The following are excerpts from "Liberal Arts Grads Finally Make the Grade with Firms," an article by Richard T. Cooper in the Los Angeles Times on October 5, 1999.
In the super-tight job market of today's expanding economy, even firms on the cutting edges of technology cannot sign up enough computer science or electrical engineering or business majors to meet their needs. As a result, more and more businesses have broadened their recruiting efforts to include once-shunned liberal arts students. Latin majors are hot. Career placement advisors are thrilled.
Predictably, the greatest demand is for math and science majors. Foreign language majors are also in demand with schools.
Surprisingly, while Spanish majors are highly sought after, the sharpest appetite is for Latin majors, according to Davis-White. "People say 'What? Latin?' But Latin's alive and kicking, despite being a dead language," she said.
Recruiters are eager to find college graduates who majored in Latin because high school students in significant numbers continue to want to study it. Some are attracted to Latin for the mental discipline and for what it teaches about the inner workings of English and many other languages. Latin is also popular with students who may want to go to medical school or specialize in biology or other sciences that use Latin words in their terminology.
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