Impractical. It's a word that many College students get slapped with. For example, psychology, English and religious studies are majors supposedly lacking in resume worthiness and ample career opportunities.
Everyone knows the good jobs are in the business world. But to many students of the humanities, the word "business" evokes daunting images of calculators and accounting spreadsheets.
To help liberal arts majors gain practical experience in the business world, the Commerce School offered an intensive five-week program last summer
the McIntire Business Institute.
The MBI is one of four executive development programs offered by the Commerce School. The institute was created in 1982, and was the first program of its kind in the country, said Neil Snyder, a Commerce professor and one of the program's founders.
Mirror programs in universities around the nation soon imitated the MBI, Snyder said from behind his desk in his office in Monroe Hall.
The MBI previously had been offered only to college graduates. Last summer was the first time rising fourth-year students were invited to apply to the program.
Third-year students who want to get a jump-start on their business careers might want to consider applying to the program. That search for your first job search gets going rather early
in late August and early September of your fourth year.
Recruiters swarm the campus in those initial autumn months, but 95 percent of on-Grounds interviews at the undergraduate level are for students in the Commerce School, Snyder said.
Clearly, having business knowledge is an valuable asset in a job market so attuned to business.
"A lot of the College students don't get worried about jobs until their fourth year -- late in their fourth year -- and that is dangerous," Snyder said.
Having been a participant in MBI is an impressive and valuable advantage on a resume, he continued.
"The MBI is a way to send a signal, 'I'm interested in business,'" Snyder said. "It offers the College students an opportunity to get the college education that they want and at the same time show the companies that they are interested in business."
College student Praveen Kathpal, who is graduating this December, participated in MBI last summer.
"It's useful for a student in the College who hasn't had a lot of exposure to business," he said.
Kathpal is a cognitive science and economics double major.
He said entering the Commerce School would have kept him from taking a broad spectrum of classes.
"I didn't want to go that in-depth into business, because I knew if I wanted to pursue a career in business, that's the kind of thing I could learn at a place like MBI," he said.
All types of students have participated in the MBI program: law students, Architecture and Engineering School graduates, and College students. Many fourth-year students enroll in the program after being hired by a company.
"Once you're hired, the impression you make early on will make a lasting impression. You want to be identified as a fast tracker," Snyder said.
The program itself is not for those unwilling to work hard. The day starts at 9 a.m. and ends at 3:45 p.m. Four 75-minute instruction periods fill the day.
Five faculty members team up to teach, specializing in the five main sectors of the program: accounting, finance, management, information technology and marketing.
The classes are highly interactive and often center on the active discussion of reading assignments, Snyder said.
The work is not graded, nor does it count for academic credit, but regular attendance is expected and graduation from the program is contingent on going to a very high number of classes, he said.
Students also focus on casework, which involves learning about a corporation and evaluating its business proposition
and the risks, difficulties, possibilities and value of its products and services.
Snyder held up several thick paperclipped packets of casework, one in particular about CityNet, a company striving to solve what is known as the last mile problem: getting high-bandwidth fiber-optic cables into homes.
The students learn to "put themselves in the position of the people who run the company," Snyder said.
When the program promises to provide a working knowledge of business, it doesn't overexaggerate.
The topics covered include stock portfolio simulations, financial reports and learning how to run a company.
Kathpal agreed that the program did an admirable job of introducing a vast range of material. He said that becoming familiar with the jargon of the business world was the most valuable part of the program.
"Even if you don't keep the details and concepts, in the future knowing the vocabulary helps as far as understanding what's happening in the newspaper, understanding what people are talking about when they discuss business," Kathpal said.
The MBI also addresses the important topics of career focusing and the in's and out's of job searching.
"We want them to think about what they really like so they can focus their job search," Snyder said of the career component of MBI.
Kathpal agreed that the program has aided him in job interviews.
"It signals to employers that I do have an interest in business," Kathpal said. "People in business are looking to hire people who have non-business backgrounds.
But a big challenge for them is knowing that going into business is going to hold the interest of the people who they hire. And I feel like having that on my resume signals to them, 'yes I am interested.'"
MBI does make a difference. Snyder reports getting positive student feedback and news of successful job searches "all the time
glowing letters and e-mails."
"I love it," Snyder says with an infectious grin. "It's fun. What's fun is the students
watching how they develop during that time span. Our participants become better informed in current things than their parents."
As much as the faculty is impressed with the students, Kathpal had amazing comments on the faculty as well.
"Some members of the faculty were unbelievable -- very dynamic, really able to get students interested. And they're very accessible. I felt like you could get to know faculty more as people than as just as a teacher."
Acceptance into the MBI program is dependent on an application process.
The amount of people who are admitted, and the number who have to be turned away vary each summer, Snyder said. Applications are available online at the McIntire Web site and are not due until the spring.
"This gives you access to more opportunities," Snyder said. "You're opening doors."
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