Is Communications a liberal arts major or a vocational major?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Communications is more vocational.
Communication, without the S, is a liberal arts major and many tend to go and get masters and PhDs.
The s is very important and there's a distinction there.

See the above post as reason #1 why I oppose the legalization of drugs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's where they stick athletes and admits they made a mistake on who are incapable of the math required for a business or stem major or the writing and research required for a liberal arts major

It's concerning that anyone at the collegiate level can't handle the math of a business major...

Sure, but that is why law schools exist & thrive.

Lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's where they stick athletes and admits they made a mistake on who are incapable of the math required for a business or stem major or the writing and research required for a liberal arts major

Is that true for all schools?

My daughter is actually really interested in this…

A major is usually only 25% of college coursework. So it doesn't control/dominate the experience. When people feel concerned about a major, I always suggest dual majoring.

English major counts are declining. I see Communications, like Marketing, as a more commerce-oriented field, but I believe these topics are worthy of being college majors so I don't think they should be disdained.

I have no association between athletes and Communications. Only with Kinesiology, P.E. Education, and Sports Management majors. I learned about kinesiology from watching player bios during games. I associate Communications with women who might otherwise go into English or Marketing.

No need to double major, just take courses in other subjects and find the applied ones that'll lead to a job. Major in the fun, coursework in the things that'll get you the job

Would these Comm majors be over or under subscribed, compared to history, sociology, ethnic studies, American studies?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's where they stick athletes and admits they made a mistake on who are incapable of the math required for a business or stem major or the writing and research required for a liberal arts major

Is that true for all schools?

My daughter is actually really interested in this…

A major is usually only 25% of college coursework. So it doesn't control/dominate the experience. When people feel concerned about a major, I always suggest dual majoring.

English major counts are declining. I see Communications, like Marketing, as a more commerce-oriented field, but I believe these topics are worthy of being college majors so I don't think they should be disdained.

I have no association between athletes and Communications. Only with Kinesiology, P.E. Education, and Sports Management majors. I learned about kinesiology from watching player bios during games. I associate Communications with women who might otherwise go into English or Marketing.

No need to double major, just take courses in other subjects and find the applied ones that'll lead to a job. Major in the fun, coursework in the things that'll get you the job

Would these Comm majors be over or under subscribed, compared to history, sociology, ethnic studies, American studies?

At most colleges Comm and sociology/ethnic studies are way oversubscribed. History is not chosen often, since it's a pretty demanding major that requires a lot of effort. American studies is pretty niche and usually is a placeholder for when a college doesn't want to hire a large amount of GWS and Ethnic studies faculty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's where they stick athletes and admits they made a mistake on who are incapable of the math required for a business or stem major or the writing and research required for a liberal arts major

Is that true for all schools?

My daughter is actually really interested in this…

A major is usually only 25% of college coursework. So it doesn't control/dominate the experience. When people feel concerned about a major, I always suggest dual majoring.

English major counts are declining. I see Communications, like Marketing, as a more commerce-oriented field, but I believe these topics are worthy of being college majors so I don't think they should be disdained.

I have no association between athletes and Communications. Only with Kinesiology, P.E. Education, and Sports Management majors. I learned about kinesiology from watching player bios during games. I associate Communications with women who might otherwise go into English or Marketing.

No need to double major, just take courses in other subjects and find the applied ones that'll lead to a job. Major in the fun, coursework in the things that'll get you the job

Would these Comm majors be over or under subscribed, compared to history, sociology, ethnic studies, American studies?

That would likely depend heavily on the school. Look for data on bachelor's degrees awarded. Not all schools would have every major you listed. National stats don't matter because local job markets vary.

I personally am in favor of having a practical-sounding major. That's why dualing or minoring is useful. You get more chances to talk about that factoid "What's your major" than chances to list or discuss individual classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Communications is more vocational.
Communication, without the S, is a liberal arts major and many tend to go and get masters and PhDs.
The s is very important and there's a distinction there.

See the above post as reason #1 why I oppose the legalization of drugs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's where they stick athletes and admits they made a mistake on who are incapable of the math required for a business or stem major or the writing and research required for a liberal arts major

Is that true for all schools?

