at all, and sometimes you gotta make some sacrifices to get what you really want (in this case, staying in the area where your school is in order to get your foot in the door SOMEWHERE and get some job experience).</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any job offers while I was in still in school. I moved back home immediately afterwards (DC/Maryland area coincidentally). I thought DC would have plenty of opportunities, but I ended up having no luck with the internet job boards (no responses). Networking landed me some internships. I did make the trip back to my school area to interview a handful of times. Still no offers, so I’m doing another internship–my 4th temporary position in the past year.</p>
<p>Yeah, sadly the DC area has been hit pretty hard by the recession like everywhere else during better times yeah there are lots of opportunities. </p>
<p>What field is this internship in? You might consider a paying job as well, even in something like retail.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Disagree. I honestly believe college is what you make out of it; I’ve met plenty of people who went to top schools and came out of it as miserable, unemployed people, while graduates of state schools have gone on to have amazing jobs and lives.</p></li>
<li><p>Disagree. Usually, it really DOESN’T matter what you major in. How many English majors become Englishists? How many bio majors are biologists? How many people return to school for something else?</p></li>
<li><p>This should be true. Don’t major in something you hate for the money because you’ll probably lose motivation, fail out, and do nothing with that degree.</p></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>Agree, it really doesn’t matter after the first job if even then. Your skills and experience are more valuable than that one place you stayed at 20 years ago</li>
<li>Sort of agree. Your major is not meant to get you a job, that’s not the point of college. Your major is meant to educate you teach you how to learn. I know a comparative english major who is an executive at a large corporation. I know another english major who is a teacher now, but used to be a network administrator.</li>
<li>As long as you gain work experience and a feel for the job market, no it doesn’t matter what you do. Just gain the work ethic and discipline in preparation for the big leagues.</li>
<li>Same as 1. Except some law firms are nitpicky about your law school.</li>
<li>Agree, but don’t rack up over 30k of loans doing it</li>
<li>You need to grow up sometime, never a bad time to return to school for new skills though</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>I really don’t think it does. It matters more what you do and how you do it more than where you go.</li>
<li>Unless you’re in a specific major (engineering for example) this is pretty true. </li>
<li>Meh. Yes and no. Most of our first jobs are something minimum wage, so people know that you have to move up and that you have to take work you can go.</li>
<li>See answer 1.</li>
<li>I think this is true… I think it’s better to do something you love than something you THINK may be more secure.
6 ???</li>
<li>Only if you don’t acquire massive amounts of debt. </li>
</ol>
<p>Stupid list. Most of these are actually true IMO.</p>
<p>As for 5, that is definitely true. I couldn’t imagine doing something that I didn’t love to do. I really love math/science/programming/engineering. </p>
<p>If I wanted to make more money, say by being a novelist (unless it was mystery or science fiction) I would probably not like what I did, and would not be happy (obviously unless I was successful applying what I love to my novels).</p>
during better times yeah there are lots of opportunities. </p>