Top
programs lure unsure students
Jon
Cook/On-line Forty-Niner
By
Jeff Overley
On-line Forty-Niner
There
is a 12.6 percent chance that a random person
walking around Cal State Long Beach is a
business major. The chances are uncertain,
however, business majors will know why they
chose the major in the first place.
"I
don't know [why I chose business]. I didn't
find anything else interesting," said
Robbie Morgan, a business major with an
information systems emphasis. "I just
hope to graduate and find a job somewhere,
hopefully."
Richard
Shyu, also focusing on information systems,
gave a more definitive, but perhaps no more
provocative, answer. "I am interested
in business," he said.
Shyu
has a concrete plan about what he wants
out of his degree. "I'm going to work
for an importing company. It's about the
money," he said.
Monica
Clifton, a business student concentrating
on human resource management, concurred
with that goal. "Other than the money,
[it is] a profession I can be proud of,"
she said. "It's so broad; you can do
so much with business. The more options,
the more you get paid."
Edward
Morton, director of the Career Development
Center at CSULB, echoed these analyses of
the motivation behind a business education.
"Business majors tend to [choose business]
because they are business oriented,"
Morton said. "They are looking for
wealth."
After
business, the second-most popular department
at CSULB is liberal studies with 7.9 percent
of all students in the field.
Amy
Coeur chose the program because of its structure
and her desires. "The school has a
really great [liberal studies] department,"
she said. "I hope to teach eventually.
I love working with kids."
Morton
said that generally "liberal studies
majors are less focused. They take classes
simply because they enjoy the subject matter.
A lot are pre-teaching or pre-law, and a
lot wind up in business."
Third
in popularity is psychology, comprising
5.1 percent of enrollment. Students divulged
at great length the reasons they chose psychology,
and had clear ideas about their future.
"It's
a whole bunch of things," Ian Walti
said. "At first, I was interested in
helping people, listening to people's problems.
Now, I've moved away from the clinical field.
"I
[plan to] become a researcher in the field
of social psychology, and a professor ultimately,"
Walti said.
Psychology
student Daisy Flores said she finds psychology
interesting and will use it to become a
high school counselor.
Morton
suggested that "psychology majors go
into [psychology] because they get insight
into themselves and other people. It can
be good preparation for careers working
with people. Very few [psychology majors]
actually end up becoming psychologists,"
Morton said.
All
the variance in perspective among members
of the prevailing majors may be due to the
quality of the programs, or student perception
thereof.
"Honestly,
I think the teachers suck," Morgan
said. "It's just read the book and
take a test. They don't teach you what you
need to know."
"Some
of the teachers aren't effective,"
Clifton said. "It's as if they haven't
been in the outside world. Or the opposite
-- they can't teach it so the students can
understand it."
Shyu
also said that the instruction he receives
is not conducive to a true business environment.
"Real business is very different. [The
professors teach] conception, but not reality."
Coeur
commended the liberal studies program for
its flexibility, and said that while she
had nothing to compare it to, "it is
pretty good."
Describing
the psychology program, Walti said he thinks
it is "great. The professors are excellent.
They are personable; they take time for
their students, compared to other schools
I've [attended]."
"On
a scale of one to 10, it's an eight,"
said Flores.
Job
placement for graduates of these programs
is "almost impossible" to gauge,
said Morton. Employee privacy laws hamper
efforts to track the progress of CSULB alumni,
he said. Also, only 10 to 15 percent of
graduates return questionnaires inquiring
about their employment, according to the
CSULB Web site.
Regardless
of the caliber of education in the respective
programs and despite the ambiguity surrounding
the fate of their graduates, all students
have a chance to be successful, Morton said.
"There
are jobs out there," he said. "Students
who start early and learn how to approach
the job market find jobs more quickly. For
those who don't get in and get focused,
it's going to be tough."
Top
majors
Business
12.6 Liberal Studies 7.9
Psychology 5.1
All other majors 74.4
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