Colleges guiding students to a major, not a career

More than half of recent college graduates are not working full time. Most of those who are, are not working in their chosen field.

A new study out of Rutgers University paints a bleak picture for new graduates who are often saddled with debt and forced into lower paying jobs.

Study Author Cliff Zukin says a majority of those polled would have picked a different path.

“Two thirds of the people we talked to, recent college students, said they would have done something different. Most of those say that they would have chosen a more professional major,” says study author Cliff Zukin.

I wanted to find out how students here in Seattle are being guided through the process, so I paid a visit to the University of Washington.

Most incoming freshman there are undeclared. As they try to figure out which major to choose, there are at least three different places they might go. I started with the career counseling office.

“We do look at, where are their interests? What’s important to them in their lives? What kinds of courses have been interesting to them? And then start looking at how they might approach majors,” says counselor Vick Snyder.

But Snyder says they do not necessarily talk about the employability of those majors, and they usually do not even get a chance to talk to students at all until their third or fourth year.

Snyder said the First Year Programs office generally sees the students sooner, and might be more likely to give students information about how to choose a major.

“We’re going to introduce what a major is, we’re going to introduce the types of majors, but I’m not going to talk to a student about, for example, the career success rate of a student in this major versus that major,” says Director Grant Kollet.

And, he says, he doesn’t know of anyone on campus who does.

Finally, I went to the academic advising office. The representative there told me they are a college, not a vocational school, and making students employable is not their top priority. As it states in the advising office’s mission statement, they “collaborate with students […] so that they may be come informed, articulate and thoughtful.”

Back at the career counseling office, Snyder says making the big bucks is not what it’s all about.

“We’d all like our sons and daughters, maybe, to be doctors and lawyers and make the big money, but it’s really kind of heart wrenching when we see students who are doing things their parents want them to do […] and they don’t have the capability,” says Snyder.

He says no matter their chosen major, there is value in any education.

“There’s a lot of strengths that students who do go into art have, and the creative aspect is just one of them. They have to organize their projects, they have to communicate about them, they have to present them. So, now you get all of these communication and transferable skills,” Snyder says.

What he tries to teach students is how to articulate those skills and give specific examples to potential employers. Still, a history major is probably not going to become a doctor.

“How are you going to deny a student who really wants to do art work or be an actor? Are you going to stomp on their dream?” Snyder asks.

He and the others at U.W. seem to agree those hard conversations about how young adults will eventually support themselves are best had at home.