<p>Freshman S just announced that he is getting serious about declaring political science as his major and I'm happy about it. It suits him well. Although there is a part of me that is worried about how marketable he will be as a result.</p>
<p>Are you happy with your child's major? Are you trying to steer them in another direction for money reasons or other reasons?</p>
<p>My instinct says to leave it alone. It's his decision and it's up to him to make the best of it and build his own life.</p>
<p>I’m haven’t been wildly pleased with my son’s major, but it is his choice to make. (I have never indicated to him in any way that I am less than enthusiastic about it.) Actually, he has recently discovered an interest in a somewhat allied field that seems to spark his intellect the way I hoped something would. He probably has enough time left to minor in that subject, and I hope could pursue it at the graduate level afterwards, if he so wishes. </p>
<p>My deepest desire for him was that he fall in love with a subject that provided him with the kind of deep intellectual stimulation and creativity that inspires him. I didn’t really sense that that was happening with his primary major, which is the only reservation I had about it.</p>
<p>Both chose subjects that they really like and that happen to have excellent employment potential – computer science for one and economics for the other.</p>
<p>Ms. Economics is finishing her bachelor’s degree and has a job waiting for her that starts in July (she got the job before Thanksgiving). Mr. Computer Science is finishing his master’s degree and is looking for a job now; he doesn’t have an offer yet, but there seem to be plenty of possibilities out there.</p>
<p>I say go with your instincts. It’s hard to know where a particular interest or passion will lead. Unless the kid is just completely lost I would not want to interfere. I’ve worked for a CEO with an undergrad degree in music. One of our top local news personalities has a degree in chemical engineering. Who knew? This stuff just doesn’t always move in a straght line.</p>
<p>With a bachelor’s degree costing so much and the economy so bad, it’s hard not to worry about the choice of major somewhat. When I was in college, large corporations routinely hired liberal arts grads from the better schools as management trainees. Those days are over. But it’s shortsighted to assume that there are some majors (i.e. engineering, business) that are “golden tickets” to a job while others are not. I wouldn’t have a problem with my child deciding on an “impractical” liberal arts major as long as he understood that with that choice, there is the responsibility to aggressively seek out internship opportunities, to self-market energetically, and to be realistic and proactive about finding paid employment after college. No one is going to give you a job just because you have a B.A. in Political Science, English, or History. It’s up to you to figure out what to do with it.</p>
<p>Mine has one arts major and one hard science major. She chose to do both. Her education is so well-rounded at this point, her friends (mainly from the arts) call her the renaissance girl. Renaissance girl seems to be always interested and busy.</p>
<p>But, here’s the hillarious thing about it. The major we thought of as a glorified EC has led to this incredible employment opportunity. She’s so good at it that people are coming to her in a field where very few work professionally and she’s only a sophmore. It’s not even an internship but a full blown job. So, the thing we thought would lead nowhere is already a career, and the science turns out to be the EC. YOu just never know. She intends to keep the biochem though. She’s afraid she would be bored without it.</p>
<p>I truly never cared what our kids majored in. I only want them to enjoy what they chose and to be happy doing it. We support whatever they choose. I don’t really think about it too much as I just follow them and watch their lives unfold. I believe you should study what you are passionate about. They are doing that.</p>
<p>Yes. D1 is a political science major, and as you said about your son, it suits her. She is a real go-getter with a charismatic personality, so I think she will have success. She has worked hard to have great grades and hustled up some really fabulous internship opportunities. </p>
<p>I got wwaayyy too much pressure from my dad on my own major. I would express concern if I thought she was un-employable, but I think she has done a lot of things right and is well positioned.</p>
<p>I really expect all my kids to get graduate degrees, so at the undergrad level I’m primarily concerned that they learn to communicate, research, critically analyze, and synthesize understandings from multiple disciplines into novel understandings. Then, I expect that they’ll pursue a career at the masters level. IThere aren’t many undergraduate degrees that lead directly to careers these days. Those that do - ones which share their names with the name of a profession (accounting, engineering, nursing, et al) - lead to entry level positions. To move upwards from there requires the types of skills that I want my kids to get from their undergraduate experiences.</p>
<p>BTW, my two Ds are majoring in Government and in Gender Studies.</p>
<p>While job and career prospects are not (or should not be) the only criteria for choosing a major, it is best to know beforehand what they are like. A student who chooses a major knowing that job and career prospects for that major are poor would at least be making an informed decision, and may early on do things to improve his/her job and career marketability (e.g. chasing internships, out-of-major course selection, etc.), in contrast to another student in the same major who gave no thought to jobs and careers until the day before graduation and becomes the subject of a magazine article about “$100,000 in debt and no job”.</p>
