Ever since high school, Ellen Behringer wanted to be an English teacher. The thought of sharing her love of literature and writing with eager young minds was exciting. But when she got to college, her father urged her to rethink her plans. It was the early 1980s and teaching jobs were scarce. Moreover, he still remembered the pain of being laid off from a teaching position years before.
Behringer followed her father’s advice and took a concentration in journalism, a field she never felt suited for. “I was kind of a shrinking violet back then,” said the 49-year-old New Castle resident. “I wasn’t the type who was going to pepper people with questions at a press conference, so I never really pursued it.”
But after a series of well-paying jobs—and a few layoffs—her desire to teach was stronger than ever. With her husband’s encouragement, she enrolled in a graduate program at Wilmington University and is now teaching special education at Shortlidge Elementary School in Wilmington. She feels she is where she was always meant to be.
“I feel fortunate that I am someone who loves what they do,” she said.
College Costs, Job Market Test Graduates
“Like Behringer’s father, many parents want to make sure their sons and daughters choose a major that will lead to good career prospects and a worry-free life.
And who can blame them? College is a major investment. According to a report from the nonprofit College Board, costs for public four-year institutions rose 7.9 percent from an average of $7,050 in 2009-10 to $7,605 in 2010-11, while private nonprofit colleges and universities jumped 4.5 percent from the 2009-10 average of $26,129 to a cost of $27,293 in 2010-11.
Meanwhile, according to the IES National Center for Education Statistics, the average income of male bachelor’s degree recipients in 1995 was $49,300, while in 2009 it had only increased to $51,000. For women, the average income was $39,400 in 1995 and only increased to $40,100 by 2009.
That’s if graduates can find jobs. Just over half the college graduates who finished school between 2006 and 2010 found full-time jobs, according to a report from Rutgers University. Now an estimated 1.6 million grads from the Class of 2011 are competing for the same positions. according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Labor statistics place the unemployment rate for the under-25 group as high as 54 percent, forcing a whopping 85 percent of newly minted grads to move back home.
Yet, even though the cost of room, board and tuition and lost wages is substantial, and the job market remains the toughest in history for college graduates, the evidence is unequivocal: Those with college degrees earn far more—on average, $20,000 per year more—than the average person with a high school diploma, according to a Pew Research Center survey.
Experts Advise Parents Not to Pressure Their Children into Picking Major
So parents wonder: Is there a degree or discipline which will guarantee that return on their investment and should they try to steer their children in that direction? Parents may have nightmares about a fine arts major walking off the stage at graduation right into the unemployment line, but students who don’t follow their own interests might ultimately hurt their chances for a successful—and satisfying—career in the long-term, college officials say.
“We see the freshmen coming in saying they want to be a management major or sometimes a nursing major and as we begin to peel back the onion a bit or after the first semester when it’s not going very well, it turns out that’s what mom or dad wanted,” said Vicki Nelson, content editor at Washington, DC-based College Parents of America and academic advisor at Curry College, a liberal arts institution in Milton, Mass.
Adam Zucker can attest to that. His father wanted him to do accounting because of its relevance to business. “I tried but my eyes would close after the first four minutes of class,” said the 48-year-old Blue Bell, Pa. resident. “It would never have worked for me.”
Zucker channeled his passion for debate and politics into his study of international relations at the University of Delaware before earning a law degree from Widener University School of Law in 1988. “I’m more at home in court,” he said.
Parents worry that a “bad” choice will limit the student’s career options. But both parents and students must realize that a specific major may lead to many careers, and that several majors may lead to the same career. “A major isn’t a career and I think that’s the misperception that a lot of students and their parents have,” Nelson said.
Nor should parents pressure students to settle on a course of study before they’re prepared. Students who enter college “undecided” have the opportunity to explore many different areas to see which best matches their strengths and interests. “For the first time in their lives, the chord of intellectual curiosity has been struck,” said R. William Holland, human resources and career management consultant and author of “Cracking the New Job Market.” “Why would you throw a damper on that?”
Students must also understand that today most people change careers several times during their working life and may ultimately find themselves in a career far removed from their college major. “When I talk to parents (of incoming students) and ask them how many of you are in a job now that you thought you would be in when you left college, the truth is the majority of hands do not go up,” said Avron Abraham, associate professor of behavioral health and nutrition and faculty director of the Office of Academic Enrichment at the University of Delaware.
Major decision: Should job prospects influence college course of study?
Avron Abraham, Director of the UD Office of Academic Enrichment discusses choosing the right major.
Graduates Urged to Build Skills for the New Economy
Experts also point out that no degree on its own can guarantee job security in the “New Economy” which is characterized by advances in technology, changes in government policies and global competition. Even “specific-content” majors like engineering, accounting and nursing require additional skill sets to be able to address multi-faceted problems in the global arena.
“If you’re looking at water shortages in Africa, it’s more than just an engineering problem,” said Abraham. “It’s an engineering problem together with a social problem, together with an economic problem.”
And while majors steeped in math and science are more likely to lead to a six-figure salary, liberal arts fields can still provide students with skills a variety of employers find most desirable, namely the ability to think critically, speak and write well, ferret out information and analyze data.
“Employers are saying ‘I need someone who can communicate, work as a team, think critically and write and I’ll teach them to do anything’,” said Colleen Di Raddo, assistant vice president for academic affairs at Wesley College in Dover. “’But if you send me someone who can’t, they’re not going to last here.’”
Academicians urge parents to start discussing career options with their sons and daughters before they enter their freshman year but to be mindful that the final decision rests with the student. “Parents become the ‘coaches’ who provide lots of information and guidance but in the end it needs to be the student,” said Nelson.
Students need to take the initiative and visit the placement office, talk with their advisors and other faculty, seek out opportunities for internships and study abroad and acquire as many skills as they can during their college careers.
“Being one track is not the way to go,” said Phyllis Brooks-Collins, executive director of the office of academic enrichment at Delaware State University. “I like to tell students about developing their tool box. You need a lot of things in the tool box to be successful.”
Indeed, the successful job candidate will be the student who presents his skills in a way that creates value for a potential employer regardless of what he studies, said Holland. “I guarantee you if you help your children develop in areas of critical thinking, analytical skills, communication—including modern internet-based social media—and that you get them some internships, that person will emerge from college in a career-ready state much more so than ever before,” he said.
