You must be really really old then, because Columbia's school of Engineering was established in 1863m Cornell's engineering school opened in 1868, Princeton's opened in 1921 . . . (didn't look at the rest since these are the 3 where I happen to know students). The Ivy's are all Universities, and as such offer a wide range of subjects and degrees. Yes, many of them are in the liberal arts and science, but they also offer other majors as well. |
Dunno. Michael Lewis graduated from Princeton with an Art History major, got hired right away by an investment bank, and made a gazillion dollars as an author of books like The Blind Side and Moneyball. Doubt that would have happened if he was an Accounting major at LSU. |
From wiki so usual caveats: "attended Princeton University where he received a BA degree (cum laude) in Art History in 1982 and was a member of the Ivy Club. He went on to work with New York art dealer Daniel Wildenstein. He enrolled in the London School of Economics, and received his MA degree in Economics in 1985. Lewis was hired by Salomon Brothers and moved to New York for their training program. He worked at their London office as a bond salesman. Assuming this is correct, it wasn't his art history degree that landed him the job with Salomon Brothers |
And let's be honest; even the kids that major in art history at Princeton are really smart, otherwise they wouldn't have gotten in. It's not the degree that's helping as much as being the kind of person who qualified for a top ivy. |
| I'm a biglaw partner and see hundreds of resumes at a time. Law school, law school grades, work experience and writing sample are most important. Undergrad, not so much. |
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been a while since I've read Lewis' first book, Liar's Poker, which is basically an autobiography. but Lewis, if I recall correctly, certainly gives the impression that investment banks in the 1980s didn't care what your major was, they wanted Ivy types regardless of major, including him.
That said, I have absolutely no doubt that the education Lewis received at Princeton, even as a lowly art history major, went a long way towards making him a very attractive candidate to LSE and their world-class economics program. LSE doesn't take idiots. |
| Interesting. What about the other art history majors? Where are they? Did they all also become just as accomplished? |
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99% of people, regardless of major, never become as accomplished as Michael Lewis.
My brother-in-law was an engineering major. He's unable to hold down a job, is in danger of losing his house, has seen his wife walk out of him. His much-vaunted "practical" major hasn't gotten him one-tenth of one percent of the accomplishments Michael Lewis has, and it never will. Your undergraduate major is no guarantee of success or failure. |
| But certainly the job market can fully employ engineers more readily than art history majors. |
| the point is, smart, driven people can find employment in any number of places, regardless of where their degree came from or what their major is. And poorly-adjusted alcoholics are still poorly-adjusted alcoholics who are by and large unemployable, engineering major from an elite school be damned. Generalizations are just that, and aren't all that useful when talking about individuals. |
Sure, idiots are idiots regardless of major or school, but I stand by this statement. |
| Get back on topic, people. |
They are the biggest laughing stock in the resume pile because they wasted the time, money and effort to study that degree at an ivy |
| Aside from one UMW grad and maybe a JMU grad or two, not a single poster has claimed first hand info regarding any of the "other Virginia colleges." Interesting. |
| And don't knock entertainment value when you need to sift through 250 resumes during lunch at your desk. |