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Oregon graduates (with irrelevant degrees in liberal minors) struggle to launch careers
Oregonian ^ | June 13, 2010 | Bill Graves

Posted on 06/12/2010 2:01:06 PM PDT by nwrep

Liberals discuss non-existent job prospects for irrelevant majors

Many from the Class of 2009 are living with their parents and working part-time retail jobs they could have landed without a degree. Others are taking more college classes to put off paying back student loans, which average more than $20,000. Many say they’ve lost self-confidence. Still, none of the 18 students from the Classes of 2009 and 2010 interviewed by The Oregonian expressed regret about going to college.

After a yearlong search, Jackie Mroz, 22, of Oregon City, is about to get some experience, but at a cost.

She put everything she had into her studies at the University of Oregon, graduating in 2009 with degrees in international studies and sociology and a double minor in nonprofit administration and African studies. She studied abroad in Senegal, took challenging courses, earned a 3.8 grade point average and raced through college in three years.

“It has gotten me pretty much nowhere,” she said.

Audra Armen-Van Horn, 23, Portland, worked for Victoria’s Secret while earning her psychology degree from the University of Oregon. Now, a year after graduating in 2009 and applying for more than 100 jobs, she’s still working part time for the store while hoping to get a job with the American Cancer Society.

Malcolm Staudinger, 22, a 2009 graduate in environmental science from Portland State University, lives at home with his parents in Vancouver, Wash., and is now looking to Montana and Alaska for a job related to geographic information systems.

Matt Petryni, 24, a 2009 UO graduate, said the seminar has helped him regain hope after a discouraging year of rejections from the world of urban planning where he hopes to work.

Of course some graduates are landing jobs, particularly those with specific technical skills such as John Yeier, 24, who graduated from the Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls on Saturday. He’s the sole member of his class with a degree in embedded engineering , which integrates computer software and hardware in cell phones, cars and other machines. He will work on small plane navigation system software for Garmin AT in Salem.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: beavers; brainwashing; ducks; education; liberalism; oregon
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To: nwrep

What gives? Did they not land census jobs?


21 posted on 06/12/2010 2:12:42 PM PDT by Hoodat (.For the weapons of our warfare are mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.)
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To: Bryanw92

“Once upon a time, we graduated from college and took any entry-level job we could find to start building up EXPERIENCE so we could land our dream job later.”

Exactly!


22 posted on 06/12/2010 2:14:24 PM PDT by MplsSteve (Don't Be Stupak!)
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To: Tolsti2
Schools are money making businesses of course, so they don’t warn people that these degrees are worthless.

So were the SAT Scores that got them in, if they could not figure that out by themselves.

Maybe they could get out of the student loans by citing statutes regarding taking advantage of mental defectives.

The thought of WORK never crossed their minds, did it? Just getting National Geographic type fun trips and "studying" pointless bullshit.

23 posted on 06/12/2010 2:14:32 PM PDT by Gorzaloon (CNN:AP:etc:Today, President Obama's stool was firm and well-formed. One end was slightly pointed. ")
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To: nwrep

leftist minors. They have nothing to do with Liberty.


24 posted on 06/12/2010 2:14:39 PM PDT by FreeAtlanta (Hey, Barack "Hubris" Obama, $10 is all it would take, why spend millions to cover it up?)
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To: nwrep
"...with degrees in international studies and sociology and a double minor in nonprofit administration and African studies..."

The Ideal Obama graduate. Completely worthless degrees that will only be useful if one applies for a government job, and then only useful because it is what those morons doing the hiring want to see, not because degrees like that will actually help anything.

Wow. All I can say it...Wow.

25 posted on 06/12/2010 2:15:47 PM PDT by rlmorel (We are traveling "The Road to Serfdom".)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
I’ve often wondered what one does with a degree in African Studies.

Obviously, you get to work for free as an intern helping 3rd world freeloaders get welfare in the US.

26 posted on 06/12/2010 2:16:07 PM PDT by SAMWolf (Looking for my generations Lexington and Concord.)
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To: Dilbert San Diego

“Exactly! How many job ads have you ever seen for African Studiers, requiring a degree in African Studies?

How many job as have you seen for Women Studiers, requiring a degree in Women’s Studies?”

You are mistaken. There is plenty of opportunity as a community organizer, man hater, and enviro activist. Our dear leader and his henchmen are evidence of the potential in these areas.

Unfortunately, liberal arts majors are not the only ones with difficulty in this economy. Business students even in finance are struggling. The war on the private sector has worked superbly. This war and the reduced barriers to move work have made life very difficult for new graduates in many fields.


27 posted on 06/12/2010 2:19:07 PM PDT by businessprofessor
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To: Tolsti2
Schools are money making businesses of course, so they don’t warn people that these degrees are worthless. The only thing they can possibly be used for is to teach other suckers the same stuff.

Aside from humanities and poly-sci, the worst investment right now is law sachool. Even top-half graduates from the top 14 schools are mostly having to defer the start of their careers by 18 months; that's if they ever start. Many of them have loans in excess of $150,000 by the time they finish.

