Hot New Jobs for Today's College Grads

Ace! NewsFlash 

In a tough economy like this one, it's easy to get caught up in the negativity.  It's true, the unemployment rate for recent graduates is high and the average amount of debt per student is growing.  Despite these sobering statistics, there are several newly created career paths that just may be a perfect fit for you.  Many of these jobs are so new that most colleges don't offer a major for them yet, meaning they're fair game for just about anyone!

1. Paid Blogger - As companies are realizing the benefits of having an active presence online, many have started hiring freelance or salaried company bloggers.  Just about anyone with a stellar writing portfolio could qualify, but it may help if you have some experience or connection with the company's industry.  I got my job as the editor at Uloop's blog because I started a community blog at my college last year.

Suggested Majors: English, Communications, Marketing, Public Relations

Other Requirements: Start a personal blog and keep it very focused on the industry you want to work in.  Also, start contributing to other blogs.  You'll probably need to write 2 to 7 articles per week in order to get your blog noticed, and show people you're serious.

2. Social Media Manager/Strategist - Over 59% of the Fortune 100 companies have dedicated a special part of their PR firm to managing and monitoring social media accounts, but that number is expected to rise quickly in the coming years.  Much like paid bloggers, social media managers help project a company's image online by keeping up with engagement on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.  Some of these jobs also involve more technical work, like creating Facebook apps or integrating social networks with the company's website.

Suggested Majors: Public Relations, Communications, Information Technology, Marketing, Statistics

Other Requirements: For many companies, Klout score has become the de facto standard for measuring influence on social networks.  Make sure all your social media accounts are squeeky clean and open to the public, then focus your content on the industry you're interested in.  Post at least 3-5 times per day on Twitter and 1-2 on Facebook, but the most important part is engaging with people in the industry you're pursuing.  You never know who you'll meet by actively networking online!

3. User Experience Designer - Companies are paying more attention to design and user experience than ever before.  While this job can be web or software based, it doesn't have to be.  Experts in user experience have to have a firm attention to detail, an eye for design, and familiarity with the consumer's mindset.

Suggested Majors: Psychology, Retail Studies, Fashion Design, Marketing, Graphic Design, Architecture, Industrial Design, Information Technology

Other Requirements: Having a design or concepts portfolio will be your biggest advantage in this field.  Start getting familiar with Photoshop or some CAD programs that are relevant to your industry.  Read (and maybe write your own) case studies about consumer behavior and spending, and build a portfolio.

4. 3-D Graphics Designer - Ever since America fell in love with Pixar's Toy Story, 3-D design has become a huge part of the film industry.  Video games have also become a big business as products like the X-Box Kinect and Nintendo Wii are bringing gaming to a more mainstream audience.  Other companies need 3-D and motion graphics designers for advertisements, websites, or marketing material.  You'll need a little bit of training, so if your school doesn't offer it, I suggest finding a course or two online.

Suggested Majors: Graphic Design, Advertising, Film Studies, Marketing, Computer Science, Information Technology, Art

Other Requirements: As always, companies would rather hire a graduate with established experience than train someone fresh.  Start reading into the tools that major players in the industry use, and see if you can invest in a discounted student version.  Once you get familiar with them, build a portfolio.  Going into an interview with a handful of completed projects is a sure-fire way to set yourself apart.

5. Sustainability Consultant - As the government becomes more aware of the harmful effects that heavy metals and CO2 can have on our planet, they have tightened regulation and sanctions on companies who use or process harmful chemicals.  Knowing this, many companies have started to realize that green sells, so they try to go the extra mile to provide products that are as environmentally safe as possible.  Cutting electricity use, switching to new paints or dyes, constructing efficient buildings, and minimizing fuel consumption can both save a company money and help protect the environment, but many companies don't know where to start.  Sustainability consultants are experts (usually in a certain field) in helping companies become more eco-friendly.

Suggested Majors: Chemistry, Engineering, Political Science (or Pre-Law), Environmental Studies, Economics

Other Requirements: Take some extra classes on environmental policy and environmental science if you can.  Familiarizing yourself with both the science and the law as well as the basic economics of saving energy will help you be more prepared for an interview.  Find out if there are any licenses or certifications that you can get in your state as this may be a requirement for some jobs in sustainability.

