What Is Included In "Hospitality" Major?

[SanFranciscan]

This may seem like a silly question to ask a hospitality major, but restaurant managers and hotel managers were mostly high school graduates who had worked in the food and lodging industry for a long time before becoming managers. That is what they were while I was growing up. Given the high number of hospitality programs in schools and how "hospitality" programs can mean anything from vocational cooking schools to graduate degrees, I am curious.

What exactly are those of you here who are hospitality majors learning in school? I am very curious about what separates you and what you have in common.

 

[TotalDreamer]

Hmm I'd like to know too. A hospitality major sounds interesting, and I think I may consider it.

 

[Traveliz]

My daughter got her degree in Hospitality Management at UCF. Based on the classes she took it is sort of like a Business Degree with an emphasis on the Hospitality industry. She took a lot of management and accounting classes but they focused on the industry (hotels, country clubs, timeshares, theme parks, events). Within her degree you could have an emphasis as well (themeparks, hotels, restaurants, events)

She had some really hard classes (accounting), some pretty interesting ones (Ron Logan, former VP of Entertainment at Disney taught two of her classes) where she learned a lot on what goes on to get something put together and out there, event classes with special guest speakers, lots of projects of course. She isn't on these boards but from proof reading papers from her this is what I got out of her major!

She also went on some pretty cool field trips (some ritzy Golf Club in Orlando, Halloween Horror Nights at Universal), got to shadow a manager at Universal...so there was a lot of fun mixed in with the learning.

Liz

 

[Kae]

I have a friend has a similar degree She has worked for Vistitor Convention places, a museum & Now works for a Major hotel chain in the Corp Offices handles a region of hotels-booking large groups.

Kae

 

[SanFranciscan]

Thanks for the information y'all. I guess that I shall learn what all is taught as "hospitality" at the local level. I registered for an open house at Rosen College here in Orlando. I know that there were hospitality programs at San Francisco State University and at City College of San Francisco while I was working at each of their textbook stores, but they seemingly taught such totally different things.

I currently work as a photographer at Universal Studios, but I sure would like to do something that felt more like helping the guests instead of what often feels like bothering them. It is unfortunate that I feel this way at Universal Studios, but I never felt like a pest while photographing the fans and the players at the San Francisco Giants games. That was fun. I know that I am only doing my job while trying to stop people at the front gate, but I suspect half of the people entering USF hate us before they are even in the park.

 

[MyHappiestPlace]

My daughter got her degree in Hospitality Management at UCF. Based on the classes she took it is sort of like a Business Degree with an emphasis on the Hospitality industry. She took a lot of management and accounting classes but they focused on the industry (hotels, country clubs, timeshares, theme parks, events). Within her degree you could have an emphasis as well (themeparks, hotels, restaurants, events)

She had some really hard classes (accounting), some pretty interesting ones (Ron Logan, former VP of Entertainment at Disney taught two of her classes) where she learned a lot on what goes on to get something put together and out there, event classes with special guest speakers, lots of projects of course. She isn't on these boards but from proof reading papers from her this is what I got out of her major!

She also went on some pretty cool field trips (some ritzy Golf Club in Orlando, Halloween Horror Nights at Universal), got to shadow a manager at Universal...so there was a lot of fun mixed in with the learning.

Liz

I'm a senior at UCF-Rosen and this is right on the mark ! Its basically a business major with emphasis on hospitality (theme parks, resorts, restaurants and/or events). I've taken a class w/ Logan as well and it was pretty amazing. He has some great stories about his legacy at Disney - both in FL and Ca.

If you are interested in hospitality major I would highly recommend Rosen. Its a great school with some really decent profs.

 

[Rbeck]

I'm a senior at UCF-Rosen and this is right on the mark ! Its basically a business major with emphasis on hospitality (theme parks, resorts, restaurants and/or events). I've taken a class w/ Logan as well and it was pretty amazing. He has some great stories about his legacy at Disney - both in FL and Ca.

If you are interested in hospitality major I would highly recommend Rosen. Its a great school with some really decent profs.

How hard is it to get into the program at Rosen College of Hospitality Management? I am in the Hospitality program at my school, but would really like to go there.

