fanofgame posted:I think there are some on this board that look down on certain degrees and I think its rude.
It's not the degree. It's the overall course of study and what it says about how the applicant used his or her time on campus to prepare for life as an adult.
Anybody who strove for excellence in anything can be a viable candidate for an entry level position. Playing a sport all the way through college checks this box for me.
My rule of thumb is that the less obviously practical a person's major, the more I expect to see either excellence within that major or conscious effort to take practical courses outside of the major.
Just having a degree--even a degree from a good school--doesn't count for much.
When I encounter a college transcript with an undistinguished record in a humanities or social science major and no courses in statistics, computer science, or anything business related, I regretfully conclude that the young person is not prepared for a grown-up job.
I especially feel that way when the applicants didn't immerse themselves in their chosen liberal arts major.
I received a resume from an English major with a degree from a well respected school. English majors usually have an aptitude for writing and a basic understanding of grammar, so I can turn them into useful employees as fast as I can train them to lose their academic jargon, passive voice, and empty extra words.
However, this particular English major caught my eye because he never took a course in Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, or the Victorian novel. And he didn't excel in the random courses he took on gender issues in modern drama and postmodern textual criticism. An English major with a so-so GPA who didn't take any practical courses outside his major, avoided the hard courses in his major, and can't sustain a conversation about the most important figures in his chosen course of study presents himself as someone who hasn't learned how to apply himself or work hard.
I'm sorry if you think it's rude of me to say so, but this gentleman has a worthless degree that he is still paying for on the installment plan. Despite the brand name on his diploma, he is unemployable and he is also unqualified for graduate study in his field.
I don't have anything against liberal arts degrees. In the past two years, I have hired an English major, a history major, a theology grad student, and a fine arts major.
But in every case, they excelled in their major and they took courses outside their major to prepare for their eventual job search.
I don't think it's rude to tell prospective college students that employers will care about what they take and how well they do.