For freshman Jeff To, the heavy workload he will take as a biology major pays off with job security later on.

To, a pre-dentistry student, will have gone to school for more than two decades before he enters the job market. However, given the continuing need for dentists, his education will guarantee a stable career after graduation.

Like many UW students, To chose a major not based on his passion but based on the needs of today’s job market.

“Security definitely plays a big piece in my major choice and also just peace of mind,” he said. “I don’t mind putting in a bunch of effort and working really hard now so later on my future family can benefit.”

With UW students now paying for 69 percent of their education, as opposed to 58 percent in 2009, Patsy Wosepka, director of Undergraduate Academic Affairs Advising, said looming debt forces some undergraduates to worry about the practicality of their majors in the job market.

The sensibleness of bioengineering is what drew junior Krisla Nguyen toward the major. As a freshman at the UW, she said she didn’t know what she wanted to major in.

“I knew I wanted to go to med school, but I didn’t know the path to take,” Nguyen said. “So when I found bioengineering, I picked that because it was practical.”

Outside the classroom

With only about 150 people in the major, bioengineering offers many opportunities for hands-on experience, something that Wosepka said is vital when looking for a job.

“People are getting more concerned about what the practical application of the degree [is],” she said. “But I think also, in this tough economic time, it is more necessary to get that internship experience — that experience actually out there doing what it is you want to do.”

Wosepka said she would argue that major is becoming less important to the job market while the need for experience is growing constantly.

“Experiences outside the classroom are as important, maybe more important, than the actual major,” Wosepka said. “Having the skills you need to hit the ground running when you start a job is going to become more and more important.”

As a freshman, To is getting a head start on his experience. This summer, he has an internship set up with his family dentist.

“It’s about the baby steps,” he said.

Nguyen plans on going to medical school after college, so she said she takes advantage of opportunities that will put her ahead of the competition.

Her work in a research lab on campus gives her that edge. Beginning as a volunteer during her sophomore year, she now gets paid for her research and plans on using the lab in her senior capstone project.

If medical school doesn’t work out, Nguyen said that bioengineering offers more practical careers in the job market “instead of just regular biology.”

“It’s a good major because it will prepare you for the industry and prepare you for research as well as preparing you for medical school,” she said. “It’s a budding field, and I know that a lot of people have been really successful in those areas.”

Passion or practicality

For Nguyen, bioengineering is more than just a job guarantee; it’s something she is passionate about. Such passion will allow students to succeed both in school and careers, Wosepka said.

“It’s interesting looking at a student’s transcript because you see where they’re just beating their head against the wall, but then you look and there’s 4.0s in other classes because that’s just what they love to learn,” she said. “It would be a mistake for that student to continue in the wrong direction.”

To, however, takes a different approach looking at his major.

“Everyone always tells you to find a job you’re going to love and stick to it,” he said, “but I’ve always been the type of guy that, whenever I get into something, I just have tunnel vision, and I don’t want to do that with my job. I feel like dentistry is a job that I could just do. It’s not something I will be incredibly passionate about, but it’s not something I’ll hate.”

In the 2009-10 graduation survey, the UW Career Center found dentistry is one of the high-paying jobs, with an average salary of over $100,000. Also on the higher end were careers in nursing, engineering, and computer science.

Other majors, especially social science–based ones, have a wider range of salaries and offer less job security to graduates. However, it is important not to discount those majors, said Wosepka. Such majors offer skill sets applicable to the job market.

“Being able to communicate well, being able to work in teams and being able to find answers long after you leave here are all things employers look at,” she said.

Advisers at the Undergraduate Academic Affairs Advising agree that the major itself is not necessarily as important as the skills you learn while at the UW.

“Your college education prepares you for multiple opportunities,” adviser Donna Sharpe said. “You don’t necessarily have to major in something you want to work in.”

Because most majors aren’t career-specific, Sharpe emphasized that a student’s major doesn’t always equate to his or her future career. In the average lifetime, she said, a graduate will have five to seven careers which usually don’t relate directly to their major.

Despite this, many undergraduate students still worry about the practicality of their major beyond college.

“Students really intensely need to know they are going to be able to support themselves with that degree,” Wosepka said. “They are coming in feeling that need to know more quickly and to be able to get settled into something.”

The ability to settle down is especially important to To, whose parents are immigrants to the United States. As a first-generation student, he said his life was often unstable and that is what motivated him to pursue dentistry. He looks at his biology major as a path to this career.

“I moved around a lot, but my parents always emphasized that this wouldn’t have to happen if we made more money, so that really was a driving factor,” he said. “If I can decently support my family and be able to spend a lot of time with my kids, I feel like that would be more than enough to make me happy.”

Reach reporter Jillian Stampher at news@dailyuw.com.

Excerpt from:
A marketable major