 

[Traveliz]

Thanks for the information y'all. I guess that I shall learn what all is taught as "hospitality" at the local level. I registered for an open house at Rosen College here in Orlando. I know that there were hospitality programs at San Francisco State University and at City College of San Francisco while I was working at each of their textbook stores, but they seemingly taught such totally different things.

I currently work as a photographer at Universal Studios, but I sure would like to do something that felt more like helping the guests instead of what often feels like bothering them. It is unfortunate that I feel this way at Universal Studios, but I never felt like a pest while photographing the fans and the players at the San Francisco Giants games. That was fun. I know that I am only doing my job while trying to stop people at the front gate, but I suspect half of the people entering USF hate us before they are even in the park.

That open house at Rosen is what reeled my daughter in. Rosen is a easy campus and beautiful (in my opinion). They need more parking but aside from that its top notch. My daughter really liked the school.

Liz

 

[MickeyFan18]

Thanks for the information y'all. I guess that I shall learn what all is taught as "hospitality" at the local level. I registered for an open house at Rosen College here in Orlando. I know that there were hospitality programs at San Francisco State University and at City College of San Francisco while I was working at each of their textbook stores, but they seemingly taught such totally different things.

I currently work as a photographer at Universal Studios, but I sure would like to do something that felt more like helping the guests instead of what often feels like bothering them. It is unfortunate that I feel this way at Universal Studios, but I never felt like a pest while photographing the fans and the players at the San Francisco Giants games. That was fun. I know that I am only doing my job while trying to stop people at the front gate, but I suspect half of the people entering USF hate us before they are even in the park.

I noticed you were a Bay Area person like me so I thought I would throw in my two cents... I'm a graduate of San Jose State majoring in Hospitality. The degree I received is focused on Hospitality, Tourism and Event Management. Most of my courses were focused around hotels and restaurants with a few more niche classes available if you chose to participate. Mainly the classes are focused on the management side of these businesses; accounting, human resources and general customer service.

 

[captinhookedondisney]

I am a student at Cornell. Not their school of hospitality Managment but their labor school, though I have taken a class their.

Hospitality in my mind is really a business degree with a very finely tuned concentration on details associated with hotels. These include information systems (eg reservation systems), marketing, cooking, and then a lot of focus on guest satisfaction, while I can't explain it, different than how Disney does it, and Disney does it better.

 

[Wildmagic]

I'm about to start my final year in a Bachelor of Business in Hotel and Resort Management with Honours at an Australian university. It's essentially the same as a standard Bachelor of Business but more specialised. We do four units a semester for 2.5 years with topics like Tourism Theories and Practices, Accounting, Law, Research and Analysis, Human Resources and Food Services. They've also just started introducing new topics to the degree like Eco-tourism and Cruise tourism (wishing it had been introduced earlier as it includes a 10 day cruise as a 'field trip'). For the final semester everyone is required to do industry placement, working a minimum of 30 hours a week for 20 weeks. Then there is an optional fourth year in which students with 'sufficient' grades can write their thesis.

The three year degree (Bachelor of Business) is considered equivalent to three years industry experience while the four year degree (Honours) is considered equivalent to five years industry experience. There are also other similar degrees like Sports Tourism. In Australia hospitality degrees are becoming pretty popular, there are probably half a dozen universities offering hospitality degrees (Australia doesn't have many universities in total) and a few Hotel Schools which offer the same degrees. According to our school the demand for hospitality degrees is growing. I've been warned by other grads though that the degree is not so valuable when starting a career, as employers are just as happy to have someone with industry experience as a uni degree, but becomes more valuable after the first 5 years or so when applying for promotions and competing for jobs with other people that have a similar level of work experience but no degree. According to the statistics our university likes to recite graduates with a hospitality degree will be promoted faster and have higher salaries, but this should probably be taken with a grain of salt as the uni is always trying to drag in more students.

 

[SanFranciscan]

WildMagic, I understand what you are saying. On the whole the edu-business is not run for the benefit of students as most schools are really just in the lending business with student loans. However, better to study what you love and perhaps not get a job than study what you hate in hopes of getting a job which may never come.

