Michael Stahl’s article in the Kansas City Star considers the bad market for 2009 college graduates and offers some advice for incoming freshmen.

This article made me think. What advice through the lens of personal finance would I give to incoming freshman choosing a major, career, or school?

Here’s three pieces of advice that I would give:

1. Don’t look at colleges. Look at departments. Harvard is a great school. Is it a great school for an Art History degree? Maybe or maybe not. Many schools have built their reputations in areas other than your chosen major. You need to find out what colleges are respected in your field. Often times, schools with lesser ranks and lower price tags will have a couple of really outstanding departments, though their overall ranking may not be in the Ivy League stratosphere. Take for example the University of Michigan’s or University of Illinois-Urbana’s engineering departments ranked 2nd and 4th ahead of countless schools with better overall ranks. If you did your research beforehand, you could have saved about a $100,000 or more going to these schools instead of the Ivy Leagues.

2. There’s no better way to realize what you should be doing in college than looking for a job or internship in your field early on. Often, students go through all of college not really knowing what skills are valuable in their field until their first job search. Employers want more than a degree, find out what they want.

3. If you’re going into a major with a low average salary or a tough job market, plan ahead. Maybe a $150,000 loan isn’t appropriate for a major expecting a $30,000 salary (here’s a list of 2008’s top ten starting salaries). Not everything is about money, but if you decide on a low paying major, you should adjust your college plans to your major’s job market. Maybe an average accounting major will do just fine after college, despite drinking at keg parties four days a week. But if your major is particularly scarce in the job market, then buckle down. You can’t afford to be average. Work harder than everyone else, and you should be fine in the long run.