Trying to Find a Balance Between Pre-Professionalism And The Liberal Arts
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Anonymous
| I went to a LAC. My kid is at a mid-sized research university with a very preprofessional vibe and has noted the divide between students who are very preprofessional, coming in knowing exactly what they want to do, and those who are very much “undecided”. Has this been your kids’ experience? I didn’t sense this as much 30 years ago but those were different times and it was a different school. |
Anonymous
| The balance is Claremont McKenna or Colby |
Anonymous
| The balance is called a university. |
Anonymous
| Doesn't seem too different to me. |
Anonymous
| I graduated from Williams almost 30 years ago. The majority of my friends knew exactly what they wanted to do upon graduation, and the majority were either aiming for wall st or law school. A few knew they wanted to go to grad school. The one friend who was kind of aimless (yet incredibly smart when she applied herself) ended up going to grad school and becoming a teacher. I think she would have ended up with the same result at a big university, so not sure if they type of undergrad would have changed anything for my friend group? |
Anonymous
| Bucknell provides an ideal balance. Because of the robust liberal arts core, graduates end up as well-rounded, educated, intellectual people, but most also get high-paying jobs in IB or MC right out of college. |
Anonymous
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In parent times, at Pitt and Penn State, the business majors definitely had a pre-professional vibe. Also pre-meds and pre-law. Anyone with a focus on that first job being really great or knowing what grad schools require.
I dropped the business side of a then-required Pitt dual business and liberal arts degree program so I could take more liberal arts classes. But I'd planned on a top MBA program after working even before I got to college. Back then, I viewed small LACs as somewhat fancy and indulgent, better for kids who didn't expect to worry about money and jobs. I think preprofessional vibes emerge during times of economic stress and heightened job market competition. Most of us realize that college education is a personal development journey and training process. Much of what you learn doesn't get daily use, regardless of major. So I believe that both the traditional liberal arts education and many of the preprofessional vibe majors can get someone to the same place intellectually if they are a robust, curious thinker. That said, new liberal arts graduates often face a higher burden of proof. There really are a lot of pluses to looking practical and analytical and career- focused on paper at the very beginning of a career. Choice of majors signals that. I actually think choosing a major like English or Political Science communicates more bravely now: suggesting interest in thinking, writing, and the wider world. I hope there are lots of employers who respect that kind of person. Most of the long-term studies I've seen show that after about 10 years or so so, the top liberal arts grads are in a good place vs. other majors. But I do wonder if past results re: CEO majors will remain the same because BBA degrees have been increasing over the past 2 decades. |
Anonymous
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I went to an ivy 30 years ago and more than half of us were gunning for law or med school or JP morgan and the like.
The rest started undecided but most ended up in consulting, nonprofits, med school, law school, phD or starting companies. My kid is at a different ivy and it is roughly the same now, there is merely more pressure to use every college summer productively outside the classroom, and CS/math are much more popular majors and minors. We did not jump into premed research or internships until after junior year. My workmates' kids are at Williams, Duke, ivy, UVA and all state the same. |
Anonymous
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A PP. Regarding internship pressure, I was a department store clerk after freshman year. I was a bit rudely treated by management, spent my summer being ignored by older permanent workers, most of my duties involved picking up clothes after messy people and running a cash register. I didn't get paid much in exchange for committing to being available for weekly schedules (and schedule cancelling) a few days before.
Most of the social skills I learned were about keeping your mouth shut. I also learned I never wanted to have a low skill, low wage job again. My kid got a white collar, low paid internship and a second volunteer job after freshman year. I think he will be better prepared for white collar work than I was. I don't think there's any harm in bringing internships earlier in the college career vs. teen type summer jobs. I agree there is more emphasis on it. |
Anonymous
Not according to grad stats from CollegeTransitions.com. It’s not a top feeder to anything. Where is your data on Bucknell outcomes coming from? It seems as if there is a lot of unfounded hype around this school. |
Anonymous
Lol just couldn’t help yourself. |
Anonymous
Most have no balance. Just business and engineering students with 2 "liberal arts" courses that are easy As and low rigor. |
Anonymous
| 30 years ago there was much less expectation and pressure to know what you wanted to do going in. People decided on majors later, internships after sophomore year were rare, everything was just pushed back a bit. There were always some kids who knew anyway but the expectation wasn’t there. |
Anonymous
+1. WASP grad. 30 years ago, we were told that a liberal arts education prepares you for a wide range of jobs, that we can land something if we “pound the pavement” and find our calling along the way. And that oftentimes, we’ll end up in a line of work that has nothing to do with our major. I found that to be true of many classmates who didn’t come in with plans for med school, law school, etc. |
Anonymous
| Jesuit universities |