Reply to One of my gripes with guidance counselors in school and college.....

Forum Index » Schools and Education General Discussion

Reply to "One of my gripes with guidance counselors in school and college....."

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Well, here's the problem, not all students are computer geeks or budding engineers (and those are the majors with the best post-college job prospects).

So then what is practical?  Most college majors, outside of engineering or IT, don't translate to a specific job -- even math and science.  Science majors actually find that just a bachelors won't get them very far job-wise.  Math majors who don't want to teach or don't want to work in statistics/insurance will also have difficulty, unless they have some strong computer skills to fall back on.

And therein lies the key -- skills!  Guess what?  You can major in a liberal arts type major and still take courses in very specific technical computer skills and/or do internships that will boost your job prospects.

Most of the people I know who found the best jobs after college weren't the ones with STEM majors, but ones who did internships and developed practical, highly marketable skills.

But even IT can be outsourced now, so that's not as secure.

Thank you so much for writing this.  Could not have said it better and I am a college counselor.  There are very few majors that translate to a career.  And you are absolutely correct in that the STEM majors are the best bet for entry- level jobs but the majority of students do not have the interest and/ or apptitude -  I see the test scores daily.  Even my own DS is not a stem kid. So, I want him to go to a liberal arts college, major in history, english, whatever and get his BA or BS.  Learn to think, write, mature and do an internship each summer.  From there, he will learn things he likes, does not like and can work at something.  Then he can go to graduate school.  I also don't want to pay 200k for an english degree.  We are lucky in VA that we have plenty of state schools that he can go to.  Not the top 3 but the next wrung down is fine.  Graduate school will matter more.  I have been working with college kids for over 15 years.  Very few know what they want.  This is not the counselors fault. Also have worked with adults and they still don't know what they want!  As a parent, and I am one too, it is up to us.  You have to get your kids to engage and experience life.  Almost to a one my students fill out their journals on how they spend their time with video games, on- line with friends, hanging out with friends or sleeping.

Volunteer, write, plant a garden, cook, read, coach a sports team, learn prgramming, take pictures!   A few do but most don't and that has to start when young and in the home.  You can't blame the schools.  
[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics