Ave Maria University |
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Resources and Advice for Students
The Aim of a University Education If then a practical end must be assigned to a University course, I say it is that of training good members of society. Its art is the art of social life, and its end is fitness for the world. It neither confines its views to particular professions on one hand, nor creates heroes or inspires genius on the other. Works indeed of genius fall under no art; heroic minds come under no rule; a University is not a birthplace of poets or of immortal authors, of founders of schools, leaders of colonies, or conquerors of nations. It does not promise a generation of Aristotles or Newtons, of Napoleons or Washingtons, of Raphaels or Shakespeares, though such miracles it has before now contained within its precincts. Nor is it content on the other hand with forming the critic or the experimentalist, the economist or the engineer, although such too it includes within its scope. But a university training is the great ordinary means to a great but ordinary end; it aims at raising the intellectual tone of society, at cultivating the public mind, at purifying the national taste, at supplying true principles to popular enthusiasm and fixed aims to popular aspiration, at giving enlargement and sobriety to the ideas of the age, at facilitating the exercise of political power, and refining the intercourse of private life. It is the education which gives a [person] a clear, conscious view of their own opinions and judgments, a truth in developing them, an eloquence in expressing them, and a force in urging them. Taken from John Henry Newman's The Idea of a University (1852). |
A Liberal Arts Education and your Career
♦ Why Study the Liberal Arts? Their relevance in today’s world.
♦ The Pesky Question: Liberal Arts: What’s it good for?
| The answer is obvious: the liberal arts are good in themselves. But the pesky questioner wants to know what job you can get with it. Answer: more kinds of jobs, and more satisfying jobs, than with a vocational, "practical," degree. |
While much of the demand is for specialized qualifications and degrees, it is being increasingly recognized both here and abroad that technical competence in itself can be too limiting.
It must be supplemented by or embedded in an education productive of men and women who are skilled in the language arts; comfortable and competent in mathematics and technology regardless of their specific careers; capable of excelling at demanding and complex undertakings; highly adaptable to changing circumstances; and who are comfortable living with the uncertainties that characterize contemporary life.
This, of course, is a function of liberal or general, not specialized, education.”
http://www.aale.org/highered/index.htm
| If you ever think about it, read this! |
♦ How important is my GPA?
♦ How to prepare for Law School
| Econ Majors achieve the highest LSAT scores on average. This may be because, unlike other disciplines, studying Economics does not teach you particular answers to a given question, but rather Economics teaches you how to approach a question and reasonable and rational methods of obtaining an answer. |
♦ How I became an economist, by Paul Samuelson
♦ “I want to study Business because I want to run a business”
♦ The main attraction of Economics is that it teaches you about the world you live in and it helps you make a difference in it. Additionally, you may want to know that economics is good for getting a job.
♦ What kinds of jobs do econ majors get?
| If employers want a good thinker who is able to learn the needed job skills, then they know to hire an economics major. This is why statistics show that average starting salaries for students with economics majors are even higher than those with business majors. |
♦ “Yes, but how do I actually get the job?” Besides giving you a lecture on how “an Economics liberal arts degree is worth much more than the wonderful job you will get with it,” I will be happy to give you direct advice on this topic, as well as recommendations, etc. (assuming you’ve worked hard, of course).
♦ How to become the Ideal Job Candidate
♦ A good place to start is “What Color is Your Parachute?”, which is irreverently called “the job hunters’ bible.” “…And, over the past three decades, Bolles's preferred method has remained remarkably consistent: Sending out résumés doesn't work. Neither does answering ads. Employment agencies? No way.
What does work is figuring out what you like to do and what you do well -- and then finding a place that needs people like you.
Contact organizations that you're interested in, even if they don't have known vacancies. (Bolles actually coined the now commonplace term "informational interview.") Pester friends and family members for leads. Once you get in the door of the employer of your dreams, show how you can solve its problems.”
“If you don't take time to figure out what you want to do with your life, you will be at the mercy of all those forces out there today.”