Amusing side-effect of the economic crisis?

[Lyric]

We are acquainted with someone whose wife works in our university's department of admissions and records. According to his wife, she's seen a rather unusual increase in the number of students filing "Change of Major" forms in the past week. The majority of those students are either freshman or sophomores, formerly Pre-Business or Pre-Finance majors, and who are now switching to something else.

Around here, majoring in business or finance is the boring "default" degree for students who aren't entirely sure WHAT they want to do, but are *very* sure that they want to be rich someday. I guess getting into business/finance isn't looking quite so lucrative anymore. Now I'm getting ads from the Business and Economics Department in my school e-mail, telling me how AWESOME it would be to major in business!

Panic, anyone? After some of the crap that's come out of that department in the past year, I'll be shedding no tears to see the ship emptying out as the rats bail.

[Fire Walk With Me]

1. But now they're bringing that selfish, rat-like mindset to other fields.

They may change fields, but their behaviour won't change. Unless it isn't tolerated by those around them. Let's hope that it humanizes them.

[bicentennial_baby]

2. Eh, I see it differently...

My best friend at school who spent his summer busting his ass at Goldman is no longer in the running for a job, along with all of his fellow interns. He's not sure where to go from here, and he's really good at what he does, and loves it. He's a good Dem, and a good person.

I don't know why some people think so many people in the financial industry or economics, etc. are assholes. It's not true, at all. Some people thrive as Econ majors, some as Business majors, some as English majors, some as Sociology majors, etc. And then enter into those fields accordingly. I dunno. I just feel bad for some of my friends.

YMMV.

:shrug:

[Lyric]

4. Econ majors are different, I think.

Economists are the ones who are going to solve these problems. At my university, the Economics majors are an entirely different lot than the business/finance majors. Not sure if this is the case elsewhere, but it is here. Most of the Econ majors I know are more scholarly than anything, whereas the business majors are more concerned with personal profit. Again, this is just an observation about my particular university--it could be the opposite elsewhere. I was speaking specifically about the situation *here*--not generalizing about everyone everywhere, just so you know.

The Business Dept. of WVU is the most corrupt department in the school, and was recently involved with one of the biggest scandals we've ever seen that involved bogus MBA degrees given to students who didn't earn them. The most prominent example was the state governor's daughter, but there were other, quieter ones too. The university President actually resigned over it, and people are still highly pissed about it. That whole department is full of people who were involved in the mess, and a lot of them managed to weasel out of any accountability, so that's why I'm not exactly full of sympathy for that department losing students right now.

I certainly did not intend to insult or disrespect *you*. :hug:

[bicentennial_baby]

5. What I was saying is that a lot of Econ majors go into the financial industry

and they're kinda bumming right now. Some of us go to Grad school, and some of us go into the business world. For those of the latter who recently graduated or are this year, it's not pretty. And it sucks, b/c a lot of them are really good at the financial stuff.

Not me! I'm going for my PhD in Public Policy or Urban and Regional Planning, not Econ, b/c I have no desire to be a Prof. :P

:)

[sniffa]

3. That's hilarious!

Hopefully, they're all switching to English majors.