Recently, my classmates and I did something that a lot of people around the world were also doing: we applied to universities. Applying to any school is a stressful process, as we are obligated to make decisions about what we would like to spend our lives doing, and that is not always evident. We have spent the last couple of years worrying about our academic standing, and striving to get good grades, and now we have to wonder if that was enough. Suddenly, our sole goal in life is to get into university.
Students worldwide feel this kind of stress during application season every year, especially those applying in competitive programs. Competitive programs are the ones hardest to get into, because people deem them ‘important’ and hope to someday do that particular job for a living. This information is known to registrars, and allows them to increase the prerequisites and raise the minimum grade required to be accepted into the program. But who decides what programs are ‘competitive’? In a sense, no one job is more important than another. It takes all kinds of people to make the world function.
Shannon Rupp, a writer for The Tyree, reasons that perhaps the so-called ‘important fields’ will soon no longer be important. In her article, “Be employable, study philosophy” (http://www.salon.com/2013/07/01/be_employable_study_philosophy_partner/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=socialflow), she uses journalism as an example. Journalism is a competitive program in colleges and universities alike, because journalism is seen as an important and desirable profession. However, with handheld technologies like smart phones and tablets on the rise, journalists are no longer as sought after. With these technologies, almost anyone can document important things, where ever they go. In the past couple years, many important news companies have drastically cut the number of jobs for journalists needed for their companies. This means that there are many fewer jobs available for journalism students fresh out of school. Rupp argues that it is much more useful to study something less common, therefore in a higher demand, such as philosophy.
Rupp’s opinion applies to the field of science in many ways. For one thing, when one decides they want a career in science, they naturally study some form of science, like biology, chemistry, engineering, medicine, or mathematics. However, it is becoming increasingly evident that other sorts of professionals are needed in the scientific field, such as philosophers and ethicists. This being said, studying philosophy or a philosophy-related field at the present time could potentially guarantee you a job in an entirely different and unexpected field.
In short, students should be more informed about what kinds of jobs are in demand, and what kinds of fields they could work in for any given program of study. Not only would this kind of information benefit the student, but it would also benefit society, as we would not have a surplus of professionals in one field and a lack of professionals in another. School, especially post-secondary school, is extremely expensive, and some students from the United States and other parts of Canada spend a good portion of their working lives paying back their student loans. Their hard-earned money should not be spent in vain in a program that will lead to a field that will not be able to employ them.
discoveringtheuniverse 