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computer science major
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<p>That is a liberal arts major.</p>
<p>The job we hired for required excellent writing skills, the ability to do good critical thinking, get along with folks well, and be comfortable with numbers. The Princeton and Dartmouth folks weren't bad; it's just that the Evergreen and Western Washington folks were better.</p>
<p>that's a one in a thousand pick, probably not in California or on the east coast. On the coasts, prestige wins.</p>
<p>Nope. I can only speak for myself. Following college graduation, I have had jobs in NY, Philadelphia, Chicago, California, and Washington State, and interviewed for others. There wasn't a single case in 30 years - not one - where the interviewer had ever heard of my college (the number 1 LAC), or where it was located. The closest I ever came was a "William and Mary".</p>
<p>BUT - I did get jobs rather easily. I have excellent writing skills, the ability to do good critical thinking, get along with folks well, and am comfortable with numbers.</p>
<p>slipper: that's crap. Prestige may win if you want a job at an investment bank or a top law firm (but then it's more the prestige of your grad school). There are thousands -- no, millions -- of college graduates who didn't go to top-ranked schools and have very successful careers. </p>
<p>fenrock, I suggest you do some research on your own -- something that liberal arts majors should be very good at, by the way. It's lazy to post a question on a board and expect us to do the research for you. I know that if you go to the websites of academic departments at colleges, you can find lists of what current graduates are doing. I'm sure there have been studies that answer what you are asking. </p>
<p>While a computer science degree may be a liberal arts degree, I view it as more professional than, say, a degree in classics. I think fenrock wants to know what happens to people who major in English, classics, history, gender studies, etc., instead of engineering, business, computer science, accounting.</p>
<p>sly_vt, not sure if you realize that I am a parent, not a student.</p>
<p>I agree with you that a computer science degree is more preprofessional than most liberal arts majors; also that I am wondering about graduates with degrees in the areas you mention.</p>
<p>Obviously I can do research on this topic, but I wanted to see if other posters here share my impression that employers are more inclined to hire applicants with job specific training than not.... and to see what data anyone has seen on career paths open to those with only a liberal arts degree (for sake of argument, let's confine this to majors that would have been available in 1960 and exclude majors such as engineering, which have an obvious career path).</p>
<p>Perhaps my view is somewhat skewed in the sense that I am wondering primarily about opportunities in the business sector.</p>
<p>Interesting thread. I hope someone knows the answers (and posts them) to what happens to students with a BA in gender studies or classics, who do not go to grad school...I always thought these students were "preparing" themselves for law school by researching the background field of knowledge to their law career...sort of like the engineers who want to be patent attorneys. Except for those who have gone on to teach at our local high school, I don't know where the students with these majors went in terms of careers.</p>
<p>When I interview, if the student majored in math, chem, physics, engineering or computer science, they are one up on achievement and potential.</p>
<p>This is because these majors are more rigorous. In my experience, a math
major with decent grades from Illinois is a more interesting prospect than a sociology or psychology major from Brown. </p>
<p>For fields that are mostly puffery; ie. politics etc. these criteria do not apply.</p>
<p>I know:
an English major who got an MBA and became an auditor--</p>
<p>a math major who did philosophy in grad school and became a software consultant--</p>
<p>a history major who works in public relations and another who went to law school and is a public interest attorney--</p>
<p>another English major who manages data bases on Wall Street and publishes novels "on the side"--</p>
<p>a sociology graduate who became a clothes buyer for a department store--</p>
<p>an art major who went into business designing high-end wedding cakes--</p>
<p>quite a few liberal arts majors I knew went to grad school and became academics and some became school teachers--</p>
<p>I have heard private detective agencies like to hire philosophy-logic graduates.</p>
<p>I remember at this Chemistry summer program thing I did, one of the things that irked me most was the constant bashing of "soft" majors like French, English, History, etc. I guess they thought they could get away with it because everyone there was supposed to love science (and I was there mainly because I got in), but... I was so incensed and unable to argue coherently about the idea of a math/science major being superior to a humanities major. And worst of all, the students ate it right up. "We're going to get paid more than them!" "Does anyone like history?" (no one in the class raises their hand except for me.) </p>
<p>That's what I get for being a fish out of water.</p>
<p>Anyway. After that mini rant, I just wanted to ask scidoc to justify his response a bit more.</p>
<p>aimlessness, penury, drug haze, then prostitution or a service job at a two star hotel.</p>
<p>Interesting topic. My DS is a creative writer who wants to be the next great American author. He's also bright enough to know how unlikely that is. But he tells us he writes because he has to. While in college he is looking at some other fields (ie psychology) but he already has a fallback position. If he doesn't go to grad school or "make it" as a writer he's been told he'd be welcome to come back and teach at his high school and he feels he could be happy doing that.</p>
<p>A mid six figure income
Travel throughout the world
A beautiful, succesful wife
respect of my community b/c I learned critical thinking skills and have the ability to communicate logical, well thought out ideas.