6. Patient Advocate - New policies in the medical industry in the past 10-15 years have increased patients' rights when visiting the doctor.  Patient advocates are familiar with the policy and common practice at clinics and hospitals and make sure that communication between the doctor, nurses, patient, and insurance company is clearly understood.  Often times, family members of a sick or dying person are unable (or too overwhelmed) to take care of the day-to-day work involved in filing bills, negotiating with insurance, calling doctors, and filling prescriptions, so Patient Advocates can be ahuge help in their time of need.

Suggested Majors: Nursing, Pre-Medical, Communications, Social Work, Sociology, Psychology

Other Requirements: Some experience in the medical field will likely be required.  Volunteering at a local hospital or nursing home may be a great way to see first-hand how things work without needing prior experience.  You'll also want to make sure you're up for this kind of work because you'll spend a lot of your time around sick and dying people.  While knowing that you're making a difference in their quality of life is comforting, some people may find the work environment depressing.

huffpost 12/12/11

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Top Chinese Students Aim for Highly Selective U.S. Colleges

Ace! NewsFlash

GRINNELL, Iowa — The glossy color brochures, each crammed with photos depicting a Chinese student’s high-achieving life from birth to young adulthood, pile up in the admissions office at Grinnell College here.

Jonathan C. Edwards, seated, and Seth Allen of Grinnell said the college was handling hundreds of applications from China.

Interactive Feature

Packaging Chinese Students' Personalities in College Applications

“Hi Professors!” one young woman announced in her bound booklet, sometimes known in China as a “brag sheet,” which included a photo of herself as a baby. She characterized her childhood as “naïve and curious,” and described herself now as “sincere, kind and tough.”

The brochures, though they are almost never read by admissions officers, are a sign of Grinnell’s success marketing itself in China — a plan that has paid off in important ways, like diversifying the student body and attracting students who can sometimes pay full tuition. 

At rural Grinnell, nearly one of every 10 applicants being considered for the class of 2015 is from China.

Dozens of other American colleges and universities are seeing a surge in applications (and similar brochures) from students in China, where a booming economy means that more families can pursue the dream of an American higher education.

But that success — following a 30 percent increase last year in the number of Chinese studying in the United States — has created a problem for admissions officers. At Grinnell, for example, how do they choose perhaps 15 students from the more than 200 applicants from China? After all, the 11-member admissions committee cannot necessarily rely on the rubrics it applies to American applications (which are challenging enough to sort through).

Consider, for example, that half of Grinnell’s applicants from China this year have perfect scores of 800 on the math portion of the SAT, making the performance of one largely indistinguishable from another.  But the most accomplished applicants will have grades in the 70s or 80s, because Chinese schools tend to grade on a far less generous curve than American high schools. Few will have had the opportunity to take honors or Advanced Placement courses to demonstrate their ability to do college work, since such courses are rare in China.

Then there is the challenge of assessing an applicant’s command of English, since some Chinese families have been known to hire “agents” to write the application essay. These are the same advisers who counsel families to spend money on the fancy brochures. “They should save their money,” Seth Allen, the dean of admission and financial aid at Grinnell, said as he glanced at the full-color brag sheets stacked on a nearby desk.

Mr. Allen said that few would actually be read by the overworked admissions officers as they plowed through nearly 3,000 applications over all. In fact, the next stop for the brochures, said Jonathan C. Edwards, Grinnell’s coordinator of international admission, would be the recycling bin.

Mr. Allen, Mr. Edwards and their colleagues said they spend most of their time on Chinese applications trying to parse the essays — paying particular attention, as they might with an American candidate, to whether they detect the authentic voice and sensibility.

A young woman from Shanghai, for example, who had scored 800 on the math portion of the SAT, and nearly 600 on the main verbal section, impressed Mr. Edwards with an essay that described her volunteering at a rehabilitation center, where a young autistic boy captured her heart.  “Such a hopeless boy evoked my strong feeling to help him and love him,” she wrote. “As time passed by, I found he was interested in hearing the special sound of the piano and was gifted in playing piano.”  The applicant was admitted to Grinnell in its early decision round last fall.

Another Chinese applicant who wrote about her community service made a less favorable impression, at least with her essay, by writing about her own hardship while helping others after the earthquake in 2008 in Sichuan Province. “Every day, I showered and brushed my teeth using cold water,” she wrote. “It was unbearable.”