My daughter is actually really interested in this…

A major is usually only 25% of college coursework. So it doesn't control/dominate the experience. When people feel concerned about a major, I always suggest dual majoring.

English major counts are declining. I see Communications, like Marketing, as a more commerce-oriented field, but I believe these topics are worthy of being college majors so I don't think they should be disdained.

I have no association between athletes and Communications. Only with Kinesiology, P.E. Education, and Sports Management majors. I learned about kinesiology from watching player bios during games. I associate Communications with women who might otherwise go into English or Marketing.

No need to double major, just take courses in other subjects and find the applied ones that'll lead to a job. Major in the fun, coursework in the things that'll get you the job

Would these Comm majors be over or under subscribed, compared to history, sociology, ethnic studies, American studies?

That would likely depend heavily on the school. Look for data on bachelor's degrees awarded. Not all schools would have every major you listed. National stats don't matter because local job markets vary.

I personally am in favor of having a practical-sounding major. That's why dualing or minoring is useful. You get more chances to talk about that factoid "What's your major" than chances to list or discuss individual classes.

If all these majors are in the same school, then it should be quite easy to double major. Agree on long term benefit.

But if there is a strategic advantage in declaring one major at the application phase, I wouldn’t want my kid to declare communications if all of those slots are taken by athletes?? Make sense?

Kid has demonstrated EC interest in media/communications (2 ECs and 1 internship), along with other activities highlighting sociology/history/hyphenated Americana (4 ECs and another internship) etc…

Thinking schools like:
Vanderbilt
Michigan
Stanford
USC

Is it advantageous at any of these types of schools to declare Comm as a major over sociology/Am Studies etc? How would you even tell?

Please help!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Communications is more vocational.
Communication, without the S, is a liberal arts major and many tend to go and get masters and PhDs.
The s is very important and there's a distinction there.

100% bona fide grade-A bull manure.

https://comminfo.rutgers.edu/undergraduate-programs/communication-major

I have no idea if this is true at the undergraduate major level, but it is true in the professional world. I do strategic communication for a living, which is different from communications, which is primarily PR and marketing. Certainly related, and there is probably some snobbery in there about the distinction in the name of the field, but what I do is the kind of public health interventions that change health metrics like HIV incidence. Generally public sector rather than private, and doesn’t aim to sell a thing (or market a person) as its goal.

I’m a communications exec. “Communications” covers a lot of ground, including what you do. You’re attempting to separate yourself from a field that you think has a bad rep/connotation. But the truth is that it’s all “communications.”

I acknowledged that it was attempting to separate in my post. And that there is snobbery in that. And also…what we do is slightly different, and is held to the standard of other health interventions so it can be tested and written up in scientific journals. We are pleased to hire people with deep backgrounds in communication theory. It may seem like semantics, but we use communication theory (how human communication influences behavior) to design health interventions. I think it is important to use the language people like to use about themselves, and my field makes a distinction between the PR/marketing side (which we do) and the communication side (which may end up with interventions that most comms shops don’t do, like training doctors in evidence based counseling methodology).

Anyway, I have no bias against communications majors and hire lots of them, then train them in the kind of work we do.

Marketing people use “communication theory” in their work, as well; “how human communication influences behavior” IS the essence of marketing.

You are in health/public health communications. We all have specialties under the big umbrella or communications.

Actually, no. If you search for “public health communications” job you will get things like the PR roles at CDC, NIH, or NGOs and universities. If you look for “health communication” jobs you will get jobs that design interventions that improve health using communication. Neither is better or worse, but they are different fields. You train for them differently and they require different credentials.

You can ignore this information if you like, but if you are trying to advise young people on careers you will be doing them a disservice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's where they stick athletes and admits they made a mistake on who are incapable of the math required for a business or stem major or the writing and research required for a liberal arts major

Is that true for all schools?

My daughter is actually really interested in this…

A major is usually only 25% of college coursework. So it doesn't control/dominate the experience. When people feel concerned about a major, I always suggest dual majoring.

English major counts are declining. I see Communications, like Marketing, as a more commerce-oriented field, but I believe these topics are worthy of being college majors so I don't think they should be disdained.

