<p>...maybe because there aren't that many <em>malls</em> out there to hold all the liberal arts grads! It's not like it's a one-or-the-other choice, sakky! Sheesh!</p>
<p>Honestly, though, there are a lot of jobs out there to be done. Having recently gone through an apartment search, being a leasing agent seems to be a popular option. Then there's real estate, arts management, PR... lots of stuff out there for liberal arts majors.</p>
<p>Still, I prefer my job.</p>
<p>
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maybe because there aren't that many <em>malls</em> out there to hold all the liberal arts grads! It's not like it's a one-or-the-other choice, sakky! Sheesh
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I never said anything about "all" the liberal arts grads. Don't put words in my mouth. </p>
<p>I am making the simple point that there really are a lot of liberal arts grads who don't have good jobs. I was just talking to one girl who graduated with a libarts degree who said that the jobs she was being offered paid less than when she was just working as a waitress in high school. Unsurprisingly, she is now back to work as a waitress. I don't feel bad for her, because, honestly, she is making a lot more from that job than a lot of other liberal arts grads are. </p>
<p>The sad truth is that I suspect that the US is somewhat overeducated, or at least educated in the wrong things. That leaves a lot of highly educated people without jobs. Hence, I would like to see our politicians worry less about trying to create better schools and improving education, and worry more about creating the economic climate that can absorb all of these newly educated people. </p>
<p>Now, don't get me wrong. I recognize that the US has it better than many other countries in this regard. Other countries REALLY have a problem with the educated unemployed. Many countries out there have excellent educational systems but truly bad economies. It's not good to have college degrees but no good job in the US, but at least you don't feel as if you have to move to another country entirely to find a decent job that will employ your skills, in contrast to the highly educated people in the Third World or Russia, etc. - people who feel that they have to leave their own country to utilize their skills. </p>
<p>
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Honestly, though, there are a lot of jobs out there to be done. Having recently gone through an apartment search, being a leasing agent seems to be a popular option. Then there's real estate, arts management, PR... lots of stuff out there for liberal arts majors.
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<p>Yet, it would have been nice if they had actually been TAUGHT these things, as opposed to having to spend money and time learning things that they won't use. </p>
<p>Look, it ain't all peaches and cream out there. Most of these jobs place a premium on prior experience. If you don't have any experience, they probably won't hire you. And if you've been studying Latin or Leisure Studies for the last 4 years, how have you been able to build any useful practical experience? That's the crux of the problem. A lot of college grads have diplomas and educations but they don't have marketable skills.</p>
<p>Engineering FTW.</p>
<p>From my undergraduate school, which publishes the average salaries of new graduates, the highest mean was always in Chem E. Petroleum E's (a subset you can find at certain southern universities) will consistently fetch more than Chem E's because PetE's end up at oil companies. The Chem E's that end up at the oil companies will make the highest starting salaries in general. There are occasionally a couple of ECE/Comp Sci majors from my undergrad school that had higher offers than the highest ChemE offer, but the average ChemE starting salaries were always the highest.</p>
<p>Dig in the graveyard for this thread? </p>
<p>From my experience, Comp Sci and Comp Eng seem to be making a good amount starting out. I have a (bad) habit of digging through the database of the IT recruiting firm I work for and looking at salaries of people in those fields they've placed in other companies and the census seems that fresh Comp Sci grads (0-1 year experience) make $60k to $65k just starting out.</p>
<p>"a subset you can find at certain southern universities"</p>
<p>Why would you say it's a southern thing? The top 5 schools are in TX, CA, OK, CO, PA. That seems pretty spread out to me.</p>
<p>As a senior in high school who is planning to study ChE this thread is somewhat disheartening. I don't mind so much the fact that ChE will be tough in college, but some people here are painting it as a poor career choice unless you want to work for a big oil company. I do not want to go to Texas and work in an oil refinery every day. My dad majored in Chemical Engineering then went into industry (Kodak then later Baush and Lomb) and I believe he might have worked his degree more like a Mechanical Engineering degree then specifically for oil. Honestly I was "planning" (once again I use this work very loosely) to follow a similar career path to him and work in industry not for an oil company. Is this a bad idea and tough to do? Is ChE not that good of a career choice? Maybe I'd be better off just doing Mechanical Engineering?</p>
<p>I haven't read the entire thread, but I can tell you that in a rough economic climate (not quite as bad as today, but still bad), I came out of a ChE program and had 21 job offers (42 interviews) in fields including environmental consulting, chemical manufacturing, pharmaceutical manufacturing, business consulting, paper manufacturing, consumer electronics, and food production. The trick was a decent GPA from a top engineering school.</p>
<p>In ChE, to make the big bucks (the people coming out making $70,000 per year), you need to go into either chemicals or petroleum. Both of those greatly limit your location options to the Gulf Coast (Houston, if you're lucky, but ranging from Corpus Christi to Baton Rouge) and the Mid-west (Iowa, Southern Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, etc.). There are some manufacturing plants in places like California and New Jersey, but those areas are in deep decline in terms of on-stream capacity.</p>
<p>If you're willing to take less money, you can go into non-chemical manufacturing (food, pharmaceuticals, plastics, etc.) and have many more options in terms of location. </p>
<p>To be even more flexible, you can leave engineering completely and go into consulting, law, finance, medicine, supply chain management, etc. Many of those fields make more than traditional engineers, but are also more difficult to break into and riskier. </p>
<p>The one thing to keep in mind, though, is that the ChE degree is arguably the most flexible degree out there.</p>
<p>Episode 1: Attack of the Thread Necromancers :P</p>
<p>
And by that you mean Georgia Tech ;)</p>
<p>I have 5 degrees. One is from Georgia Tech. I don't believe I've ever specified which one.</p>
<p>Five degrees? Why?</p>
<p>Eh, they each have their own story and reason (these weren't consecutive degrees - it's over many years). Only the first one (BS) and last one (PhD) really mean anything anyway.</p>
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I have 5 degrees. One is from Georgia Tech. I don't believe I've ever specified which one.
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<p>I'm all for higher education but good lawd! Fellow GT alum here (ECE) :)</p>
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I'm all for higher education but good lawd! Fellow GT alum here (ECE)
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<p>You sound like my wife ("what is it THIS time?") ;)</p>
<p>She has a theory that I just like spending time with the coeds. Then I remind her that it's engineering.</p>
<p>which degrees did you get?... i mean... i can think of 4 at most that someone might reasonably get in a lifetime... BS->MS->PhD->MBA</p>
<p>he could have gotten MS in two different subjects.</p>
<p>What were they (the first BS and the Ph. D)? Just curious. xD</p>
<p>I have a BS in one type of engineering, an MS in a different type of engineering, an MS in yet a third type of engineering, an MBA, and a PhD in a fourth type of engineering. One was at night, one was Ivy, one was at Georgia Tech (hence the user name), one was really an afterthought while working on a PhD. No post-doc, so that's good. </p>
<p>It's what happens when your interests lie in a topic that's not clearly in one field or another.</p>
<p>Oh, and if you think I'm bad. Someone I know is:</p>
<p>BS
MA
MS
MS
PhD
JD
LLM</p>
<p>That's bad.</p>
<p>No room for pictures of the kids!</p>