Informatics majors look forward to high paychecks

The School of Informatics officially opened this semester, making it the first new school to emerge on campus in more than 25 years. Students who choose to major, minor or receive a certificate in this field will find many jobs available to them when they graduate, school officials said.\nDean of Informatics Michael Dunn said the cognate area that the student is studying would be the key to what type of job the person receives. Some example cognate areas are journalism, economics, chemistry, fine arts, public and environmental affairs, telecommunications, computer science and interior design.\n"A student with a cognate area in fine arts could possibly be a digital artist or graphic designer," Dunn said. "Also with chemistry for example, the student could work for a pharmaceutical firm. They would work with information technologies in that particular industry."\nThe school teaches about information technology applied to solving human problems.\n"Unlike computer science that focuses on core technologies, our students will be trained with tools used in various disciplines and be able to use and participate in development," Dunn said.\nHe said starting salaries will vary widely depending on the cognate area, but overall salaries should range between $40,000 to $60,000 a year.\n"The interesting feature about the School of Informatics is that it allows students to explore information technologies and subject matter and end up with the credentials to get a well-paying job," Dunn said.\nBecause informatics is a new school, there aren't any graduates as of now, but the school hopes to have a placement and internship program in place in a year and a half to two years.\n"Information Technology Association of America currently has one million, six hundred thousand vacancies in information-technology related jobs," Dunn said. "These jobs will continue to develop since there is a need for them, and right now the Midwest is the hottest region for new technology jobs."\nHe said other related jobs are virtual set designer, Webmaster, database developer and software developer.\n"There are brand new jobs that people aren't even aware of like a user experience analyst," Dunn said. "These people design computers and computer interfaces."\n"Students trained broadly with information technologies are very likely candidates for decision support or management positions of information technology issues," he said. "The school tries to educate students broadly since people change careers three and four times during their life."\nFreshman Jonathan Raimondi is majoring in informatics and is taking I101, an introductory course to informatics.\n"I am happy with the way class is going, and things are pretty good right now," Raimondi said. "I am going to go into network engineering probably with my degree in informatics."\nDunn said with informatics it is like a two-way street as students can minor in it instead of majoring.\n"You will still get a heavy dose about information technologies through a minor in Informatics," Dunn said.\nFreshman Cory Steger is majoring in computer science and is unsure of what he will do with informatics at this point. He is also enrolled in I101, introduction to informatics, and is just exploring his options right now.\n"There are a lot of careers in informatics, and it is an up-and-coming profession," Steger said. "My teacher tells us that there are so many jobs out there"