I have no association between athletes and Communications. Only with Kinesiology, P.E. Education, and Sports Management majors. I learned about kinesiology from watching player bios during games. I associate Communications with women who might otherwise go into English or Marketing.

No need to double major, just take courses in other subjects and find the applied ones that'll lead to a job. Major in the fun, coursework in the things that'll get you the job

Would these Comm majors be over or under subscribed, compared to history, sociology, ethnic studies, American studies?

That would likely depend heavily on the school. Look for data on bachelor's degrees awarded. Not all schools would have every major you listed. National stats don't matter because local job markets vary.

I personally am in favor of having a practical-sounding major. That's why dualing or minoring is useful. You get more chances to talk about that factoid "What's your major" than chances to list or discuss individual classes.

If all these majors are in the same school, then it should be quite easy to double major. Agree on long term benefit.

But if there is a strategic advantage in declaring one major at the application phase, I wouldn’t want my kid to declare communications if all of those slots are taken by athletes?? Make sense?

Kid has demonstrated EC interest in media/communications (2 ECs and 1 internship), along with other activities highlighting sociology/history/hyphenated Americana (4 ECs and another internship) etc…

Thinking schools like:
Vanderbilt
Michigan
Stanford
USC

Is it advantageous at any of these types of schools to declare Comm as a major over sociology/Am Studies etc? How would you even tell?

Please help!

Not sure.
See College Raptor.
Stanford has 25 Comm & Media Studies grads and 25 History and 12 Sociology?

Assume this is graduates? If so, sociology is the way to go, right?

https://www.collegeraptor.com/colleges/majors/Stanford-University-CA--243744

[Anonymous]

It's a major for ALDC.

[Anonymous]

Communication is more vocational. It helps to pair it with a liberal arts major for a broader education.

[Anonymous]

I wasn't aware of communications being the athletes major.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wasn't aware of communications being the athletes major.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's where they stick athletes and admits they made a mistake on who are incapable of the math required for a business or stem major or the writing and research required for a liberal arts major

Is that true for all schools?

My daughter is actually really interested in this…

A major is usually only 25% of college coursework. So it doesn't control/dominate the experience. When people feel concerned about a major, I always suggest dual majoring.

English major counts are declining. I see Communications, like Marketing, as a more commerce-oriented field, but I believe these topics are worthy of being college majors so I don't think they should be disdained.

I have no association between athletes and Communications. Only with Kinesiology, P.E. Education, and Sports Management majors. I learned about kinesiology from watching player bios during games. I associate Communications with women who might otherwise go into English or Marketing.

No need to double major, just take courses in other subjects and find the applied ones that'll lead to a job. Major in the fun, coursework in the things that'll get you the job

Would these Comm majors be over or under subscribed, compared to history, sociology, ethnic studies, American studies?

That would likely depend heavily on the school. Look for data on bachelor's degrees awarded. Not all schools would have every major you listed. National stats don't matter because local job markets vary.

I personally am in favor of having a practical-sounding major. That's why dualing or minoring is useful. You get more chances to talk about that factoid "What's your major" than chances to list or discuss individual classes.

If all these majors are in the same school, then it should be quite easy to double major. Agree on long term benefit.

But if there is a strategic advantage in declaring one major at the application phase, I wouldn’t want my kid to declare communications if all of those slots are taken by athletes?? Make sense?

Kid has demonstrated EC interest in media/communications (2 ECs and 1 internship), along with other activities highlighting sociology/history/hyphenated Americana (4 ECs and another internship) etc…

Thinking schools like:
Vanderbilt
Michigan
Stanford
USC

Is it advantageous at any of these types of schools to declare Comm as a major over sociology/Am Studies etc? How would you even tell?

Please help!

Not sure.
See College Raptor.
Stanford has 25 Comm & Media Studies grads and 25 History and 12 Sociology?

Assume this is graduates? If so, sociology is the way to go, right?

https://www.collegeraptor.com/colleges/majors/Stanford-University-CA--243744

Yes this is the way to look at the data.

[Anonymous]

Re college raptor and Majors:

Just because a major has a fewer number of graduates, does that automatically mean it is undersubscribed? How are you supposed to know how many ppl “should” be in that major to be fully subscribed ?