I received an email over the weekend from a mom who is stressing about whether her accomplished daughter would be better off attending a liberal arts college or a journalism school.

I happen to be a graduate of the the nation’s oldest journalism school at the University of Missouri (see photo) and I’ll share some thoughts after the mom’s note. If you’d like to weigh in,  please use the box at the bottom of this  post.

Regina’s Note:

Hi Lynn,

I enjoy your college blog and I have learned volumes about how to evaluate colleges/universities.

My daughter is a junior, very bright and driven. She has a 3.94 GPA and she attends a very academically competitive Christian school. She’s a varsity level athlete in volleyball and track and field. She hasn’t take the SAT or ACT yet but from the PSAT and PLAN test she scored pretty well. Swarthmore, Reed, and Rensselaer, Dartmouth, Brown and a swarm of other universities have been writing and sending her mailers since her PLAN test in sophomore year.

She is highly involved in athletics and her father and all (4) of her uncles played college football so she has high level of appreciation for the sacrifice and discipline that comes with maintaining top academics and being a high performing athlete.  She thrives in highly charged academic environments. She wouldn’t mind the opportunity to play college level volleyball, but she would only play at a school that benefits her overall plan.

Some Possible Journalism Schools

Based on the research I have conducted from the sources you provide, I believe she would best be served at a liberal arts college since she is a very cerebral and engaging student. I think the opportunity for her to be taught by professors would serve her best overall for her future.

She has a passion, however, to have a career in sports communications/broadcasting/public relations in the industry of professional athletics.  So she had identified Syracuse University and the SI Newhouse School of Communications or UPenn and the Annenberg School for Communication.  We have discussed between the totally different approaches between these two schools. Additionally, they are world’s apart regarding providing for financial need. We are definitely in the category of a family who needs financial assistance. I am a recent widowed mother of two.

What is your advice in this situation? How can an education at a liberal arts college meet the needs of someone determined to make a career in the field of communications/public relations? Does it even matter as an undergraduate? She does plan to get a master’s in mass communication and I know that more students from liberal arts college have success with admission and graduation with higher degrees.

Oh yes, she also does not want to stay in the West. She is determined to go East Coast or  Midwest or New England area but nothing on the West Coast.

Any advice you can give is greatly appreciated. I have been studying the Carnegie Classifications and the College Results online but I’m sure any word from you will help to make the information from these sights more meaningful.

Thanks.

 My Response:

Regina covers a lot of ground here, so I’m just going to number my thoughts.

1. Obviously as a high-achieving student, your daughter enjoys a tremendous amount of options. Only your daughter can answer what type of school she should attend. She sounds like the kind of teenager who would excel wherever she lands. I think the most obvious solution would be to continue to explore both liberal arts colleges and journalism schools. Preferably you can visit and whether or not that is possible, email/talk with professors and students at those schools.

I wrote a post two years ago about this issue when my nephew, Tommy O’Shaughnessy, was debating whether to go to Missouri’s School of Journalism or Truman State University, a public liberal arts college. He is now a sophomore attending Mizzou and he’s hoping to get admitted into the J School. Here is that post:

Which Is Better: A Liberal Arts College or University?

2. I appreciate your daughter’s interest in a liberal arts college which comes with smaller classes and often far more interaction with professors. A student can make the experience at many universities more like a smaller school by qualifying for its honors college.  For instance, the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism encourages top students to apply for the MU Honors College.

3. If she attends a journalism school, ideally your daughter would be in smaller classes once she actually starts taking classes in her major. This is something she should inquire about when talking with students and professors.

4. You don’t need to attend a journalism school to obtain a job in communications. I can’t think of anyone that I work with over at my CBS MoneyWatch gig that attended a journalism school. That said, a plugged-in journalism school can help students find that first job. If you go that route, I would recommend narrowing your search to schools that enjoy tons of ties to the industry and can help with internships and jobs.

5. I question whether your daughter would need a master’s degree in communications. I’m wondering how she would benefit if she already knows how to write and communicate well? (My husband’s got a master’s in journalism degree from Columbia University as a way to get the heck out of Alaska and his dad picked up the tap.)  You might want to think hard about this, particularly with money tight.

6. Just because schools are sending your daughter literature doesn’t mean she would get accepted no matter how accomplished she is. To find out why, read this post that I wrote in September:

Should You Be Flattered By a College’s Red Carpet Treatment?

