With the countdown to senior commencement drawing to a close, seniors are making plans for their future.
But just where will the degrees some of these seniors receive take them?
Daniel Ryan, the director of Career Services in 259 Capen, separated the graduating student body into three sections according to their motive for finishing college.
"Some people come to college to expand their minds, to read and gain experiences. Some come as a means to an end. Some come for a combo of both. These are the ones with the mind to go to graduate school," Ryan said.
According to Ryan, those students who come to UB as a means to an end will ultimately have more success in finding a job.
"If you come here with a focus, it's easy, as opposed to those that come just to learn. Their success is measured on how much they learn, not whether they get a job after college," said Ryan. "The third group is measured by whether they enter graduate school."
Ryan examined three degrees from very different fields to gauge what kind of choices with which the degree will present the student.
Ryan calls a foreign language degree "specific to the individual." He considers exercise science a narrow field. Students graduating with a degree in communication have a broader range in choices, according to Ryan.
Barbara Avila-Shah, coordinator of the Romance Language and Literature Department, said she has noticed a new trend in the career choices of those who majored in a foreign language.
"There are many who have chosen law enforcement since Sept.11," said Avila-Shah. "They need more people at the borders."
Avila-Shah has seen students who are interested in going into the FBI. She has also noticed foreign language students entering other fields such as political science, pre-med, pre-law, social work and international business.
"Before Sept. 11, students wouldn't want to come right out and say that they wanted to go into law enforcement because before it wasn't as glamorous," said Avila-Shah.
According to Ryan, exercise science graduates can go into teaching but they usually go into the field around which their classes are centered.
According to Keith Brantley, a fourth-year exercise science major, teaching really isn't on the top of his list of career choices. He said he notices people in his major are keen on physical therapy.
In a survey of the graduating class of 2000 conducted by Career Planning and Placement, the career choices of exercise science majors varied from account analyst to doctoral graduate instructor. There were also the expected job titles listed among them like athletic trainer, personal trainer and exercise physiologist.
The most varied of the degrees, according to Ryan, is communication.
"When you get a degree like (communication) you develop analytical and vocational skills. Students who complete these degrees and have an internship have a better chance," said Ryan. "There are some degrees that are more vocational in nature like accounting. When you're done you come out as an accountant. But there aren't 'communicationists.'"
Frank Tutzauer, associate professor and director of graduate studies, agreed that the communication degree offers a variety of options. However, students receiving a graduate degree in communication travel a narrower job path.
"Graduates go into research or teaching," said Tutzauer. "Graduates are much more focused than the undergrads whose choices are more varied."
This variety is present in the same 2000 graduating class survey. There are the usual positions in the fields for advertising, human recourses, media, sales, business and education. A few less-obvious career choices included a professional football player and a youth minister.
Amid all this variety, Donna Kurayev, a junior communication major, said she notices that a lot of students in the communication department want to go into advertising and sports broadcasting, but doesn't feel like she is getting all she wants from the department.
"What I want to do the department isn't geared toward," said Kurayev, who is interested in broadcast journalism. "It's more theory-based."
According to Ryan, employers that come to UB don't ask for communication majors.
"But they will want a liberal arts person that has critical thinking skills and can reason analytically," Ryan said.
When it comes to foreign language and exercise science, Ryan said employers tend to look for a strong work ethic and the ability to teach. In the field of exercise science, employers also look for a set of specific skills depending on the task at hand.
According to Ryan, regardless of a student's major, being on the road toward graduation can be cause for unease for all near-graduates.
"Anxiety, uncertainty as to what that next step is going to be. It's not that much different from the freshman experience," said Ryan. "Its heightened more by impending financial burdens like 'Do I have to move back home?'"
