Degrees to help students make the most of their education.
By Mike Conway
To state the obvious: college is expensive. It always has been.
But, according to a study conducted by the College Board in October 2013, the average cost of tuition and fees at a public, four-year university in the United States increased 4.2 percent per year from 2003/2004 to 2013/2014, and 2.3 percent during that time for private non-profit schools after adjusting for the rate of inflation. These numbers are in keeping with an inflationary trend that dates back more than 30 years. At the same time, the National Association of Colleges and Employers expects 7.8 percent more new college graduates from the class of 2014 to be hired than they did from 2013—an improvement that continues a trend that began in 2011.
So while the cost of a college education keeps climbing, today’s college students can take heart that the increasingly optimistic outlook of the job market means their hard-earned, expensive college degree may be put to use. Having invested so much in their education, though, creates a new imperative for students to make their education count.
With that in mind, here are a few popular majors that students may want to consider.
Accounting
“Accounting is a great way to enter the business world,” says Carl Zeithaml, dean and professor at the McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia. “The accounting firms typically invest in their employees in terms of ongoing training and development, and young accountants have the opportunity to work with a variety of firms and see different industries.”
Average Cost of College
Assuming a conservative 3% rate of inflation, the four-year cost (including tuition, fees, room and board) for a child who is currently 12 to attend college will be:
At in-state public schools: $94,628
At out-of-state public schools: $163,112
At a private college: $210,532
Assuming a more realistic 6% rate of inflation, the four-year cost for a child who is currently 12 to attend college will be:
In-state public: $120,972
Out-of-state public: $208,523
Private: $269,144
Assuming 3% for a 5-year-old child:
In-state public: $116,380
Out-of-state public: $200,607
Private: $258,927
Assuming 6%, for a 5-year-old:
In-state public: $181,898
Out-of-state public: $313,541
Private: $404,693
Source: collegesavings.org
Ranked in polls among the top business schools in the country, UVA offers a B.S. in Commerce under which students can choose, in their fourth year, to specialize in accounting. At the heart of the degree lies the Integrated Core Experience (ICE), where students break into teams of 40 to 45 students to solve real-world business problems with faculty members and corporate leaders, allowing them to gain valuable connections and experience. Graduates of the program are in high demand. “It’s a tremendous entry-level path to a business career,” says Zeithaml.
While the B.S. in Commerce is a 132-credit program, students who are not planning to attend graduate school, but still want to sit for the CPA exam, have the option to take a few extra classes to meet the 150-credit requirement.
Robert T. Sumichrast, dean of the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University agrees with Zeithaml’s optimism about an accounting student’s prospects. “The advantage to studying accounting is that you pretty much have an automatic career,” he says. “There is tremendous demand from both the big four accounting firms and smaller regional companies. Accountants have a wealth of opportunities.”
Virginia Tech offers a B.S. in Accounting and Information Systems, where accounting is presented as part of a larger conceptualization of business concepts, with a special focus on technology. They also offer a 152-credit option for students who wish to sit for the CPA exam.
Strong, competitive accounting programs can be found at other local schools, including George Mason, Virginia Commonwealth and George Washington universities.
Finance
Business students looking to get ahead might also look to finance.
“Finance is another area where there is a lot of demand by employers,” says Sumichrast. “At Virginia Tech we have had finance majors move into investment banking or trading careers, and others who have moved up into the ‘C Suite,’ becoming CFOs or CEOs.” Students who study finance at Virginia Tech can expect a technical, rigorous education that prepares them for positions anywhere in the world.
UVA has had similar success. “We have a long track record—placing virtually 100 percent of our students in the major banks or the mid-market banks. We’ve placed people in a variety of different finance positions ranging from investment banking to private equity to hedge funds to wealth management,” says Zeithaml.
UVA’s program, which is another track in the B.S. in Commerce mentioned above, features active participation from alumni. “Many of our alumni come back and teach classes or act as mentors—they not only help students find jobs, but help to prepare them for the career options they have to choose from. It’s a team effort between great students, an outstanding faculty and a tremendous network of alumni.” He adds: “We are consistently ranked among the top two or three programs in the country. Our finance area is very strong.”
Both schools contend that their programs focusing on either accounting or finance are not confined to those two areas. The B.S. in Commerce at UVA features additional tracks in marketing, management, management of information technology or international business, of which students choose two, and they can also choose an interdisciplinary track such as real estate or entrepreneurship. At Virginia Tech, the two degrees are separate, but overlap a great deal.
Students interested in finance should also check out the programs at the University of Maryland—College Park, George Mason and Georgetown universities.
Mechanical Engineering
“Mechanical Engineering is considered the oldest and broadest engineering discipline,” says Dr. Michael Plesniak, professor and chair in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at George Washington University. “It has been constantly evolving since its formal establishment in the industrial revolution.”
US News and World Report Ranking
of Virginia, Maryland and District Colleges and Universities
#12 Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
#21 Georgetown University, Washington, DC
#23 University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
#33 College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA
#54 George Washington University, Washington, DC
#62 University of Maryland—College Park, College Park, MD
#71 (tie) American University, Washington, DC
#71 (tie) Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
#116 The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC
#138 George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
#145 Howard University, Washington, DC
#149 University of Maryland—Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD
#156 Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA
Source: colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com
A degree in mechanical engineering at George Washington can include everything from nanotechnology to “bioinspired engineering,” wherein product ideas are derived from nature. “Our program emphasizes developing a well-rounded engineer whose technical skills are complemented by communication, teamwork, leadership and community skills.”
In addition to providing state-of-the-art labs, design studios and interactive classrooms, Plesniak says, students also can expect to “become part of a close-knit community that prides itself on collaboration and investing in the success of the students.” He states there is extensive faculty-student interaction, and an unusually small 10 to one student/faculty ratio.
