<p>Actually, I report on lots of the same people, over and over. One of these was a roommate for 2-1/2 years, and we were in the same internship program and had a ton of friends in common. I talked to him on the phone a couple of weeks ago, when I was in his city on other business, but he was out of town until just before I had to leave. The other was (and very occasionally still is) a client.</p>
<p>The other people I always trot out in these major discussions are my wife (Psychology and American Studies, but effectively Women’s Studies -> major management jobs) and my sister (Spanish Lit -> managing a mutual fund, with no advanced degrees). I stay in touch with them a lot! </p>
<p>Others from my stock cast of characters I may exchange e-mails or Christmas cards with on a very intermittent basis, or they may be more distant relatives from my large extended family with a very efficient gossip network. People our age don’t change their careers all that often, and even when they do their former careers still count. Then there are my kids’ high school and college friends, most (not all) of whom are kind of launched now, and all the children of my partners, clients, co-workers, and general friends (because people talk about their kids all the time). Of course, among the latter groups there are plenty of people who conform to the cliches – soft majors having trouble finding jobs – but who wants to hear about them?</p>
<p>I would take these numbers with a HUGE grain of salt. Look at history majors - 6.5% unemployment for “History” and 15.1% for “United States History?” But $96,000 as the 75th percentile for USH? Unlikely.</p>
<p>And regarding library science, it’s well known that a bachelor’s in library science is essentially useless, since even entry-level professional library jobs require a master’s.</p>
<p>D’s first job after getting her BMusic was for an engineering firm. They actively pursued music students because of their strong work ethic and attention to detail. (practice, practice, practice) Out of school with her MM she is working full time in music (actually four different part time jobs) It does not surprise me that the unemployment percentage for Music Majors is only 5.2% (though the upper end of the earnings % is disappointing!)</p>
<p>The report’s findings seem strange… Architecture worse than Linguistics? Or, even stranger, Statistics and Decision Sciences worse than family and consumer sciences?</p>
<p>Or, Naval Architecture and the like - considering there’s only a handful of companies building commercial passenger ships (i.e. cruise ships) and they’re all in Europe…</p>
<p>Or, Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology? come on people… Or Electrical engineering more unemployed than Aerospace Engineering? </p>
<p>Sorry, but my meter just got MAX_INT’d on this last one. I have a few Aero friends from Purdue and when the industry hit the can they all turned to software or electrical engineering…</p>
<p>I agree with mackinaw, katliamom, and JHS. I would expect the WSJ to be sophisticated enough to point out that major and career are not necessarily related. Also, it seems as if the recession would be more of a factor than any college major choice.</p>
<p>I was surprised to see 0% unemployment for Astronomy and Astrophysics majors.</p>
<p>I’m not sure how helpful something like this is. Just because those majors are employed/unemployed now doesn’t say anything about what the situation will be in four or five years for the very same majors.</p>
<p>I can easily understand why fields requiring a strong math background made the first page, but forestry?? I’m also surprised all that geology stuff is there as well!</p>
<p>If you download the full report, they do an analysis of this very thing- looking at the tight fit (or dispersion) between major and occupation and major and industry.</p>
<p>Picking a major can be very important, but students shouldn’t underestimate the opportunities at college to learn social skills, administrative skills (clubs, etc.), analytical skills, writing skills (if not learned in high school), goal setting and accomplishment, time management, etc. All of those skills are available to be developed at college and they will help you keep a job, once you get one.</p>