More students go into business and education

Of the nearly 16,000 undergraduate students at SCSU, about 8,000 of them are still undecided.

“People discover things as they move through school. The more experience you get, the more exposure you get,” said faculty director of advising Steve Klepetar. “Don’t overemphasize the importance of the undergraduate major. People worry too much about lining up a major with a job.”

“In hindsight, I think the English degree was the most helpful for everything because that’s where I really learned how to write well and how to communicate well in writing,” said dean of the College of Business Thomas Zupanc.

Students who have decided on a major are taking over the College of Business and College of Education with about 200 more students in those colleges than in the others. 

The other colleges at SCSU are the College of Fine Arts and Humanities (COFAH), College of Science and Engineering (COSE) and the College of Social Sciences (COSS).
Klepetar Zupanc recommend visiting career services and taking their tests to see where students line up with careers and majors.

“It’s good to open your mind and try a lot of different things.  I think that is really valuable,” Zupanc said.

The most popular majors at SCSU are Mass Communications and Community Psychology. 

Klepetar said he thinks the Mass Communications department offers a “tremendous variety of degrees” including TV production, TV journalism, print journalism, radio broadcasting, public relations, advertising and more.

“A lot of students who change their majors change to the College of Business because it is more coherent; meaning you take the same core classes and two-thirds of the programs in the college are identical,” Klepetar said.

“[The college of Business] has a good reputation, and frankly, you can’t get a better value.  You can spend a lot more at the U of M and you can spend even more at a private school, but the accreditation and the reputation of the school gets you just as good of an education,” Zupanc said.

Many students are also attending the College of Education.

“People are interested in working with children or working with people in the educational professions, whether that’s teaching or counseling or marriage and family therapy.  I think [students are in the College of Education] because those are pretty clear career paths and people are actually getting credentials and there are clear jobs that they will be qualified for and they can apply for when they get out,” said interim dean of the College of Education Glen Palm.

The College of Education also offers many programs for students to prepare for the professional world. They are also beginning the Bush Teacher Preparation Initiative, a 10-year project.

“ We are working with other colleges that are part of teacher preparation,” said Palm, “COFAH, COSS and COSE all have programs like music, art, social sciences, math and science and we work collaboratively at preparing teachers [in those fields].”

Every major has some kind of student club or organization that aims at providing professional and leadership experience.

“Those are really important,” Zupanc said. “You see guest speakers and socialize with upperclassmen, who in two years might be interviewing you for a job. It’s nice to know them ahead of time.”

Another opportunity for experience at the college level is internships.

“Not everybody gets an internship, but it really helps to see how the real world works and students get to meet a prospective employer and get that experience,” Zupanc said. “Some students, of course, are working part or full time and that has its advantages too.”