7. This is obviously a side issue, but your daughter’s chances of playing sports will improve at a smaller school. At Division I universities, student athletes can essentially become employees of the institution. They have little time for anything else and they can be limited to the major they choose because of the sports time commitment. Division III can be a superior choice for a scholarly teenager.

Here is a post that I wrote for US News & World Report on athletic scholarships:

7 Things You Need to Know About Sports Scholarships

9. Use a net price calculator. With money a concern, be sure to use a net price calculator to get a personalized estimate of what each school on your daughter’s list will cost! Here is one of my posts on these calculators:

College Cost Calculators: Getting Wildly Different Answers

8. I flew back to my alma mater in December 2010 after I was asked to be the commencement speaker at Mizzou’s J School. It was a tremendous honor and I’ll never forget it. For all you would-be journalism majors out there, you might be interested in what I had to say:

School of Journalism’s Commencement Speech

Good luck! Anybody else have any suggestions?

Lynn O’Shaughnessy is the author of The College Solution, an Amazon bestseller, and she also writes a college blog for  CBSMoneyWatch and US News. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

What schools produce the most undergraduates who end up heading off to graduate school?

The subject came up yesterday because a friend of mine was telling me about a brilliant teenager who wants to eventually get a PhD in physics. The student lives in California, but the mom wants him to apply to schools in the Midwest where she grew up.

I asked my friend if the teenager had checked out Lawrence University.

“Huh?”

I realize that might be your reaction, but here’s the thing – many of the schools that are feeder institutions for the nation’s PhD programs are liberal arts colleges. While most liberal arts colleges are not well-known among families with teenagers, these institutions — and their reputations — are very well known to graduate schools. Lawrence University, a liberal arts college Appleton, WI, for instance, happens to be 10th on the list among all four-year colleges and universities that produce, per capita, the most physics PhDs. (See chart below.)

PhD Feeder Schools

I bet most families assume that attending a public flagship university or a nationally-known private research university is the best ticket to graduate school. If you look at the following lists of the most successful PhD feeder schools for different majors, you will see a somewhat different story. Not a single public university makes any of the lists. The entire Cal State system, however, is considered the No. 1 producer of humanities PhD’s.

I thought you’d be interested in the list of undergraduate institutions that, per capita, produce the most PhD’s. I pulled the names off the website of  Reed College, a liberal arts college in Portland, OR, that is understandably proud of its impressive record of turning out undergrads who end up earning PhD’s. The statistics cover the years 1997 to 2006 and come from the National Science Foundation and the federal government’s education database.

On the list of schools that have the most undergrads who ultimately earn a PhD  in all disciplines, Reed comes in No. 3 behind Cal Tech and Harvey Mudd College.

As you’ll see in the first column below, seven of the 10 schools, whose graduates earn the most PhD’s by the percentage of students are liberal arts colleges.

Bottom Line:

Students can increase their odds of being accepted to graduate school if they earn their bachelor’s degree at a liberal arts college. On a per capita basis, for instance, liberal arts colleges produce twice as many students who earn a PhD in science than other institutions. That makes sense since students have more opportunities to work closely with their professors, they can actually learn more due to small classes and receive glowing recommendations from their teachers, many of which, graduated from prestigious graduate programs.

What’s even more remarkable about the prominence of liberal arts colleges on the science lists is this: many students major in other disciplines at liberal colleges while students who attend schools like Cal Tech and MIT overwhelmingly expect to pursue careers in the sciences and engineering.

I’ve attached a lengthy essay by Thomas R. Cech, a Grinnell College grad, Nobel Laureate and chemistry professor at the University of Colorado, who wrote a fascinating essay contrasting the science experience for undergrads at colleges versus universities. Cech believes science majors at liberal arts colleges enjoy an advantage over undergrads who attend universities. Here are Cech’s thoughts:  Science at Liberal Arts Colleges: A Better Education?

Read more on The College Solution:

50 Schools That Produce the Most Science and Engineering PhDs

The Shocking Truth About Graduation Rates

Getting Bad News From Johns Hopkins

Lynn O’Shaughnessy is the author of The College Solution, an Amazon bestseller, and a workbook, Shrinking the Cost of College. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

My Upcoming College Workshop:

I will be holding my next two college workshops at the University of California, San Diego on Jan. 28 and Feb. 4. At the workshops — you can sign up for one or both – I aim to share with you ways to help you make smart decisions about picking colleges and making them more affordable. You can learn more here and sign up for the workshops here. Lynn O’Shaughnessy

What students are the biggest slackers?

