WSJ Recent Series on College Grads & Joblessness

I quite enjoy the recent series "Jobless Generation" on the WSJ. And when someone brought up the NYTimes article on Ivy education, public good & career the other day, I thought you guys might enjoy some of the info presented in those articles as well

One of the articles is "What hedgefunds can teach college students" (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204…). The name is misleading (you are NOT gonna learn anything remotely related to HF), but the messages are quite interesting: 1. Steer clear from the bonds backed by bundle of student loans from class of 2010 & 2011 2. Don't go to law school, stick with a technical college instead. And stay in school, just not too long (the unemployment rate for 8% for Americans aged 20 to 24 with four-year college degrees, compared to 21% for those without)

Another article is something you already know: students are choosing easier majors over STEM majors, despite the fact that those easier majors pay less (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203…) I can't really blame them for doing so. GPA is one important factor in the job hunting process. However, I think the transcript should have a healthy dose of quantitative courses (you don't need to major in aerospace engineering, having at least a few courses in applied math would be nice too)

My favorite article in the series must be the interactive graph describing unemployment rate (and prospective pay) by college majors http://graphicsweb.wsj.com/documents/NILF1111/#te… ( Although I really wish they include a filter function so that I can rank majors by unemployment rate, etc... WSJ can be lame sometimes too) One clear message from the interactive graph: avoid easy lib arts majors at all cost, as the highest unemployment rate are found in: library science (15%), clinical psychology (19.5%), miscellaneous fine arts (16%), US history (15%)...

I'm from South East Asia, and I don't go to school in the US. So I can't quite imagine how bad the US job market is right now...

3 Comments
 
Best Response

[quote=Ske7ch]http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-11-09/news/debt-and-debtor/1/[/quote]

Depressing, but I can't get too mad at NYU. They aren't forcing anybody to attend. (You could argue their claim that financial aid could increase was deceptive, but to believe it is naive)

Job placement rates are easy enough to find out. So are the earning potentials of careers. Interest is not complex. I don't think its asking too much for a legal adult to sit down and do the math on what is the 2nd biggest investment of her life.

I understand they are in a ton of debt, but they didn't have to go to arguably the most expensive college in the country. Even at NYU, they could have gone to Stern...following your "dreams" does not guarantee financial success.

 

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