Topic: how the recent global economic downturn has influenced my college and career plans.
Emily Barker’s essay:
How has the recent global economic downturn influenced my college and career plans?
I made my college choice only very recently and my decision was directly affected by the current economy. Believe it or not, I began my college search without considering the variable costs of a college education. My parents had always told me, “We’ll find a way.” But the economic downturn has now touched our family as it has many others. Paying for college will be a much greater stretch than we expected, and I now factor in the cost of college more seriously.
The week before May 1st (college choice day all over the country!), I had finally narrowed my choices to either a small, private liberal arts college in Vermont or a nearby SUNY campus. Now these two schools are not much alike in terms of education, student population, or campus life. Comparing them is like the old cliché of comparing “apples to oranges.” But for me it wasn’t a simple question of which college fit me best; they are very different, but I loved them both for different reasons.
Both schools are small, northeastern, liberal arts colleges, but that’s where the similarities end. The private college is extremely progressive in that there are no majors; instead you pick a “concentration” and take classes that you yourself choose as a part of your “plan.” This school also has a really cool seven-week term called Field Work Term (FWT). In FWT, students spend the whole term interning somewhere and developing vocational skills. Many students choose a FWT that relates to their concentration, but others spend their time working somewhere that fascinates them but has nothing to do with their concentration.
The SUNY college has a more typical curriculum and education requirements. Students must choose a major, and take required General Education Classes. There are no special built-in semesters like the private college’s FWT. But for me, my visit to the SUNY campus caused me to look more closely at the school, and I liked what I saw. I attended and participated in a great acting class, and I learned that their theater program is well respected and very popular. Also, the school’s proximity to Manhattan offers more opportunities to work and learn in New York City than I would find at a private school in Vermont.
So where to go? The highly rated, quirky and very expensive private college, or the lesser known nearby SUNY school? Ultimately, I decided to attend the SUNY institution, and I made my decision at least in part because of the money issue. The difference in cost between the two schools is over twenty-five thousand dollars a year! As a result of choosing this school, I am likely to have far less student debt (maybe none!) when I graduate – and therefore more freedom to pursue my dreams – because I’m choosing a SUNY school.
My career plans have also been influenced by the economic downturn. As a high school student, I am very passionate about the theater arts, and have always been completely fascinated with Broadway. It seems a magical place, perhaps untouched by all the unfortunate things in the world. I love to visit Broadway whenever possible, and have seen many, many shows there over my middle and high school years. I have always had a dream of some day working in a theater on Broadway.
But today’s economy has changed my perspective somewhat. The economic crisis has grounded me in reality and I now realize that Broadway is first a business, one that is affected like any other by the goings-on of the world. Broadway is changing. The theater profession has had to cut back extraordinarily to deal with the impact of the economy on ticket sales. They’ve had to lower production costs. The actors and stagehands are lucky they are members of a union or else their pay would have been drastically cut by now as well. There is a constant cycle of shows coming, previewing, and barely running for a month before going out again to make room for the next batch of shows trying to make it. Work in the theater is always cyclical, but it is particularly unreliable right now. As shows close and theaters darken, jobs are lost. I will be entering a risky job environment in four years. This risk scares me enough that I have started to consider careers outside of the theater.
I’ve had an interest in psychology since my junior year of high school, but when I decided theater was going to be my life’s pursuit, I put psychology on the back burner and spent all my extra time in the theater working on shows. I’ve continued to take psychology classes, however, and as theater careers become more and more difficult to attain I have started to focus my attention back toward the psychology profession. And now, it addition to taking theater classes, I plan to study psychology in college as well, and maintain a strong background in the field. In that way, I’ll have another career option should a career in the theater profession fall through. Luckily for me, my “just-in-case” career option would actually fit me very well. I can really see myself as a psychologist or counselor because I love interacting with and helping people very much. I’m the friend that other friends always go to for help and advice, so a career in which I’m helping people is extremely attractive to me. I am particularly interested in Developmental and Adolescent Psychology, and believe I would make a great guidance counselor at a school or just a really good therapist for teenagers. So, even though this decision to broaden my college course focus is influenced by the recent economic downturn, it feels good to me. (Maybe I could even start a new profession – Theater Therapy!)