Personal preference versus economic compulsion in degree choice

[johncmcleod]

originally posted by Jon Miller:
So physics majors in your undergrad, johnmcleod, are either woefully prepared when they graduate, or take at least 5 years to graduate.

I think people should be reasonable with their education, and realize that they aren't going to make money with their Arts degree. However, I also like that people can do what they wish and change...
JM

Even though it's a liberal arts school it has great math and science programs and since it's highly competitive, only good students go. Our physics majors get close access to great professors and equipment, and the classes are insanely hard (bio, chem, and physics are considered to be the hardest majors at my school). They're prepared enough for grad school, where their hard work and intelligence they'll succeed. That being said, they're probably nowhere near the elite MIT kids who take 80% physics classes.

originally posted by asleep at the wheel:
Please bump this post after you graduate +2 years and let us know how you've found the real world. I have a lot of friends (and these aren't people who went to directional schools) who found the transition to the real world from where you are to be quite painful

I will. I plan on being a professor though and that means going to grad school, so I won't be in the real world.

originally posted by asleep at the wheel:
Its not so much the working as it is finding work. And then finding work in a satisfying area. The job market can be pretty brutal for liberal arts grads. Though I think a sense of entitlement has something to do with it-you don't go to college expecting to be a cube farmer.

Depends on where you go to school. At lots of places, yeah, but if you go to a top school you get a job. Many of the people on wall street studied English.

[Jon Miller]

I went to a liberal arts school for undergrad, which has one of the best physics departments in the country.

However it didn't have the stupid rule that only one class from a department could be taken per semester in the first year, and only two classes from a department could be taken per semester in the second year.

That is what is wrong with your institution.

JM