<p>Even though my D is 4-5 years away from graduating college, with the economy so poor right now, it worries me that if she goes to a LAC, she will end up having a hard time getting a job or end up with a low paying one. I have heard from several parents whose kids have recently graduated from "great" schools and have ended up teaching at Montessori schools or applying to Teach for America (not dissing these opportunities, just that they are low-paying jobs and there will be loans to pay off). My D's (and our family's) big dilemma will be to go to a great LAC (she's already been accepted at several) or go to Northeastern (accepted) where she will most likely have no problem getting a job (current NEU posters talk about no one worries there because they get such great experience via the co-op program). [D likes NEU but worries it will be too conventional for her; wants to go somewhere she feels she will fit in better, but she loves the co-op program].</p>
<p>These LAC colleges try to make us think that there will be "great opportunities" upon graduation. Who is getting them? Would love to hear from other parents about their kid's experienced post-grad.</p>
<p>If you are a theater major at Northeastern I really doubt that you have a greater chance of employment than a theater major at Syracuse University or Muhlenberg College.</p>
<p>You are really not asking about the employability of graduates from “techy” universities vs. liberal arts colleges so much as you are about the employability of a STEM major versus a arts and humanities major. If you are in the right major there can be great opportunities at either a LAC, a university or a tech institution. If you are in the wrong major your options will be more limited.</p>
<p>“You are really not asking about the employability of graduates from “techy” universities vs. liberal arts colleges so much as you are about the employability of a STEM major versus a arts and humanities major.”</p>
<p>No that’s not what I am asking about. I’d like to hear about what kinds of jobs recent grads from all kinds of colleges are getting, or not getting. BTW NEU has just about every major, not just STEM/tech.</p>
<p>I’m the one who’s son graduated from Hampshire College in 2010, and decided to take a job at a Montessori school after spending a couple of months unsuccessfully looking for a job in his chosen field (Community Organizing). And, yes, he has applied to Teach for America.</p>
<p>These are certainly tough questions. In the end did it ‘pay’ for him to go to an expensive private SLAC, as opposed to an in-state public college? Should he have chosen a discipline that more directly leads to a well-paying job?</p>
<p>Of course, I will never know the answer to that first question, because the dice have already been rolled. Our son had a fantastic experience, and he came out a much more learned, mature and confident person with a global outlook and a commitment to improve our society. Could he have achieved similar results for $60,000 less? Possibly, but I’ll never know.</p>
<p>The jury is still out on the second question. It hasn’t even been a year since he has graduated, and the economy sure makes it hard for a new grad to get a start. There are certainly majors that afford students a better potential for getting a good job with a Bachelor’s degree (Business, Nursing, Engineering). However, it seems to me that the odds of getting a good job are increased by going to grad school. If our son does not get into Teach for America, then he intends to apply to grad school, perhaps in Education. At least he will do that in-state!</p>
<p>Our recent grad (Duke) is currently very well employed in his major. He is not where he wanted to be or doing what he wanted to do; but as a 2010 grad, I think he is most fortunate. The experiences and opportunities he had at his university were fabulous and will be a life-long blessing.</p>
<p>I am intmately familiar with NEU. I think you will generally find that employment opportunities will vary depending upon the relative strength of a given school, its academic departments and where the individual student is seeking employment…not to mention the many variables that the individual student him/herself brings to the quest.</p>
<p>That said, I know a recent NEU dual computer science and physics major who got a reasonably lucrative job before graduating with a North Shore start-up. He plans to work for 3-5 years then go to graduate school to pursue a PhD. in Physics. Another NEU grad, in theater, is working in the marketing department of a regional theater. At my daughter’s school, a LAC with an engineering program, everyone who she knows who graduated last year is either at grad school or employed; I believe the college itself reported that 95% of students were either employed or attending grad/professional school within 6 months of graduating.</p>
<p>I have one who had a very lucrative high paying temporary job which has ended. Might be going to grad school! I have another one who decided to go back & get another degree in another field. (is on her own, is independent) I have two more still in college.
