And don't knock entertainment value when you need to sift through 250 resumes during lunch at your desk.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I come across resumes for ivy's I will tell you what is really stupid. What is really stupid are the people who go to ivy league schools and graduate with a history or communications degree. Not just stupid because of the degree but REALLY stupid because they wasted all that money to get that type of degree at a very expensive school.

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.

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.

Get back on topic, people.

Anonymous wrote:But certainly the job market can fully employ engineers more readily than art history majors.

Sure, idiots are idiots regardless of major or school, but I stand by this statement.

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.

But certainly the job market can fully employ engineers more readily than art history majors.

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.

Interesting. What about the other art history majors? Where are they? Did they all also become just as accomplished?

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.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I come across resumes for ivy's I will tell you what is really stupid. What is really stupid are the people who go to ivy league schools and graduate with a history or communications degree. Not just stupid because of the degree but REALLY stupid because they wasted all that money to get that type of degree at a very expensive school.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I come across resumes for ivy's I will tell you what is really stupid. What is really stupid are the people who go to ivy league schools and graduate with a history or communications degree. Not just stupid because of the degree but REALLY stupid because they wasted all that money to get that type of degree at a very expensive school.

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

Anonymous wrote:When I come across resumes for ivy's I will tell you what is really stupid. What is really stupid are the people who go to ivy league schools and graduate with a history or communications degree. Not just stupid because of the degree but REALLY stupid because they wasted all that money to get that type of degree at a very expensive school.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I come across resumes for ivy's I will tell you what is really stupid. What is really stupid are the people who go to ivy league schools and graduate with a history or communications degree. Not just stupid because of the degree but REALLY stupid because they wasted all that money to get that type of degree at a very expensive school.

I always thought you went to an Ivy for the name and the lame degree. They're liberals arts, right? What would be considered a good degre from an Ivy if not history or Enlish? But I really don't know. I went to a 3rd tier school and have always been well employed as an engineer. And even more wll employed when I got my law degree from a schooled ranked 20-25th.

Plenty of engineers come out of Ivy's, lots of other degrees too.

News to me. Really. When I went to school, Ivys didn't have engineering, which is the opposite of a liberal arts degree.

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.