EVANSTON – While job fairs at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have been well attended by many prestigious firms, such as Boeing, Schneider Electric, and Microsoft, the School of Communication is excited to report a massive influx of recruiting pressure from Starbucks for this year’s graduating class.

“This might come as kind of a surprise, given the rigor of the Comm curriculum,” theater major Kirk Hammill told The Flipside, “but I was actually kind of worried about finding a job after graduation.”

For Hammill, who will start in July as a barista at Starbucks’ Grand Central location in New York, his new job is a “dream come true.” “I’ll practically be on Broadway!” he exclaimed over his no-whip, non-fat, extra-hot double hazelnut mocha.

Department Chair Matthew Schlue says he couldn’t be happier that his students are finally receiving recognition for all the hard work they’ve invested in their education here at NU. “Now when they overhear Business Majors talk about their Wall Street interviews while toiling away on their one weekly homework assignment at Norbucks, they can know that they’re special too,” he told The Flipside to the tune of “Don’t Stop Believin’.”

According to Hammill, the application process was no “chorus-line harmony.” In a strenuous first-round group interview process, applicants were asked difficult milk-based questions, like, “How does the froth to espresso ratio compare in a cappuccino versus a latte?”

Hammill says that some of the philosophy majors present made real fools of themselves during the interview. “Ugh, such amateurs. I think one even said a Café Americano is coffee based. He probably wouldn’t have known Barbara Streisand from Patti Lupone.” (Upon hearing the latter statement, Rachelle Terry, a close friend of Hamill’s who has received a Music Theater Certificate , screamed and ran out of the coffee shop where this interview was conducted).

After breezing through round one, Hammill says that he knew he sealed the deal at a dinner a few weeks ago. While Google recruits have reported being taken out to dinner at such culinary hot spots as Charlie Trotter’s and Alinea in downtown Chicago, Starbucks executives treated to high-profile candidates like Hammill to an evening at the Applebee’s location just a little farther down Michigan Ave. “I knew I had the New York position in a lock when the regional manager asked me, ‘If you could draw any picture or write any message in latté foam, what would it be and why?’ I said the opening verse of ‘Memory’ from ‘Cats.’ The Head of Human Relations was so moved that she cried.”