So at my house, I guess the jury is still out! LOL. :)</p>
<p>“These LAC colleges try to make us think that there will be “great opportunities” upon graduation. Who is getting them? Would love to hear from other parents about their kid’s experienced post-grad.”</p>
<p>Could you explain what you mean by this paragraph? It reads like a ■■■■■■■■ mission to me. If I am wrong I apologize.</p>
<p>I have been thinking about post-graduation for my college kids too. Thanks for starting this thread. Mine will both graduate in June 2012, so we’re not there yet but it won’t be long.</p>
<p>I agree it probably has more to do with your major than your school – at least as a generalization. Mine are both humanities majors.</p>
<p>My son is at a super selective LAC, my daughter is in the honors college at our state flagship. Both, fortunately will leave college without loans. I have NO idea what they’ll do after college. My daughter says she wants to just “be a poor young person” for awhile and will then probably apply to grad schools. My son’s next step is an utter mystery to me. He doesn’t really have the inclination to better society through excellent programs like Teach For America and he isn’t too interested in the idea of grad school.</p>
<p>I think both my kids have gotten a wonderful education at their respective schools and both have also had a deeply valuable college experience in non-academic ways as well. I don’t think my son’s tip-top LAC will be an automatic springboard to professional opportunities, but I think that has more to do with my son’s lack of focused direction than it has to do with the college. It seems the college is a very big help for graduating students who need a bridge over to a defined professional goal.</p>
<p>My daughter at her state school probably doesn’t have those resources, although I am not worried about her. She is the most focused person I’ve ever known, and if she wants to just “be a poor young person” for a while, I know is not because she doesn’t know what else to do, it’s because that is exactly what she wants to do. She’s also brilliant and hard working and idiosyncratic. I would bet real money that she ends up going to grad school sooner than she thinks she will. She isn’t happy without a ton of work to do.</p>
<p>Students at LAC’s also get job experiences, on or off campus, and during breaks or the summer. NE’s coop program is mainly 5 years (they did initiate a 4 year program with lesser amounts of time in coop). So the year after a BA would be used as an equivalent to that extra year at NE, with all kind of possibilities.</p>
<p>I expect my kids to have to work hard at relatively low paying or low status jobs in their early 20’s and/or do graduate school. It takes a long time to become a full-fledged adult in our society, unfortunately. </p>
<p>One of my kids got a BS in computer science and got a great job after graduation, but his education, in my opinion, was pretty limited, even at a prestigious school. Mostly math and CS with a little political science.</p>
<p>My other two are doing humanities/arts and have grown a lot as human beings, and are very literate in literature, history, ethics, music and art history, etc., but may very well end up waitressing for a few years, or interning for little money at first.</p>
<p>They usually don’t talk that much about “careers,” but use the term “job” a lot.</p>
<p>It’s a matter of preference these days. Things are in flux. And the economy is a factor too.</p>
<p>I like to think of the college years as time to learn and develop in ways that have little to do with career, but the pressure is on as higher education becomes more and more focused on making money after graduation, often to pay back all those loans that made the education possible in the first place.</p>
<p>Students get into training programs or entry level positions in finance, retail, consulting, hotel, accounting (even LAC graduates), actuarial, insurance, marketing, IT, government…One of my daughter’s close friend got a job doing TV weather reporting.</p>
<p>Great to hear about your experiences everyone.</p>
<p>Hudson Valley BTW I am not a ■■■■■! Not sure why you would think that.
Why I said "“These LAC colleges try to make us think that there will be “great opportunities” upon graduation.” HELLO, have you not read the college websites? Filled with stats about all the great places grads go!!</p>
<p>ALF- co-incidentally, today I heard from a friend whose sister went to Brandeis and is now a Montessori teacher, hence my mentioning it. I think it was that conversation that prompted my post. My D was just accepted into Brandeis and we are starting a agonizing decision process of where to go.</p>
<p>Compmom- where did you son go to school? Your post goes to the heart of the dilemma IMHO. LAC grads leave school with a broad wealth of knowledge; is that marketable? Yes and no. At our HS and a neighboring HS apps to Northeastern skyrocketed this year; I knew this would happen when D was applying. It is perceived that going there will give students an edge in the job market. And with the weight of college debt hanging over everyone’s head, it feels like having an edge is most important.</p>
<p>“I like to think of the college years as time to learn and develop in ways that have little to do with career, but the pressure is on as higher education becomes more and more focused on making money after graduation, often to pay back all those loans that made the education possible in the first place.”-- So true!</p>
<p>“These LAC colleges try to make us think that there will be “great opportunities” upon graduation. Who is getting them? Would love to hear from other parents about their kid’s experienced post-grad.”</p>
