One one side everyone says (and data supports it) that majority of college students change their major at least once or twice during college. On other side, same people recommend picking college for strength in one’s intended major not for perceived fit, overall prestige, ranking, selectivity or performance record.
What would be a middle ground?
What does “wholesomeness” mean in the thread title?
Overall strength and average ranking.
A “middle ground” might be for one to select a school with the best job placement.
Ok. “Wholesome” has a certain connotation of good health and well being, sometimes in a goody two shoes clean living way. So that is not what you meant. You meant looking at the whole package (holistically?).
I wouldn’t let my kid go to a school that wasn’t solid in their planned major and any backup major they had expressed interest in. But I would not force them to go to the highest ranked school they got into (and neither of them did). Solid in major, good fit in size and location and campus vibe, and cost are factors we paid a lot of attention to. So yes, it was a fairly holistic viewpoint, but not all factors were weighted equally.
The foremost reason to go to a college is to learn in the areas that one’s interested in, even if s/he hasn’t picked, or settled on, a major. I would look at each college’s catalog (or similar materials) in details for major/minor requirements for the potential majors and/or minors, course offerings (primarily electives) in the areas of interests, instructors and their background, ease with which to customize one’s program (bespoke major or combination of majors/minors to fit one’s goal), and goals and outcomes (yes, track records) for these majors/minors. Prestige is helpful opening some doors in certain sectors but is really a secondary factor. Selectivity by itself without knowing the details on the pool of applicants (the denominator) is pretty much meaningless. Ranking is even less useful and often misleading.
It is best to choose a college that is at least acceptable in every possible major that the student may choose, and is not excessively difficult or competitive to change into any of them.
That does not mean that major quality has to be the main criterion, but it should not be ignored either.
I am in a similar dilemma as well. S1 knew he wanted Nursing so that made it very easy to apply to schools with direct entry BS Nursing programs. However, S2 is not sure if he wants to pursue health sciences (maybe Pt or OT) or Business. As he is a Cadet EMT we are hoping that during this Junior year he will get a taste for the health science side. But at this point we are looking at mainly larger universities that offer both career tracks in case he decides to transfer within the school. Its a lot more difficult but I can understand a 17 year old not knowing what they want to major in! There are lots of universities that are strong in many areas and have a good, solid name. Lets face reality that many people who go to these types of schools end up doing as well or better than those from Ivies - so an Ivy should not be the be all end all of a search. UMass Amherst, U of Richmond, U of Rochester, USoCarolina, Clemson, UAlabama are all on our list but we are also hoping to find a few more smaller, “safer” schools for him to apply to.
Having been through the “need for prestige” with S1 and having him land in a terrific (and perfect thus far) school that offers research and clinicals in some of the best hospitals in the nation (Boston!) we learned not to overlook programs and opportunities at the “safer” schools.
Good luck!
Cost is the precondition before considering anything. If you can’t afford it, it won’t matter how “strong” the major is. Once you have that established, everything else is subjective and really just a matter of personal preference.
I don’t agree with with this statement.
Unless you are a top .01% genius, most UNDERGRADUATE majors at most reputable colleges will have enough classes and enough talented professors to teach you the subject. I’m not saying that studying physics at University of Maine is the same as studying physics at CalTech…I’m saying that if you end up majoring in a less-prominent subject at a reputable school, chances are you will still be able to get a good education in that field. So, in most cases, for undergraduates, I would vote for choosing the colleges with overall good reputations rather than focusing on individual departments. Possible exceptions would be extreme cases where a department is something really special, like journalism at Missouri & Syracuse, philosophy at Pittsburgh, film at USC.
This may not be true in some subjects where departments at some generally reputable colleges may be small for various reasons (e.g. physics or computer science), where the faculty may not be numerous enough to offer the usual expected courses for the major on a regular basis, or cover all of the expected subareas of the major.
This does not mean that one has to attend a college that is top-whatever in the majors of interest, but choosing colleges to avoid those which are weak in the majors of interest makes sense.
That’s an excellent question.
On the one hand, there are some programs within lesser schools that are excellent and noteworthy ( both for scholarships and job opportunities).
On the other hand, how many people do you know who work in the same field as their major?
I have gone to both interesting/good schools that match a specific job and highly ranked schools which open doors. When studying, the specialized programs tend to be very good and you might find like-minded individuals. They might also be cheaper.
On the other hand, no one ever hired me based on those programs once I got the big named brand U as well. People love the big name U. It lessens the risk for the hiring manager.
I would ask the student, what is the likelihood of going into various specific majors? What is your budget? What type of work do you want to do long term? If you just want a normal job, then great go anywhere. IF you think you want to work in management consulting, then go to Name U.
Another HUGE consideration is the amount of money you will make. In my 20’s and 30’s I often made 2-4 times more than others my age who had gone to normal schools. Why? The name of the school. This decreased after about 20 years but it was still considerable, allowing me to buy a house and start businesses. Over time this leads you into a different place. Over a lifetime you could be talking several million dollars or getting financing for your company or not.
I’d advise my own kids based on how clear their plan is, what the likelihood of them doing and being successful in different jobs looks like and relative reputation of the school. Also, if it’s just a good school, then I’d advise it’s a large school so there are more alumni. I’d advise them not to attend a school that’s great in only 1 area.
Actually, a decent number – in areas like computing, engineering, and nursing. Also, in general business, though there are also many non-business majors there.
There are several ways job and career paths could be related or not to major or college-prestige:
A. Major-related, college-prestige-related. (e.g. specialty jobs in investment banking and consulting)
B. Major-agnostic, college-prestige-related. (e.g. investment banking and consulting)
C. Major-related, college-prestige-agnostic. (e.g. most jobs in fields like computing, engineering, nursing, etc.)
D. Major-agnostic, college-prestige-agnostic. (e.g. jobs that just want any college degree, including many general business jobs)
Of course, there are also in-between situations. For example, a job or career path may be weakly related to major or college-prestige, but less so than in the examples above. An example would be a physics major taking a job or career path involving math and logic skills that s/he learned or practiced while studying physics.
It depends.
If you are looking at a pre-professional major or a have a highly specific interest within your prospective major, then the strength of the major department may matter.
For a common liberal arts major, as long as a quick scan of the catalog indicates enough courses of interest per semester (and there are no red flags about the department), the overall college experience/ambience may be more important.