More than half of respondents to the Wall Street Journal’s poll of 479 college recruiters said that the skill grads lack most is a combination of critical thinking, problem solving skills and the ability to think independently, the WSJ reports.

This isn’t to say that new grads are dumb. On the contrary: Sara Holoubek, chief executive of Luminary Labs, a boutique consulting firm in New York, says that the new grads she hires are more observant than their bosses. But they have trouble turning their observations into a strategy, she adds.

So schools are changing curricula to focus on critical and analytical thinking skills. George Washington University’s school of arts and sciences is changing its science requirement: “Freshmen will no longer simply complete a science class and get credit for a required course. They’ll have to prove proficiency in scientific reasoning to pass. To measure that, professors are designing evaluation standards and assignments to test students on their reasoning skills.”

The WSJ adds though that it’s not certain that today’s grads are lacking anything. It simply may be that the modern workplace demands more from everyone.

In the meantime, think hard. Employers like it.

Finally some of those big-state schools get a little respect. According to a survey by the Wall Street Journal, recruiters favored schools with larger populations over the more prestigious Ivy Leagues.

The recession hit all aspects of business life, including the recruiters. Because of the downturn, recruiters had to cut costs and work more efficiently at finding the right candidate to fill a specific job post. And they found the larger schools that also teach “practical skills” transitioned quicker and smoother for their organizations, according to the WSJ.

“We’re all accountable to the bottom line,” said recruiting leader at Deloitte LLP Diane Borhani.

Coming in at the top choice, according to the survey was Pennsylvania State University, followed by Texas A&M University and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The Ivy League schools didn’t fall into the top five, although recruiters did say they still recruit from the schools. And in specific industries, some Ivy League schools ranked high, like Harvard (4) in business and economics.

Not exactly a surprise, but also many of the Ivy League graduates attend post-graduate school, holding off their search.

Guess that expensive Ivy League tuition might not be all it’s cracked up to be in times of economic turmoil. But I’m sure the graduates will do just fine anyways.

Photo by j.gresham

In a sign of the times or a sad statement on society at large, depending on how you view it, Kansas Department of Education is threatening to cut funds for high-school journalism students across the state.

The loss of funds could come in 2012-2013 because the state does not view the field as a viable career option. I’m not sure if I should be offended, but I think I am. A spokeswoman for the state’s education department told the Topeka Capital-Journal that the department studied labor market data and came to the conclusion that journalism doesn’t show enough job growth.

“According to the education department’s website, CTE funding is given to programs that provide students with the technical knowledge and skills needed for further education or make them employable in a skilled profession straight out of high school,” wrote CJ reporter Corey Jones.

This seems like a shortsighted view of the profession and what kids learn in high-school programs, like school papers. What about the ability to form a sentence, or a group of sentences to make an argument? Those skills help in almost all professions.

The heavy losses won’t come until 2012. “With the emphasis on No Child Left Behind and testing, other areas aren’t so much taking a hit,” said journalism adviser at Topeka West High School Kristy Dekat to CJ. “Especially with the other areas that fall under the CTE funding, they aren’t being hit. It’s just journalism that’s taking the blow.”

Sad.

(h/t Romenesko)

Why go to college and learn about magnetic fields or differential equations when you could start your own business, making money for the future? MediaShift has a rundown of those young visionaries in the media industry who used their time in the dormitory as a chance to create something new instead of listening to someone teach.

While some of these ambitious students might have lost a little edge in their GPA, does it really matter now?

“My schoolwork certainly took a beating as a result of College Humor,” said CollegeHumor.com co-creator Josh Abramson to MediaShift. “I got so much more excited about building something real than working on a case study in business class or something like that… Every free second I had was spent working on the site. You know, when everyone else was in the library working on schoolwork, I was in my room, emailing Ricky [Van Veen], trying to sell an ad deal or something else specific to College Humor.”

Not a bad way to learn about the media industry. Also with the freedom of college, no bills, cheap food, rent-free living (for some), why not take advantage of the time and create something based on your passion?

That’s what Zephyr Basine, creator of the blog College Fashion, did. “I don’t think I could have started my site had I not been in college,” said Basine to MediaShift. “College is great because my parents paid for everything. I didn’t have to worry about meals. I didn’t have to worry about housing. And my classes were even really easy for me… So I could just work on my site all the time.”

I knew I should have done something better with my time outside of class; now I just feel lazy.

Photo by B*2

Journalists looking to switch beats to business reporting (and we wouldn’t blame you): check out the upcoming free webinar from the Reynolds Center for Business Journalism: “Develop Business Angles on Any Beat.” It could be a first step in your career switch.

The center says that the webinar will:
“help all journalists identify business angles in their stories (news, sports); give you some basic tips for reporting on companies or finances; help brainstorm ways to reframe stories for a business audience.”

