The good news is at you don’t need to declare your major at ND until spring semester or can put it off until sophomore year. Please don’t make any decisions based on marketing materials.
FWIW, based on your reaction and your comments, I think you are going to love ND. When we visited, all anyone talked about was the school’s core values, going on mission trips, etc… It was very, very hard to get anyone from students to professors to talk about career readiness.
@momofsenior1
I do hope so. While I am an atheist, I attended a Christian high school and the spirit of service to something higher than one’s own needs rubbed off on me. It was one of the reasons I ranked Notre Dame for the QB NCM.
I think you are going to have a wonderful experience at ND and it will be the right match for you. Congratulations!
@intparent
I don’t yet know what job I want, hence my reluctance to commit to anything specific. Considering just how poor of a background I come from, the money I will earn with any degree from Notre Dame will be astronomically higher. In that sense, I must be content with whatever I am given.
You have a chance to help lift your family out of poverty. Consider being a little more deliberate about that goal.
@intparent
Again, achieving that goal and choosing a “less profitable” degree are not mutually exclusive. Any degree from Notre Dame that I would be interested in (from the numbers I’ve seen) leads to salaries that are unimaginable for us. Compared to our grand income of $300 a month in child support, my future pay will be magnificent. To bring out of poverty does not mean to make rich; I find no fulfillment in the latter as a goal in itself.
Just keep it in mind. $40K a year probably seems like unimaginable riches to you. In 20 years, you might wish you’d been more deliberate in your choices. I can say that I majored in something that wasn’t my favorite academic subject. But it had excellent career prospects, and I’ve been able to support myself and send my kids to college even after a divorce, and am on track for a comfortable retirement. I thank my stars that I didn’t pick a more fun but less lucrative career. I still have a lot of outside interests and hobbies - you don’t have to give up other interests just because you pick a course of study with good job prospects and decent salary growth prospects.
@intparent
We have different value systems. I place my intellectual enjoyment above anything. My work as a student has been my only source of joy in life; my work as an adult will have to fulfill the same function.
Okay. Just suggesting that a combination of practical and interesting has a lot of benefits. Carry on.
“We have different value systems. I place my intellectual enjoyment above anything. My work as a student has been my only source of joy in life; my work as an adult will have to fulfill the same function.”
“I’m very well aware of that. I’m not expecting to actually be doing academic physics with just a bachelor’s. If I choose to go that route, then obviously a PhD will be needed.”
I believe people here (who are likely experienced adults) are actually genuinely trying to help you. When you dismiss their suggestions, it sounds like you just don’t want their advice. If you are asking for advice, perhaps take it with a grain of salt while a the same time not insulting those who give it. Just some advice that may serve you some day in the workplace.
@WineLover
My responses contain no insults. I dismiss the advice in the sense that it is not applicable to me due to me having a fundamentally different worldview regarding the importance of money. Dismissal does not mean disrespect.
@QB18ND23 I give you that generally speaking, dismissal does not mean disrespect. However from my perspective, dismissal on a repeated basis to the majority of those who have reached out to assist will not serve you if you need help again. This is just advice for you as a young adult entering the world of higher education and eventually the workplace. And with that, I rest my case. To quote an earlier poster, “Carry on.”
The potential concern, from the first response to OP’s initial posting down this thread, is not so much how he/she interacts on CC, but concerns the integration into the Notre Dame community and with fellow Notre Dame students come August. The best advice, which has been provided repeatedly on here by different folks to the OP, is to keep an open mind, carefully explore his/her options and the new environment at Notre Dame, before rushing to judgement. This really is all there is to it, OP clearly is smart enough to have been admitted to Notre Dame, whether he/she will take this, or any other, advice needs to be seen. Very unfortunately every year there is a small number of incoming First-Year students who do not make this transition successfully and transfer out (ND has an exceptionally high freshman/sophomore return rate of 98%).
@QB18ND23 very best of luck and success!
I’m not insulted. The OP is young and idealistic. It is their option to use the gift of their free education in a way that doesn’t help them improve their financial situation. He doesn’t have a mortgage, kids, medical bills, any interest in saving for retirement yet, or a six month emergency fund. I’m not actual promoting a finance/Wall Street path here. But consider a minor or some coursework in statistics. CS, business, or something practical to round out other skills. It gives you more options later on.
I don’t know. Young and idealistic, perhaps. But there is a lack of humility there that doesn’t sit right with me. But maybe I’m being overly sensitive.
@intparent
I take issue with the premise that my educational choices will not improve my financial situation. As I said before, a bachelor’s degree in physics is still profitable and, what’s more, opens the doors to any number of paths of study in graduate school. The three that I find most appealing are engineering, medical physics, and academic physics. Which one I choose will depend on my undergraduate experiences. Neither of these leads to poverty, especially the former two.
While, from what I’ve read, minors in other subject areas aren’t possible at Notre Dame, I could still minor in major-specific courses. For physics, there is a minor in applied physics (with sub-concentrations in aerodynamics, computational methods, etc.) Alternatively, I could consider a dual degree with applied mathematics and computational statistics. All of these are potentially interesting and, if I do choose to pursue one of these in addition to my major, it will be purely out of a desire for intellectual satisfaction, not marketability. If money comes my way out of the educational choices I’ve made (and given my interests, it likely will), then so be it, but I can never let money be the motivator behind those choices.
@WineLover
Do please point out where I have shown a lack of humility. I likely have Asperger’s, so it’s possible I may have said something that is socially rude, but which does not seem so to me.
Learning for the sake of learning is usually limited to students from affluent families who have connections to help their kids launch in life and a career. These affluent parents will often subsidize their kids after graduation while they do unpaid internships or work in low paying jobs until they get their 'break", usually through parental connections. Even these affluent kids have to eventually grow up and take responsibility for themselves.
I think tone gets totally lost when you aren’t face to face. OP has stated repeatedly there was no intent to be rude.
I think that what many older posters, myself included, are reacting to is that this is extremely idealistic. That’s OK, you are maybe all of 18.
Intellectual satisfaction and marketability are not mutually exclusive.
@QB18ND23 While it certainly is very good to plan ahead, please be careful with your information sources: “While, from what I’ve read, minors in other subject areas aren’t possible at Notre Dame…”. This is not the case, our DD, a third-year Engineering Major, minors in Business and another Arts and Letters Minor, so this certainly is possible and actually quite common at Notre Dame.