28 posted on 06/12/2010 2:20:45 PM PDT by SeaHawkFan
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To: AmishDude

I took sociology. That was a frikking joke, but at the time, I remember being completely enamored of it. Some years later, I realized that it was collectivist BS.

Hard? Physical Chemistry nearly gave me a nervous breakdown, it was so close to the edge of what I was able to comprehend.

Sociology was a joke. African Studies? Yeah, that will get you a job in the government somewhere.

And, of course, these morons in power think a degree in “non-profit administration” is the end-all and be-all of anything to aspire to.


29 posted on 06/12/2010 2:20:59 PM PDT by rlmorel (We are traveling "The Road to Serfdom".)
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To: nwrep
“It has gotten me pretty much nowhere,” she said.

Underwater basket weaving is currently in low demand.

30 posted on 06/12/2010 2:21:22 PM PDT by org.whodat
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To: nwrep

I must say, going to Senegal would be a interesting “life experience” but how that it would be useful to earning a living isn’t really clear. Not much call for “African Studies” either.


31 posted on 06/12/2010 2:21:36 PM PDT by count-your-change (You don't have be brilliant, not being stupid is enough.)
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To: SeaHawkFan

What happened to the law business? Overloaded cause it got too popular for awhile?


32 posted on 06/12/2010 2:22:11 PM PDT by Tolsti2
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To: Dilbert San Diego

My Nephew is just writing his theses for his PHD in Philosophy. The only thing he’ll be able to do is stay in Academia!


33 posted on 06/12/2010 2:24:30 PM PDT by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra ( Ya can't pick up a turd by the clean end!)
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To: steve8714

>Couldn’t they find any queer studies majors to speak about their experience?

**********************

See, that would let the cat out of the bag in an OVERT way.


34 posted on 06/12/2010 2:24:38 PM PDT by ROTB (Without a Christian revival, we are government slaves, or nuked by China/Russia during armed revolt.)
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To: Domandred
international studies and sociology and a double minor in nonprofit administration and African studies

Washington DC, the government, and the wonderful wacky world of the NGOs, are already staffed to the gills with many, many leftist dweebs sporting just such degrees, at the Masters and Doctoral level of course.

The semi-essential credential is a set of well-known leftist parents. Failing that qualification, the correct pigmentation and a Mexican grandmother are most helpful (mandatory actually). Other tips: Wear a Che Guevara Tee, instead of shaking hands, raise a clenched fist. Don't smell too good. Talk up Lula and Hugo Chavez, as you wax earnestly on about Morales and the Environment.

The govrelatedworld where the jobs are being created, wants politically correct useless people of color. Not useless whinging white suburban dweebs who couldn't hack college algebra. (A remedial course for those who couldn't hack HS Algebra, after flunking Arithmetic).

My septuagenerian advice: learn Spanish, take up yard work, be available to ACORN for "extra" work in staged crowd scenes. Become an SEIU Thug or Thugette (They have no real jobs for white people either) And shut up while I enjoy a a frosty and a good laugh at your expense, Left Wing perennial children.

35 posted on 06/12/2010 2:26:37 PM PDT by Kenny Bunk (Obama: Reviving States' Rights.)
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To: AmishDude
calculus

Has a lot in common with a emasculatome, both are ba** busters. I remember my first big test, I made 35, about the top of the normal bell cure for the class, some Japanese kid made 95. I dropped the class the next day.

36 posted on 06/12/2010 2:27:31 PM PDT by org.whodat
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To: navyblue
Four classes in economics and three years of a foreign language.

Trivialities, my friend, trivialities.

37 posted on 06/12/2010 2:29:05 PM PDT by AmishDude (It doesn't matter whom you vote for, it matters who takes office.)
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To: Dilbert San Diego

Well, most jobs in which those degrees are directly applicable are in academia, with the exception of a few nonprofits who might hire entry-level workers. Problem is, the vast majority of undergrad liberal arts majors (and I’m an English major myself, so I know of what I speak) don’t have the analytical skills or the discipline to pursue full-time graduate studies. IMHO, programs like African Studies or Women’s Studies should only be offered as minors, or perhaps as components of an interdisciplinary program combined with more marketable skills. If I were a CEO looking to open a branch in Nairobi, for instance, then a business or econ major with coursework in African Studies could be a very useful consultant. But just having African Studies alone isn’t gonna get you very far.


38 posted on 06/12/2010 2:29:15 PM PDT by sthguard (The DNC theme song: "All You Need is Guv")
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To: cdcdawg

Years back one pursued a liberal arts direction in college only until a more targeted educational goal was selected and many of the liberal arts courses could suffice as electives. Now with rabid leftism taught at college campuses liberal arts degrees are virtually worthless plus those liberal establishments charge a fortune in skyrocketed tuition costs. Times have changed-—train for a skilled vocation and seek diligently for an opening opportunity.


39 posted on 06/12/2010 2:30:45 PM PDT by tflabo (Restore the Republic)
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To: Nervous Tick

I learned early on if you want to put food on the table then your need to provide a skill or service that is of use to someone who can pay you.

Sometimes this requires a College degree, but many times it does not.

What the heck value does these folks degrees provide to anyone?


40 posted on 06/12/2010 2:34:15 PM PDT by desertfreedom765
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