<p>finally someone for whom this site is intended - parents of kids who are about to go, or are going to college and need realtime advice - has raised this issue. a common topic here, it has become a mere academic exercise because many of the “parents” who opine most strongly about the value of a great lac education for its own sake (flexibility, analytic thinking, broad curriculum, cultural understanding, etc etc) have in fact been out of the actual parent game for awhile (note that some commented more than 5,000 times here!), whose kid graduated “just a few years back” with a communications degree from wellesley, and loves her 80 k job managing who knows what. this post isn’t from one of those swells.</p>
<p>my s is a stem sophomore, has an offer for 2011 summer, and will have no problem finding a job on graduation. my d on the other hand, 2009 ba (english/art), made great grades, at a highly regarded lac, just got her first more or less real job (“independent contractor”, no benefits, no yearend w-2), making maybe 25 k if she gets to work 40 hours/wk (probably not). her friends from that, and similar schools, have fared little better, most postponing the problem by going to grad or law school (lots of parents’ money required). all had suitably passionate, typical lac-type majors: sociology, english, anthropology, philosophy, art history. cost us 120k in cash, she owes 15 k in her own name. we had the money set aside; let her decide how to use it; she rejected our opinion. we think the lac education she worked very hard for is obsolete. worse, for her sake, it was a rippoff.</p>
<p>These posts got my attention because, like 'rentof2, I have very different kids. One will graduate from a selective LAC with a humanities major this May - and everyone views his major as unemployable. BUT he has had a fantastic educational experience and is thrilled with the choices he has made over the past few years. He has had two wonderful internships, one of which was in a developing country, established a non-profit, and grown a great deal as a person. Will he have a job upon graduation? Probably not - but he’s looking into more non-profit work in developing countries and is very happy. Could he have majored in accounting and be employed? Sure - but he’d be bored and unhappy. Not because accounting is boring, but because it is boring to him.
Second son knows he wants to be employable and earn a good living. He is looking at college in a whole different way - and wouldn’t choose a major without defined job prospects. Different people = different attitudes and outcomes.
I agree with posters above that employability or satisfaction with after grad direction is more about the major, and what the student does with their opportunities than about the type of school one attends.</p>
<p>I was talking to a friend, the mom of one my DD’s best friends just yesterday. her DD is at a general (not LAC) private University, and is focusing on LA and (relatively hard to market) perf arts concentrations. I suggested that it would be best if her DD, who used her last summer to take more courses, to instead focus on summer employment, internships, volunteering, anything to build her resume and/or network. She agreed. She mentioned she intends to tell her DD that if she doesnt get a job shortly after graduating, she will have to go to graduate school (they can afford it). We then discussed the merits of working before an MBA (I am not sure that that is the direction her DD would lean though)</p>
<p>I think almost everyone, here at least, and even IRL, that a LA or similar major is not the straight shot that STEM often is (though of course not all STEM majors as employable at all times). And thats true regardless of what school the LA major went to. ANd that its probably at least a slightly easier path from a more prestigious school, and definitely an easier path of the LA major spent a lot of time networking, resume building, etc before graduation.</p>
<p>We’ve been over this so many times, its kind of boring, even to someone like myself with an interest in both labor market issues, and in young people and their career prospects.</p>
<p>Another consideration, especially for families, like ours, that are not “well-connected”: the career services programs at the prospective schools. Our son landed 2 internships and FT employment through the career services program at his university. Not a single “over the transom” application yielded any results.</p>
<p>Toodleoo, I am a parent whose son has already graduated. Within the year, yes, so I know your comment was not aimed at me. I benefited greatly from more experienced parents when I was starting out. I think, instead of berating those who wish to be helpful, it behooves the consumers of the various advice one will find here to check on its relevance.</p>
<p>Well, since I am the father of a college junior and a high school junior that crack can’t be aimed at me either! My college daughter already has a firm job offer from a biotech company IF she wants to take it. She’s a double major in biology and history at a selective LAC. Her preference right now is to head straight into graduate school and I suspect that’s what she’ll do. As I said, her friends who have graduated – whether in the sciences, humanities or engineering – have been able to find employment if that is what they were seeking. Not necessarily the same caliber jobs that the graduates of '08 were getting but jobs nevertheless. Her school does have a superb career services program, and a very strong alumni network, however.</p>
<p>Again, I do not think graduating from a research university confers an advantage over a LAC when it comes to getting a job. There are many, many other factors at work that are much more germaine to the employment search. Is a BA from Williams in Economics going to find it that much more difficult to find employment than a BA in Business Administration from Hofstra? I think not.</p>
<p>We know two recent college grads who went to South Korea to teach English to school kids & both are making money & paying off loans. Neither one of them had an undergrad degree in education, either. So there was an opportunity that came along & worked out.</p>