<p>Also, not all assumptions about what majors have good job and career prospects are correct. Among sciences, biology and chemistry tend to have poor job and career prospects (think of all of the pre-meds who did not get into medical school flooding the market). Someone interested in chemistry may want to consider chemical engineering instead. Physics majors do better than biology and chemistry majors, but often do not work in physics – the financial industry tends to recruit them (as well as math and statistics majors) because they are assumed to have good math skills.</p>
<p>Even majors that generally have better job and career prospects are subject to economic cycles. Civil engineering graduates in 2009 faced a much worse job market than those graduating in 2005.</p>
<p>Well, my S got admitted to a special boutique sized (30 per class) program at Northwestern called Integrated Science Program. So as a freshman, he has one major of just that, ISP. Typically, students in that program double major, so it will be interesting to see where he heads with that, as in passing he’s mentioned math, applied math, industrial engineering and physics. </p>
<p>Since he wanted to major in interdisiciplinary science, which is what ISP offers in spades, we are pleased that he’s enjoying the program. He could go many different directions with this and is likely looking to see what the upperclassmen are doing.</p>
<p>It’s been pretty clear since about 2nd or 3rd grade that my oldest would be a comp sci major. He hasn’t wavered and graduates in a month. What’s not to like? He’s very marketable.</p>
<p>Younger son is still on track for International Relations. Tufts requires fluency in a language and he’s picked Arabic. It’s hard to believe that (assuming he does achieve fluency) he wouldn’t be useful somewhere with that.</p>
<p>I left it up to them. DD1 is majoring in English with a minor in Studio Arts with the intent to become a book editor. I only wish the economy were moving forward. DD2 is majoring in Math with a minor in Econ. I don’t worry about her future at all.</p>
<p>My son is just a freshman but is majoring in aerospace engineering. So far so good and I expect him to continue in this major until he graduates. My younger son is a high school junior and is intending to major in molecular biology and then go on to graduate school pursuing a PhD possibly in genetics. With all the advances in the biomedical science field, I feel confident he will be employable in some kind of research facility. Both of them are pursuing their passions but luckily they picked what I think are employable majors.</p>
<p>Pursuing one’s passion is fine, but someone going into biology should go into it with reasonable expectations about employability and perhaps be more aggressive at pursuing internships, choosing courses that improve employability, etc. in order to distinguish himself from all of those ex-pre-meds that he will be competing with for jobs.</p>
<p>We liked both of our kids’ majors. DS was a music performance major (who has a BM and a MM). DD has a BS in bioengineering and a B.S. in Biology. OK…ready…DS is working in his field. DD is not…and probably never will. She thinks she might become a physician’s assistant.</p>
<p>I like the PA career for the future. I think it’s going to be a really good field, with a good quality of life quotient, too. </p>
<p>I wonder at the idea of “choosing a major” based on career goals. I mean, life is so strange. My Husband, for a living, really uses daily, and very successfully, the only material in college he ever got a D in and had to take again for a passing grade. My degrees were so useless, I had to get one more, in the end. But my interests changed so much between 17 (when I started college), and 30, I might as well have been two entirely different people.</p>
<p>I like my kids’ majors because they like them (and they are employable).
Son = BS Engineering + MSME + MBA (alternate choice was music performance)
Daughter = BS Secondary Math Ed + BA Math (alternate choice was dentistry)
As long as my children are happy and successful at whatever they choose, I will be happy too!</p>
<p>I am happy with both my kids’ majors…older son is Math (graduating in May) and younger son is Chemical Engineering.</p>
<p>That said, when older son first said that he wanted to major in English, I told him that he could double major (LOL) or minor in English, but he couldn’t only major in English. (no offense to English majors). He loves math, so he majored in math and had 2 minors (neither was English) but did take few extra English classes for fun. Not once has he ever complained about my advice. He’s happy to be graduating in math, and he’s thrilled that he’ll begin his PhD in August.</p>
<p>I’m very happy that my D chose to major in Business with her emphasis in Accounting. Her other major is in Information Systems. (Mom is an Accounting professor at a local community college, so the apple did not fall far from the tree.) She had her choice of summer intern jobs coming up in June and chose to do Audit for a Big 4 Accounting firm in the San Jose CA region. My S, who enters college this Fall, will be majoring in Mechanical Engineering. Personally, I couldn’t tell you anything about a Balance Sheet or Quantum Physics so, thankfully, they did not follow in my footsteps!</p>