Catching Up Sunday, Life after college

Since last weekend was October break i haven't gotten the chance to catch up on my blog postings to here it goes! Today i want to talk about how schools are preparing communication majors for the "real world" compared to other majors, especially at Purdue. Last Friday, i had a meeting with my advisor to discuss my final semester of my college career here at Purdue University. At this meeting, after we had finalized the credits I needed to graduate, we began a discussion on the topic of preparation for the real world. This conversation emphasised the need for the College of Liberal Arts to put more emphasis on students finding information for internships in order to gain experience in a specific field, since a communications degree is such a broad option. Also, to make it more clear to the students in courses, what to expect in the real world. My advisor is quoted saying "The college of liberal arts can not expect every student to come out of the program to become either a advisor for the department, a researcher for the department or a professor. We as a department need to prepare the students for the real world outside of academia." I think she is right. If you look at other schools here at Purdue, you see much more emphasis put on finding experience through internships, or research aids, as well as, work studies, in order to prepare their students for what is most important life after college. For example, one of my roommates is a management major. In the Krannert School of Management, academic advisers, as well as department heads and professors pushes the concept of competition not only in the academic setting, but also in the idea of the real world job search and maintaining positions in these jobs. Another example, is my current boyfriend just graduated from Purdue with a degree in Nuclear Engineering. In the engineering field, where most of the school puts it focus on, they encourage internships, research participation and have one of the largest career fairs in the Midwest. Overall, I am just trying to emphasis the point that, the College of Liberal Arts, as much as they try to prepare you for your future through courses relevant to communication research, they do a poor job of preparing students for the reality of life after college.