A report released on Thursday by the National Survey for Student Engagement suggests that business majors may have earned that title.

In the survey, which polled college students at hundreds of colleges and universities earlier this year, concluded that business majors and social science majors spend the least amount of time studying.  The typical business student devoted 14 hours a week to homework versus 19 hours for engineering students, who were the hardest workers. Frankly, it is hard to be impressed with the average number of hours spent studying among any of the following groups, which are clustered by majors:

Weekly time spent studying

• Business majors 14 hours
• Social sciences 14 hours
• Education 15 hours
• Arts & humanities 17 hours
• Biological sciences 17 hours
• Physical sciences 18 hours
• Engineering 19 hours

While social sciences majors also spent an average of 14 hours a week on homework,  a slightly greater percentage of them (23%) studied more than 20 hours a week. Just 19% of business majors studied that hard.

Seniors spending more than 20 hrs. a week on homework

• Business 19%
• Social sciences 23%
• Education 26%
• Arts & humanities 31%
• Biological sciences 36%
• Engineering 42%

Are College Students Learning Much?

Earlier this year a couple of academics released blockbuster research, which was turned into a book, Academically Adrift, that concluded that business majors learned the least in college. Specifically, the business majors performed the poorest on national exams that tested the college students’ writing and reasoning skills. Does anybody else find it ironic that despite the poor showing, business is the most popular major? Twenty one percent of undergrads earn a bachelor’s degree.

Academically Adrift concluded that 45% of college sophomores did not show any significant improvement in writing or critical reading and thinking after two years years in college and that the same thing could be said for 36% of college graduates!

Lowered Expectations

One reason for these dismal numbers is because too many professors have low expectations for their students. And certainly those lowered expectations only encourage student not to study enough.  According to Academically Adrift, more than a third of students spent less than five hours a week on homework and the average was just nine hours! That’s beyond depressing.

I just texted my son, a college sophomore, to ask how much he studies and haven’t heard back. He told me this week that he’s ready to declare his majors and that he intends to double major in math and art while minoring in physics. It’s hard to imagine selecting more work intensive majors.

Read More on The College Solution:

Expecting More Out of College Students

8 Reasons Not to Get a Business Degree

Why Look Down on a Business Degree

Lynn O’Shaughnessy is the author of The College Solution and Shrinking the Cost of College, a financial workbook. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

Today I’m sharing a great resource for students, who want to learn more about college majors and their career paths – College Majors 101.

I’d urge everybody to spend some time on this website, which is stuffed with valuable information about college majors as diverse as biology and engineering to video game design and dance. This is one of my absolute favorite college websites.

The goal of this website is to teach students about a variety of college majors so they can make informed college and career choices.  How does College Majors 101 accomplish this? By providing information on the following categories for each college major featured on the website:

• In-depth description of the major
• Employers which hire within the major
• Accredited schools that provide the major
• News articles pertinent to the major
• Publications related to the major
• Students competitions
• Relevant student associations
• Recruiting opportunities

College Major Channels

Each college major has a channel that includes links to all the above information. This is what a section of the Environmental Science channel looks like.

College Major Videos

For each major, students can look at videos developed by colleges and universities that discuss what the major entails and/or focuses on activities of students in that major.

On the environmental science channel, for instance, I found a video from Michigan State that discusses the green roof research being conducted there. I also watched a video from a professor at Wayne State University, who shared how he ended up in this field and a student at Endicott College talked about his experiences.

As I said before, this is a tremendous site and I hope you take advantage of it.

In case you missed them, here are my recent blog posts on college majors:

What Colleges Offer the Right Majors?

Popular College Majors With the Highest and Lowest Unemployment Rates

Lynn O’Shaughnessy is the author of The College Solution and Shrinking the Cost of College, a financial workbook. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

How can you find schools that offer the college degree that you want?

That was the question that I got from a mother whose daughter hopes to become a registered nurse. The mom asked me  how her daughter could find a list of colleges and universities that offer nursing degrees. (Nursing, by the way, is the most popular major in the United States after business and accounting.)

This is a common question and the answer is relevant to anybody who wants to cast a wider net when looking for colleges. Luckily, it isn’t hard at all to develop a list of schools by college major. The resource that I referred her to was the federal College Navigator, which is a massive depository of information on thousands of colleges and universities.