a life long love of learning</p>
<p>I'm glad thread this got bumped back up, as I had forgotten about it and was interested to hear the replies. I was sorry to see that it came close to turning into a food fight at times, though, with some of the posters interpretting the inquiry as an attack. I'm not interested in bashing the liberal arts or questioning anybody's intelligence or lifestyle choices. But coming from the engineering field, my understanding of "real world" employment opportunities is less than complete. (It's probably because I wasn't a liberal arts major myself, and therefore lack the critical thinking skills and the ability to communicate logical, well thought out ideas. ;))</p>
<p>I, too, want to know what typical liberal arts majors do after graduation so that I can help my younger child investigate options for her future. So far, I've heard various posters respond with examples of successful people they know (including themselves) who were liberal arts majors. It sounds like most of these probably went to law/medical/graduate school. Obviously there a lot of typical liberal arts grads out there without these advanced degrees--what do they do? (No, I don't think that many of them are Nobel Prize winners or members of the U.S. Senate, so spare me the list of famous grads from your alma mater.)</p>
<p>So far, I have heard of the following opportunities without graduate/professional degrees:</p>
<p>public relations
department store buyer
wedding cake entrepeneur
elementary/secondary teacher
private investigator (?)
non-profits
also, "business". How does this work? Does one start to work at a low-level job (the proverbial mailroom) out of school and rise through the ranks?</p>
<p>Realistically, is it generally necessary to continue to graduate or professional school to supplement such a degree?</p>
<p>BAs with good computer skills and writing ability could be administrative assistants at non-profits and work their way up--in human resources, for example, maybe later do further course training part-time. They could also start low level in publishing if they are good readers and writers and willing to start on low pay.
I have heard of people starting on-line businesses offering a service and then maybe going on to bricks and mortar operations. Or in artistic professions like photography.</p>
<p>Another good deal is secretarial-administrative work at a university because they often let you do courses tuition free.</p>
<p>Also don't underestimate the value of good interpersonal skills in the business world--you can't take a course in that but if you have it naturally it can take you far.</p>
<p>interesteddad, the three objectives of a liberal arts education you listed is also what our College of Engineering expects of our graduates.</p>
<p>Listen, if you want the truth ....... the large majority will be under-employed and working at "McJobs" with low wages, or unemployed.</p>
<p>A very small percentage will be lucky and land great jobs or great positions with average or above average salary. And some, with higher GPA's, will continue to grad school.</p>
<p>Be careful when quoting stats.......yes they say most will be employed.....but what kind of employment??? This vague wording includes janitors, dishwashers and people working at fast food restaurants. Unless they state specific careers, then be weary of those stats.</p>
<p>A better indicator might be average starting salary of undergrads. Anyone have data comparing LA undergrad to engineering or vocational salaries?</p>
<p>The Peace Corps is a big employer of liberal arts grads.</p>
<p>a LA degree is fine, assuming the child is willing to be aggressive out of school. Play the game, take a few courses in a desired focus area and call it a concentration in business, etc.</p>
<p>most of my time since graduation in 82, i wish i new more about, western civ, the classics, culture, politics, rather then marketing or sales.</p>
<p>remember, its a degree for life, not a degree for solely a job.</p>