~ Important Things To Consider About Any College Program ~
A good quality school should know whether their programs are succeeding on a number of criteria. The following information should be kept by a school that values the placement of its students. I believe a school has a moral obligation to inform prospective students about the following:

  • What is the placement situation for the program?
    • Proportion of the students who have job offers in the Major field . . .
        ... by graduation.
      • ... within three months of graduation.
    • Which companies hire students from this program?
    • What are the starting salaries? 
    • What are the typical benefits (medical, training, education, etc.)? (Important because you will need to continue training or education once on the job to keep up with the state-of-the-art or retrain as necessary. Larger companies tend to provide better training/education benefits and broader experience opportunities.)


    • If you intend to pursue graduate work, then ...
      • What proportion of the graduates of the program are placed in graduate programs by the time they graduate?
      • Into which schools have they placed?

    • Someone (you, your parents, etc.) is paying a lot of $$$ for your education:
      • Will you be able to find a job in the field for which you have trained?
        Will the payoff be worth the investment?
        Will you be able to pay off school loans and live in reasonable comfort on what’s left with the salary you’ll earn after graduation? .. your payments could be thousands of dollars per month - find out what the repayment amounts will be BEFORE borrowing!


  • How successful are graduates of the program?
    • Do they succeed once on the job?
    • Can they get into Graduate School?

  • Are professors at the College experienced in the work they are training their students to do?
    • Work experience is a very good teacher. Professors without on-the-job experience can only imagine how things might be and many things are not what they appear to be to observers.

  • Do students have an opportunity to “try out” work in their field of study before they graduate?
    • Students earn hourly wages between $13 and $25 for 35-40 hour workweeks. In some cases employers provide generous housing allowances as well. A Co-operative Education placement (co-op) is an 11-, 15-, or 22-week opportunity to perform meaningful work on-the-job before you graduate and it might count toward your degree requirements. On Co-op you get to try out work to see if it's what you thought it was going to be. Many students receive job offers from their co-op employers. Internships are unpaid work experiences and, while better than nothing, are often at the bottom of a manager's priority list for attention because the there is nothing to lose if the intern remains idle but there is if a paid employee is idle.

  • How large are typical class sizes? (Smaller is, of course, better!)
    • For courses in the Major? (8-30 is good)
    • For other required courses? (25-35 is good; 600 is bad for some students)
    • For electives? (12-50 is good)

  • What sorts of advisement services are available?
    • Advisement and assistance with academic problems, availability of free tutorial services upon request, career counseling, personal counseling, and assistance with improving your study skills, for example.

  • How large is the program?
    • Small programs are good: they permit close relationships for students with faculty. However, small programs have fewer faculty and therefore courses are not always offered when needed. You need to find out when courses are offered and whether they are offered on a regular basis. Find out how often courses are canceled due to low enrollment. Compare the number of students who graduated from the program last year with the number of incoming freshmen and transfer students for the current year: If a lot more graduated than are coming in, it's not a good sign. It means that the program is declining and could possibly be eliminated at some point: Programs can be cancelled or phased out under these circumstances. Phase-outs are bad because they result in restrictions as to when and how often needed courses can be offered. You do not want to have to spend a fifth year in college because ONE or more of the required courses for your program was not offered when you could take it and, alternatively, you also do not want to have the College do you a "favor" by waiving a needed requirement due to declining enrollment because that will hurt you when looking for employment.