As a college student, especially as a senior, I should have my thoughts and actions focused on maximizing my potential in the job market. I attended college to receive a sheet of paper that should help me find a job, but not just any job, a good job. I chose a major that I thought would be desired by employers and land me stable, well-paying work. But did my other choices throughout college have that same focus on the future?
My freshman year at the University of Illinois began Fall 2011. I entered as an economics major and I was the only person I knew, out of the 30 kids who came to UofI from my highschool, that was an econ major. I chose to major in economics for a few reasons. I had taken an introductory economics course in highschool, which I enjoyed and I performed well in that course. This can be seen as a choice that didn't consider my future following graduation, but my future as an undergrad by picking a major that I could enjoy and had some experience with. Economics is a major with a strong mathematical foundation. I have a reasonable understanding of statistics from my economics courses and have gotten a lot of experience with Microsoft Excel. Both of these make me more employable.
My sophomore year at U of I concluded with a decision to double major in Economics and Political Science. I was able to take a few political science courses during my first two years of college and found that I had a strong interest in the subject. At the time, I was also thinking about going to law school following my completion of undergrad and political science is a common undergrad major for law students. Political science would help prepare me for all the reading and critical thinking/writing that I would face in law school. So I studied political science to keep law school as a viable option after graduation and not necessarily to land me a job. I also found that political science had a large research component to it that involved statistics. My background in statistics from economics helped me thrive in my political science courses that involved research. Improving my understanding of statistics and using statistical software through political science was a bonus and improves my skill set.
Last year, I took an atmospheric science course and fell in love with the subject. I immediately tried to figure out if I could pursue atmospheric science as a major, unfortunately I did not have enough time to finish my double major and pick up atmospheric science. I decided to pick up a minor in atmospheric science instead. I originally started studying weather out of pure fascination and enjoyment, but I quickly saw the benefits of my new minor. I gained some experience with coding and got even more practice with Excel. Atmospheric science has a mathematical foundation, like economics, and also involves a lot of statistics. In this area, all my areas of study relate to each other. My minor will not get me a job as a TV meteorologist but it has improved on the skills I picked up studying economics, which will only improve my chances at landing a job after graduation.
In summary, my areas of study at the University of Illinois have all been chosen, in part, to improve my chances at future employment, but classes aren't the only part of college. My summers haven't quite considered the future as much as my studies.
Since the summer going into college, I have worked at a garden/park as a landscaper. This summer job provided me with the spending money I would need for college. It was a sweet gig that I didn't have to work exceptionally hard at and was able to work each summer. It would have definitely been more productive and better for my employability for me to find an internship that relates to my major. I choose the easy way though and will probably suffer after graduation because of my decision. My summers weren't complete loses though, I would take a course each summer to stay in the college/studying mind-frame.
Another consideration for college students is how much debt they'll have by the time they graduate. In my case the debt is nonexistent. I am very fortunate to have parents with the means to pay for my college education and living expenses. My parents took advantage of a program called College Illinois when I was a baby. In essence, the program allows parents to prepay their children's college tuition if they go to a public university in Illinois. If the kid chose an out of state or a private university, the balance of the College Illinois account would be returned, but if they do choose an instate, public university all the tuition and fees, besides room and board and books, are covered. My parents always talk about how College Illinois was the best investment they ever made. (I believe they paid around $20,000 initially and now that completely covers my undergrad tuition at U of I for all four years.)
Even though there are a few things I would have done differently (look for an internship), I believe that my college career has taken the future into account.
This is not completely relevant, but given your interests you should know the line -
ReplyDeleteThe only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology (meteorology) look good.
It sounds as if you made choices academically to match your interest and proficiency in where you'd concentrate your efforts, somewhat independent of the supply and demand for people who major in those areas. Personally, I think that is the way most people should do it. It's very hard to give lots of effort to something if you don't care about that something yourself.
There is also an issue, so far not discussed by anyone else, about whether we're now asking kids to grow up too soon with internships starting in their sophomore years and if it wouldn't be better to take the more laid back approach to summer work that you seem to have followed. In your particular case we won't know the answer to that until five or ten years hence. Nobody else talked about burnout, but I believe it is a real issue among talented students and pushing too hard early can lead to it. So that is a risk too that should be factored into the thinking.
I know and enjoy that line very much! It's rather humorous, but not exactly accurate (just like economists/meteorologists, heh). Economists tend to forecast for upcoming fiscal quarters or years. Not only are these forecasts for a rather long period of time but also for the reasonably distant future. Meteorologists forecast for the upcoming few days, maybe a week. These sort of forecasts tend to be more accurate due to their short time periods and impending nature. Meteorologists also make forecasts for longer periods of time and further into the future. These tend to look at big picture items, like an upcoming hurricane season or growing season. With these types of forecasts, the forecast area is huge (the East Coast; the Midwest) and there isn't a timestamp associated with the forecast. I'd be willing to bet these long-range weather (climate) forecasts have a success rate closer to that of economic predictions. Although, as the technology and data collection behind meteorology has been improving, the accuracy of long-term climate predictions is beginning to become impressive. One of my atmospheric science professors was able to predict that the 2014 corn/soybean crop was going to be excellent back in January.
ReplyDeleteStudying topics that peak my interests has definitely been advantageous. Completing assignments and studying is much less of a chore when you can gain some level of enjoyment or interest from it. The amount of effort I'll put into a course is certainly related to how interested I am in the material.
Your burnout theory is intriguing. I believe that starting internships sophomore year and continuing them until graduation could definitely have ill-effects. Having a summer job that requires little thought allowed me to relax and relieve the stress that had built up from the academic year. I believe that allowed me to be energized for the start of the school year and perform at a higher level than if I had taken a stressful internship. An internship would fill a nice gap that exists in my resume, but it could also hurt my GPA and mental well-being. I hope I chose correctly.