Your instructors will be Robin J. Phillips, managing editor of BusinessJournalism.org and a longtime business editor, and Chad Graham, social media editor at The Arizona Republic and former economy reporter. And all you gots to do is sign up. Completing three workshops will get you a certificate from the center, too.

Want to start your own journalism business? Writer and CUNY professor Jeff Jarvis has a call to arms for all those want-to-be entrepreneurial journalists to consider taking his class.

Jarvis is having trouble filling the class, and has asked people outside the CUNY community to join.

“I’d especially like a few under- or unemployed journalists looking to start businesses in the class to add to the mix of experience among the students,” said Jarvis in a blog post. “I’ve also had students from other schools in the past.”

It sounds like a sweet program. In the class, he will discuss the elevator pitch, market research and launch plan, among other tools needed to know before starting a new website.

“At the end of the class in December, you present your plan to a jury of investors, entrepreneurs, journalists, publishers, and technologists (it’s great fun, that day),” said Jarvis.

The class costs a little under $1,000, but Jarvis is attempting to get some money for aid. You can contact him directly, if you’re interested.

As the world of journalism changes, shouldn’t the way journalists learn the trade change as well? That’s what Colorado University claims as it considers shutting down its School of Journalism and Mass Communication and installing a school of information.

Of course, the changes have something to do with the economic environment as well, but Colorado officials have begun to review the school’s “discontinuance” policy and started an exploratory committee investigating a possible implementation of a school that focuses on information, communication and technology, according to the Daily Camera.

Currently Colorado’s journalism school has 647 undergraduates, 58 master’s students and 26 doctoral students, which will all be allowed to graduate under the old program. A possible new school focused on information could open as early as 2012.

The journalism school is also accepting of this change. “The faculty is ready to embrace this,” said the dean of the journalism school Paul Voakes to the Daily Camera.

More and more of these information schools have begun to pop up across the country from the University of Cal-Berkeley to Rutgers.

“News and communications transmission as well as the role of the press and journalism in a democratic society are changing at a tremendous pace,” said Chancellor Phil DiStefano in a press release. “We must change with it.”

Personally, the change seems logical to me. But since everything these days is about content, can we call the program the School of Content? It seems more appropriate and to the point.

We don’t normally post about comings-and-goings of our parent site mediabistro, but a new offer is out there for those wanting to better themselves. And lets face it, with school getting geared up for the fall, why shouldn’t we all consider going back to classroom to learn something new?

Anyone who signs up for a fall multi-week course by August 27 at mediabistro will receive a free self-paced course, which normally runs for $179. Not bad, right?

So if you sign up for the Resume and Cover Letter Writing course, which is a two-week class for $250, you would also get a chance to choose among six self-paced courses. These self-paced courses range from lessons on career change to new media, and will allow you to learn without that pesky teacher getting in your way.

For more information, check out the promotion page here.

U.C. Berkeley is considering adding a $5,000 annual fee for incoming graduate students, according to an internal memo from Dean Neil Henry obtained by Romenesko.

The memo reads, in part:

Like other campus units, the J-School has been forced to cut deeply into its permanent budget. Last year, the campus imposed a $150,000 permanent cut. We don’t know what the future holds, but we are certain that cut will not be restored any time soon and other cuts may face us when the Legislature passes a new budget.

We also have increased our private fund raising, attracting three new endowed chairs totaling $6 million, more than $2 million in new foundation grants, and hundreds of thousands of dollars from private donors to support our mission. Endowments in their early years, however, do not yield enough revenue to cover cuts elsewhere and grants are temporary.

We still must find steadier sources of revenue to meet expenses and maintain our basic operations.

The school costs $13,253 yearly for in-state students, and $28,559 for out of state students. With the fee, costs would be $18,253 and $33,559 respectively.

The dean also noted that the school has witnessed a 60 percent rise in applications from 2009 to 2010. The new fee will undoubtedly discourage some applicants, but about 1/3 of the money collected would go right back to scholarships, the dean said.

TV personality and travel journalist Robin Esrock wants to teach you how to be a travel writer.
Well, immersion’s the best solution, right? So that’s why you can join him (read: pay a rather large amount of money) to trek through the Himalayas for a view (from afar) of Mt. Everest while picking his brain on how to write and pitch stories and learning how he landed his National Geographic show.

And, because every company on the planet likes these free-publicity-for-a-”job” gigs, the fifteen people on this three-week trip will be blogging about the trip, and the best blogger wins a trip to Peru.

Still, if you’ve got $3,890 and a plane ticket to LA (where the expedition leaves from), there are worse ways to learn about travel writing. Ask your accountant if it’s tax-deductible.

Second thought: what a brilliant money-making side business for a writer. Anyone ever given thought to doing something like this? “Plein aire” writing workshops, anyone?

photo: A.Ostrovsky