 

[SanFranciscan]

I attended the open house at Rosen College on Friday. The main thing that I went away thinking was "When did I get so old?" since the people whom I got the impression were applicants were indeed very, very young. Some of the older people there, whom I got the impression were parents of prospective students since there was also a separate meeting for the parents, may have been prospective students. These days it seems like everybody and his grandmother are going to school so maybe it is not too late for me.

A large percentage of the students identified themselves as transfer students. Valencia College has been recommended to me as a good place to start to see whether I really am interested before I spend a great deal of money. Has anyone here had any experience with the hospitality program at Valencia College? My co-workers have told me that they think that I am a natural for the hospitality business, whatever that means.

 

[catkel3299]

I just graduated last Summer with a bachelor's degree in hospitality management from the University of West Florida in Pensacola. I did the Disney College Program in 2007 and a professional internship in 2008. In the last 2 years of my degree I was working full-time and attending school whenever I could save up enough money to register for more classes. Tuition has soared in the last few years and my final course (3 hours) in Summer 2011 cost me nearly $700!!! I'm certainly glad I finished, but I am still looking for my first "grown-up" job. I've applied for dozens of positions, but all have turned me down due to lack of management experience! It's incredibly frustrating, but hopefully I will have some luck soon. I want to relocate to Central Florida, but it seems like the only thing I can get hired to do is entry-level and I just feel like my education level and hospitality experience qualifies me for something a little higher on the pay-scale.

 

[Traveliz]

I attended the open house at Rosen College on Friday. The main thing that I went away thinking was "When did I get so old?" since the people whom I got the impression were applicants were indeed very, very young. Some of the older people there, whom I got the impression were parents of prospective students since there was also a separate meeting for the parents, may have been prospective students. These days it seems like everybody and his grandmother are going to school so maybe it is not too late for me.

A large percentage of the students identified themselves as transfer students. Valencia College has been recommended to me as a good place to start to see whether I really am interested before I spend a great deal of money. Has anyone here had any experience with the hospitality program at Valencia College? My co-workers have told me that they think that I am a natural for the hospitality business, whatever that means.

I don't know about a Hospitality program at Valencia but my daughter did take a few lower level classes there (math) to complete a requirement. You are going to end up with two years (basically) of classes at Rosen anyway to complete the degree so if you are going to Valencia I would get all the lower level done there and then transfer over.

Liz

 

[SanFranciscan]

I just graduated last Summer with a bachelor's degree in hospitality management from the University of West Florida in Pensacola. I did the Disney College Program in 2007 and a professional internship in 2008. In the last 2 years of my degree I was working full-time and attending school whenever I could save up enough money to register for more classes. Tuition has soared in the last few years and my final course (3 hours) in Summer 2011 cost me nearly $700!!! I'm certainly glad I finished, but I am still looking for my first "grown-up" job. I've applied for dozens of positions, but all have turned me down due to lack of management experience! It's incredibly frustrating, but hopefully I will have some luck soon. I want to relocate to Central Florida, but it seems like the only thing I can get hired to do is entry-level and I just feel like my education level and hospitality experience qualifies me for something a little higher on the pay-scale.

I am so sorry catkel. It is probably just a sign of the times that I have worked with many college graduates, some with master's degrees, who can't believe the way that their lives have turned out afterward as they are working at the same sort of jobs as people like myself with no degree at all. I am truly sorry for your sacrifice which has not paid off. Maybe it still will.

I keep reading in the news media that unemployment is lower among college graduates, but I am sure that a large percentage of that is due to the fact that graduate students are not counted among the unemployed. When the economy dives, graduate school applications go way up.

I hope you enjoyed your classes while you were in them.

 

[Jackiebell90]

At my school (Purdue University Calumet) our Hospitality & Tourism Management Program involves everything from learning accounting to tourism to cooking. The biggest portions of our degree include a sanitation class where we get a ServSafe certificate, and two classes (one is for casual lunch, the other is fine dining dinner) where each week, two students act as managers and plan the menu for that week and we quite literally open a restaurant that people make reservations to every week where we do everything from serve to cook to do dishes. Our program is currently expanding to include classes involving real estate and event planning.