The admissions officers sometimes reach out to teachers and counselors at the applicants’ high schools — especially those that have emerged as “feeders” to Grinnell and other American colleges.  Such relationships have been further cemented during each of the last two summers, when Mr. Allen barnstormed China — stopping in Beijing, Zhengzhou, Changsha and Shanghai — on a recruiting tour with representatives from a handful of other liberal arts colleges, including Franklin & Marshall and Williams. (Grinnell’s applications from China were down slightly this year, as were its applications over all, but still greater than they were five years ago.)

For the colleges, such tours are motivated at least partly by money.  Grinnell, for example, is “need-blind” when considering American students — who are evaluated regardless of their ability to pay — but its process for admitting international students is “need-aware.”  So an applicant from China or another country could have an edge if he or she can pay full tuition.

And yet, in the name of socioeconomic diversity, Grinnell also has a dozen full scholarships set aside for international applicants, including those from China, who need help paying tuition.  “I realize what regional differences there are in China,” Mr. Allen said. “Lumping students into this amorphous Chinese applicant pool really isn’t doing them justice.” 

Grinnell started seeing a steady stream of Chinese applications in the early 2000s, and says it can point to strong academic accomplishments among those applicants it has accepted.  Their graduation rate has been comparable to the 1,600-member Grinnell student body over all — about 84 percent of those who enroll graduate in four years — and most Chinese students at Grinnell do “very well” in economics, math or science, the subjects in which they are most likely to major (and usually double-major), Mr. Allen said. Help with writing English papers is also available in a writers’ workshop.  “Chinese students are required to devote significantly more time to their studies than American students, and this generally carries through when they come to college in the U.S.,” he said.

Chinese applicants have also been learning about Grinnell and other American colleges and universities through a popular Chinese Web site, cu-us.cn — which stands for Chinese Undergraduates in the United States, but the letters are also meant to be shorthand for “See You in the U.S.”  “Grinnell in My Eyes,” an article written in Chinese and posted on the site by a recent graduate, is a big bouquet to the school; the writer pays tribute to Grinnell’s flexibility (“if you don’t like the current major, you may also choose independent major”) and the dining hall (“glorious French windows.”)

If there is an attribute that American and Chinese applicants share, it may be the ardor they often demonstrate toward Grinnell and the other highly selective colleges they hope will find a place for them.  “A girl from China called the other day after lunch, which was 2 or 3 in the morning for her,” Mr. Edwards said. “She said she was calling to make sure everything in her application was complete.”  “I had to tell her to go to bed,” he said.

NYT 12 Feb 2011

*** Ace! is a member of the EducationUSA global educational advising network affiliated with the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State. We provide free EducationUSA counseling services to students in the northern provinces of Thailand; our faculty of U.S.-trained Test Prep Experts can help you with cost-effective result-driven training programs for SAT-1, SAT-2, TOEFL, GRE, GMAT, GED, AP, IB, TOEIC, IELTS etc http://acethai.weebly.com ***

New Top 10 U.S. Colleges List by Forbes

Ace! NewsFlash

Williams College tops Forbes list of best schools

Usually college rankings are no big surprise -- as in, "Oh, good, Harvard is still considered the best college in the country."

But this week, Forbes came out with its third annual college rankings, which is based on "the student's point of view," and named a new champion: Williams College in Massachusetts.

What, you don't know much about Williams?

It's a 217-year-old private liberal arts school "nestled in the Berkshire Mountains," Forbes reports. The college has just over 2,000 undergrads and a student-to-faculty ratio of 7-to-1. Williams has one of the lowest average student debt loads, $9,296, a number that could go even lower; this spring the college replaced all of its loans with grants.

Williams placed fourth on the Forbes list last year and fifth the year before that.

You can check out the entire list of America's Best Colleges on Forbes.com. Here are the top 10 schools:

1) Williams College

2) Princeton University

3) Amherst College

4) United States Military Academy

5) Massachusetts Institute of Technology

6) Stanford University

7) Swarthmore College

8) Harvard University

9) Claremont McKenna College

10) Yale University

What do you think of this ranking? Do you agree with where your school ranked?

Washington Post: August 12, 2010

*** Ace! is a member of the EducationUSA global educational advising network affiliated with the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State. We provide free EducationUSA counseling services to students in the northern provinces of Thailand; our faculty of U.S.-trained Test Prep Experts can help you with cost-effective result-driven training programs for SAT-1, SAT-2, TOEFL, GRE, GMAT, GED, AP, IB, TOEIC, IELTS etc ***