Dr. Oscar Barton is professor and program director for mechanical engineering at George Mason University, where a new B.S. in Mechanical Engineering launches in January 2015. He states that an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering affords the student the opportunity to “work in any number of industries, starting from aerospace engineering to manufacturing to the pharmaceutical industry to production.” The particular focus of George Mason’s program will be to meet the employment demand for mechanical engineers in the commonwealth and to create entrepreneurs that will generate jobs within the state.
George Mason will also be the first school in the area to participate in the National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenge Scholars Program, in which students are asked to complete certain steps towards one of 14 “grand challenges,” such as making solar power economical, providing clean-drinking water to the world, securing cyberspace or improving urban infrastructure. Students who participate in the Grand Challenge and complete their core elements will get a designation from the NAE as a Grand Challenge Scholar.
Excellent mechanical engineering programs can also be found at UVA, Virginia Tech and The University of Maryland—College Park.
Computer Science/Computer Information Systems
At Virginia Commonwealth University, the computer science program is in the engineering school, which makes it distinct from computer information systems, which is in the business school. Many schools in the area make similar distinctions, though the differences can vary from school to school. Both majors afford considerable opportunity in today’s high-tech job market.
According to Dr. Gurpreet Dhillon, professor of information systems and program director for the Computer and Information Systems Security Program at VCU, the distinction is a small one, but significant in the marketplace. “In a CS program, you hard-wire things, whereas in an IS program you are essentially users; a CS program tends to be more technical, whereas an IS program is more business-oriented.”
“Both our information systems and our computer science degrees are classified as STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] programs, which is really what the country requires right now in order to be internationally competitive,” he says. Either degree provides a student multiple routes into the working world.
“There are three particular career paths I like to sketch out for my students,” says Dhillon. “The first is usually in databases or database management; the second is usually in networking or telecommunications; and the third is in programming. There tends to be a lot of overlap between them, however.”
Computer science and computer information systems are popular majors at such schools as George Mason, George Washington, Virginia Tech and UVA.
Cyber Security
At most universities, cyber security is considered a specialization of computer science, but is not offered as a separate undergraduate degree. For instance, at George Washington they offer both a B.S. and a B.A. in computer science, both of which can contain classes in cyber security, but a separate degree is not offered until the master’s level. That said, it is a growing field replete with opportunity.
“There are many career paths in cyber security,” says Dr. Lance J. Hoffman, the director of the Cyber Security Policy and Research Institute at George Washington. “You can be very highly technical, working for the Defense Department or the intelligence agencies, either attacking or defending computer systems, but there are many non-technical career fields as well.”
He continues: “One thing that really sets [George Washington] apart is that it has, for the last dozen years, offered CyberCorps scholarships, which are full-ride scholarships covering tuition, living expenses, professional development, books—everything really. If students decide they want to study cyber security and go to work for the government, and they are selected—it’s very competitive—they can sign up, take one additional course per semester on cyber security and governance and do an internship. When they graduate, they effectively have their pick of government agencies to work for.”
Where most universities teach cyber security as part of another, broader program, George Mason has recently added a B.S. in Cyber Security Engineering which makes it the centerpiece. “I believe,” says Peggy Brouse, director of cyber security engineering at the school, “that the B.S. in Cyber Security Engineering is the only cyber security engineering degree in the country. … It’s probably the up-and-coming area.”
While George Mason does have other programs and specializations with cyber security at their core, what sets this particular degree program apart, she adds, is their approach. “What we’re doing is taking a different perspective. Most people in the cyber world are reactive—something will happen, and they’ll try to fix or mitigate the problem. This degree, though, is an engineering degree—the cyber security engineer will work on teams that are developing new technologies or creating a product, and build cyber-resilience into the product from the beginning.”
While the cyber security engineering degree is new—they have yet to graduate their first student—Brouse believes demand will be considerable for the program’s graduates. “There are a lot of companies very interested in this, because it’s a different way of thinking about things. Most cyber education tends to be about software hacking or identity theft—that sort of thing—but this particular degree focuses on all systems, like hardware, infrastructure, physical threats, etc. It’s not just concentrated on one area of computer science.”
Cyber security can be found as a part, or specialty, in most computer science programs.
Public Health
“Look at the headlines,” says Dr. Julie DeLoia, associate dean for academic and student affairs at the Milken Institute for Public Health at George Washington, rattling off a list of modern horrors from the Ebola virus to environmental contamination. “I believe people are becoming more aware of what constitutes health, in a broader sense, and a lot of that has to do with our environment and prevention. That’s what public health is about—the health of a community.”
George Washington offers a B.S. in Public Health with a liberal arts focus—it’s an academic program instead of a practice program. “It’s really about how one approaches problems and thinks critically.” For students who obtain the degree, it has two advantages—it can be very beneficial to students who move into jobs at the health agencies and NGOs in the Metro-D.C. area, or it can provide a critical background in public health for those who enter medical or nursing school. “A lot of our students,” says DeLoia, “go onto professional school and become nurse practitioners, physician’s assistants, or doctors, nurses or dentists—they incorporate that public health lens into their medical practice, which people seem to appreciate.”
As a degree, public health can be very broad, and according to DeLoia, can have a different focus from school to school. “Schools that have a different population—that are in an area with a serious public health crisis—they may see this as a practice degree. Our Master’s in Public Health is more of a practice degree, but [the bachelor’s program] is more of a different way to do liberal education.”
Undergraduate degrees in public health can also be attained at such schools as George Mason and Johns Hopkins universities.
(December 2014)