To find a list of schools in a particular major you want to head to the College Navigator’s home page. Here’s what you’ll see:

When you’re on the site, look on the left hand side and click on the rectangle that says Browse for Programs.

In this case, I typed in nursing, which produced lots of different nursing majors. You must click the +add button to include the majors in your search.

To narrow your search you can designate that you want public or private schools and two-year or four-year schools. In my search, I selected private non-profit and public universities. You can also narrow your search by focusing on certain states. To choose by states, click on the Use Map icon. In this example, I selected 8 states in the Midwest. Yellow pins on the map designate the states that I picked.

Based on my criteria, I ultimately obtained a list of 160 Midwestern schools that have nursing programs. By clicking on each school’s hyperlink, you will find lots of information about the institution. Here is the beginning of the list of Midwestern nursing schools:

Bottom Line: You can find college and universities that offer any college majors that you are interested in by using the federal College Navigator. So check it out!

Does anybody else have suggestions on how to research majors? If so, please use the comment box below. I’d love to hear from you!

Lynn O’Shaughnessy is the author of The College Solution and she also writes college blogs for CBSMoneyWatch and US News & World Report. Follow her on Twitter.

Read More on The College Solution:

5 Tips on Choosing a College Major

Why Not Major in Philosophy?

College Majors: What the Scottish Can Tell Us

Stressing About College Majors

I want to welcome all my new visitors to my college blog. Spend time at  The College Solution and you’ll find lots of tips on finding great colleges and making them more affordable.

What college majors pay the most money?

What college majors are the ones most likely to lead to a job in this lousy economy?

Which college majors have the highest unemployment?

These are the kind of questions that parents and teenagers wonder about — a lot.

Someone visiting my Facebook page on Monday shared with me an interactive graphic on The Wall Street Journal’s website that can help you find great statistics about the marketability and paying power of college majors.

Using U.S. Census Bureau data that was compiled by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, the newspaper created an interactive tool that you can manipulate to find the majors ranked by unemployment, as well as earnings. If you go to the newspaper’s site, you can click on the categories to rank majors by the lowest and highest unemployment, earnings and popularity.

Majors With the Highest Unemployment

Using the WSJ tool, I looked at the 100 most popular college majors and discovered which ones have the highest unemployment rates.  During the nation’s sustained housing meltdown, architecture beat out all other majors as the one with the worst job prospects:

1. Architecture 10.6%
2. Linguistics & comparative literature 10.2%
3. International Business 8.5%
4. General social sciences 8.2%
5. Commercial art & graphic design 8.1%
6. Studio art 8.0%
7. Liberal arts 7.6%
8. Fine arts 7.4%
9. Film video & photography arts 7.3%
10. Philosophy and religious studies 7.2%
11. Drama & theater arts 7.1%
12. Journalism 7.0%
13. Journalism 7.0%
14. Computer engineering 7.0%
15. Mass media 6.9%

Majors With the Lowest Unemployment

1. Medical technology technician 1.4%
2. Nursing 2.2%
3. Treatment therapy professions 2.6^
4. Agriculture 3.0%
5. Pharmacy 3.2%
6. Elementary education 3.6%
7. Special needs education 3.6%
8. Misc. Education 3.7%
9. Mechanical engineering3.8%
10. High school teacher 3.8%
11. General education 4.2%
12. Health & medical admin. service 4.3%
13. Transportation science & technologies 4.4%
14. Finance 4.5%
15. Physics 4.5%

Majors with the Poorest Median Salary

Many of the college majors with the lowest unemployment are not the ones that earn the most money. I’ve included a chart from the WSJ site below that shows the earnings of the nation’s 20 most popular majors in order and you can see for yourself.

Popular Majors With Poorest Salaries

The most popular majors with the lowest median salary are:

• Elementary education
• General education
• Psychology
• Sociology

Popular Majors With the Highest Median Salary

No surprise, all the majors with the highest median earnings require math skills:

• Electrical engineering
• Computer Science
• Economics
• Finance

Employment Stats from the WSJ on  20 Most Popular Majors

Lynn O’Shaughnessy is the author of Shrinking the Cost of College, a financial workbook that can help you make a college degree more affordable. 

 More on The College Solution:

 Playing Hide and Seek with Net Price Calculators

College Majors: What the Scottish Can Tell Us

8 Statistics You Didn’t Know About the SAT

5 Great Ways to Succeed in College