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Oregon graduates (with irrelevant degrees in liberal minors) struggle to launch careers
Oregonian ^ | June 13, 2010 | Bill Graves

Posted on 06/12/2010 2:01:06 PM PDT by nwrep

Liberals discuss non-existent job prospects for irrelevant majors

Many from the Class of 2009 are living with their parents and working part-time retail jobs they could have landed without a degree. Others are taking more college classes to put off paying back student loans, which average more than $20,000. Many say they’ve lost self-confidence. Still, none of the 18 students from the Classes of 2009 and 2010 interviewed by The Oregonian expressed regret about going to college.

After a yearlong search, Jackie Mroz, 22, of Oregon City, is about to get some experience, but at a cost.

She put everything she had into her studies at the University of Oregon, graduating in 2009 with degrees in international studies and sociology and a double minor in nonprofit administration and African studies. She studied abroad in Senegal, took challenging courses, earned a 3.8 grade point average and raced through college in three years.

“It has gotten me pretty much nowhere,” she said.

Audra Armen-Van Horn, 23, Portland, worked for Victoria’s Secret while earning her psychology degree from the University of Oregon. Now, a year after graduating in 2009 and applying for more than 100 jobs, she’s still working part time for the store while hoping to get a job with the American Cancer Society.

Malcolm Staudinger, 22, a 2009 graduate in environmental science from Portland State University, lives at home with his parents in Vancouver, Wash., and is now looking to Montana and Alaska for a job related to geographic information systems.

Matt Petryni, 24, a 2009 UO graduate, said the seminar has helped him regain hope after a discouraging year of rejections from the world of urban planning where he hopes to work.

Of course some graduates are landing jobs, particularly those with specific technical skills such as John Yeier, 24, who graduated from the Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls on Saturday. He’s the sole member of his class with a degree in embedded engineering , which integrates computer software and hardware in cell phones, cars and other machines. He will work on small plane navigation system software for Garmin AT in Salem.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: beavers; brainwashing; ducks; education; liberalism; oregon
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To: RipSawyer

Different spellings when pronounced differently ~ easy solution ~ used by virtually all other languages on Earth.


121 posted on 06/13/2010 1:27:55 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: Dilbert San Diego

Exactly, my daughter majored in Physics and minored in Business. She is currently working on her senior thesis and then she will be finished in August. She’s afraid that she won’t be able to find a job. She read this and kept asking me, is my degree a worthless degree? She will be moving to San Diego soon, hopefully she will find something.


122 posted on 06/13/2010 4:03:11 PM PDT by republicangel
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To: muawiyah
Look, our language is primarily contextual so there's absolutely no problem for any person who knows English to determine the meaning of those words no matter how they are spelled.

The written language should follow spoken usage.

That's absurd. We must not only know how to speak, we must know how to read and write the language. Do you know how to diagram a sentence? I can't believe you would suggest we take no care in spelling correctly words such as there, their and they're. Should I suppose you were also in agreement with the idea of teaching Ebonics? The dumbing down of Americans continues.

123 posted on 06/13/2010 5:06:59 PM PDT by snippy_about_it (Looking for our Sam Adams)
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To: snippy_about_it
Sure, I can diagram sentences, but that makes sense if and only if you are not working with an isolating or analytic language where WORD ORDER is vital.

English grew out of an older "synthetic" group of languages, but in modern times it's become much more like Chinese and Chinese-like languages.

Now, regarding "spelling", if a single spelling can handle the requirements for guiding the pronunciation of several words, that single spelling can easily be handled in English. Word order will tell the listener or reader what part of speech controls its meaning.

"Their" and "They're" are, in fact,both personal pronouns, and irrespective of their different meanings, there's really no purpose served in reserving two different spellings for them.

Now, how many conjugations and declensions in Latvian have you memorized this year ~ 20 perhaps, or maybe 35 ~ or more! Now those people need to use sentence diagraming just to figure out what they said.

124 posted on 06/13/2010 5:51:50 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: FreedomPoster

>> Hey, a degree in ME is a good thing!

LOL! Hadn’t looked at it THAT way!


125 posted on 06/13/2010 8:26:35 PM PDT by Nervous Tick (Eat more spinach! Make Green Jobs for America!)
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To: muawiyah

And the Poles could use some vowels.


126 posted on 06/14/2010 3:39:28 AM PDT by snippy_about_it (Looking for our Sam Adams)
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To: muawiyah
"Their" and "They're" are, in fact,both personal pronouns

WTF? Over.

Desist immediately or I shall have you thrashed about the legs with a bamboo cane. Return to your day job of translating Latvian folksongs into medieval Lithuanian.

"Their" is an adjective of possession. "They're," is a contractive verb form, IOW, short for "They are."

Capeesh?

127 posted on 06/14/2010 8:40:08 PM PDT by Kenny Bunk (Obama: Reviving States' Rights.)
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To: ladyjane
FYI, Jane.

(1) A Harvard Law Graduate is not a "Harvard Man." The Law School is a trade school. BHO, Jr. is if anything, a Columbia Man.

(2) The Girlie-Throwin' Teleprompter Geek in public housing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was not an "Editor" of the Harvard Law Review, which still requires or so I am told, literacy in English. He was the President of the Law Review, an administrative job that he turned into a ceremonial job with very few duties, which I am reliably informed, he screwed up to the point of being assigned a competent keeper. Paramount among his pro forma duties was being the "Man of Color" at the sherry sucks. Still is. Still the greatest fool ever elected to the Presidency.

128 posted on 06/14/2010 8:50:33 PM PDT by Kenny Bunk (Obama: Reviving States' Rights.)
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To: Soothesayer9
I finished high school in Eugene during the mid 80s. I went to Annapolis for college and never came back.

I was looking up classmates on line a little while back and one of my classmates went to UofO, then went to work for some politicians, worked writing environmental bills for the governor, and got an MBA from an Ivy League school.

He went corporate and got a job working green energy products for.......drum roll please.....British Petroleum! I bet he can't ever show his face in Eugene ever again.

129 posted on 06/14/2010 8:58:40 PM PDT by USNBandit (sarcasm engaged at all times)
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To: nwrep
She put everything she had into her studies at the University of Oregon, graduating in 2009 with degrees in international studies and sociology and a double minor in nonprofit administration and African studies. She studied abroad in Senegal, took challenging courses, earned a 3.8 grade point average and raced through college in three years.

“It has gotten me pretty much nowhere,” she said

BWAHAHAHA! - You want fries with that degree?

She has no idea where she is going... but she is making excellent time!

130 posted on 06/14/2010 8:59:13 PM PDT by 70times7 (Serving Free Republics' warped and obscure humor needs since 1999!)
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To: Nervous Tick
["It's all about me" is] Not a great attitude for a jobseeker with a fluff degree.

How true - even that industry is down. I hear the porn companies really did try for stimulus money (bah-dump-pisssh).

BTW, I had no idea that was taught in college, but I'm not surprised; particularly at liberal universities.

No - if you do not know let's just leave it that way.

131 posted on 06/14/2010 9:07:21 PM PDT by 70times7 (Serving Free Republics' warped and obscure humor needs since 1999!)
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To: cdcdawg

My brother has a degree in Civil Engineering, five years commissioned service in the Army and now make $350k a year selling software. He doesn’t have any formal education in software.


132 posted on 06/14/2010 9:07:41 PM PDT by USNBandit (sarcasm engaged at all times)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Stand in the unemployment line, seems like.


133 posted on 06/15/2010 9:59:12 AM PDT by ilovesarah2012
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