Well, for many reasons, the humanities are declining, and I think it is a sad thing. I wish undergrad years could still be about exploring areas of interest, growing the mind and reading/writing/research skills (I know, such an elitist idea), and there should be some flexibility in career choice at the end. It is becoming trade school. Understandable with the cost, and debt burden, but I think it is too bad.
Internships, jobs and volunteering during college can help a lot.
Plenty of kids seem to do fine “waiting it out,” living with roommates, working at entry level jobs, and eventually figure things out. If that isn’t your view of normalcy, it is mine. I have one working in CS and the other two in the arts, and I wouldn’t say the big money maker is the happiest.
I think it stoped being the norm when private college tuition climbed to 70k and students and their parents expect an immediate return on their investment, particularly if student loans,are due. I wish people would stop saying, they can always get an MBA. Obviously another degree can provide marketability if the first doesn’t, but not everyone has the extra 200k and 2 years that requires. And the market for MBAs is quite soft right now.
I love that some “pity” the bio major. I know three recent bio grads - two got good paying employment right out of college that they are thrilled with. The third got a job less to her liking, but is getting her grad degree through work for free. No pity needed.
Going back to OP’s original assertion, major does impact jobs. However, it’s hard to be certain that 10, 20, or 30 years from now, that major, whatever it is, will still be in demand. My S attends a tippy top in one of the currently most desirable fields (which also happens to be an area he’s currently most passionate about). He seems to be doing well both academically and socially (he’s at or near the top of his class after the first year and goes out with his friends almost every weekend). There seems to be plenty of opportunities for internships, from the biggest names in high tech to the biggest names in hedge funds. Nonetheless, I’m still concerned. Things change. If you take a closer look, some of these highest paying industries employ mostly young people. You won’t find too many employees in their 40s or beyond. Specialized skills may also become obsolete. It’s infinitely harder to learn new sophisticated skills when you’re in your 40s. That’s why some general skill set is helpful when your specialized skills become obsolete. My S also pursues a second major in biz/econ partly for that purpose.
That is why, for those who get to an income level substantially above subsistence, it may make sense to financially plan for the possibility of involuntary retirement at age 40-50.
Note that, even in the absence of explicit age discrimination, employers often expect that those with more experience are looking for upper level jobs at upper level pay, and are less likely to consider them for entry or mid level jobs. But there are fewer upper level jobs, and many of these are highly specialized (meaning that generalists and those in other specialties are unlikely to be hired).
Too late to edit, but the phenomenon described in reply #45 appears somewhat analogous to “up or out” in some industries like law, accounting, consulting, and higher education (for tenure-track faculty).
For 20 years or more, theyve been saying non-stem majors are dying.
No particular posters in mind, but if we want to congratulate ourselves on being savvy, we need to be open to ideas and actions, not just go on gut or something we read somewhere. And our kids need to be able to, so to say, dance on their toes.
All this reminds me of advice when I was in college, decades ago. Ultimately, we are responsible for our energies. If anything, we need to move away from the notion you walk into a high paying, perfect job. People still start in the proverbial mail room, you know.
Refining my earlier post, I think that any student enrolled in college can build a solid footing for a career AND grow their rational and analytical abilities in many fields of interest. It’s not an either-or proposition although some seem to think it is.
Additionally, many seem to take the rather elitist position that STEM curricula amount to little more than expanded trade school classes. If you fall into that category please check out the degree plans at any of the top research universities. The general education requirements are large and rich in reading, writing, and discussions/debates. As for research skills, STEM fields are typically driven by research and the internet has made what once was a tedious and time-consuming task much simpler allowing the student to spend more time on actually applying, expanding or refuting current knowledge.
I shared houses and apartments with others until I was 31. It’s not the end of the world. My CS kid is making lots of money, but honestly he’d be happy with half his salary.
I’m a speech pathologist. It was a shortage area with excellent job potential in 1973 when I graduated, and continues to be now over 40 years later. The standards for licensure have changed as well as the masters programs. When I started, there were still places where a speech path could work with a bachelors. Now the masters is the entry level degree. Plus, masters programs are now two years, while mine was one.
So…some jobs DO stand the test of time. But I didn’t choose my major because of that. I chose it because I actually liked the work (we had practicum beginning sophomore year).
Does the job itself require much more actual skill and knowledge now than before? If so, then it may be expected that the required or expected education is greater, but requiring a two year master’s degree instead of a bachelor’s degree significantly raises the barrier to entry to the profession.
If you’re in a field where innovations are constant, you have to innovate along with it. If you can’t keep up with the innovations, your career will likely suffer in such a field. Firms in these sectors/fields certainly pay more (well into the six figures for many new grads), but they may not be the best choice for everyone.
I see humanities majors getting jobs out of college - here are examples. Small startups hiring them to do lots of things - pysch major working in marketing, english major working at content development for social media, and art major doing graphic design. I see archaeology majors getting Park Ranger jobs (their dream job), another humanities major going into real estate, and another humanities major running a yoga studio and doing personal training.
They may not be making the 6 digits that the CS major in California is making, but most are able to move out of mom and dad’s house and get an apartment in the city with roommates (and we are talking expensive NYC or Hoboken here). The secret is to figure out what you enjoy and what skills you have and to find a job that works with that.
The job application process is horrible. Worse than college applications. You see a great job online and 24 hours later it disappears. You send your resume into a black hole at a company and after getting an email saying they got it, you never hear back again. Just like with college apps, ease of application has exploded the number of applicants per job.
I also see lots of job hopping within the first few years out of college. When their “starter” job doesn’t work out, they move on to find something different. Sometimes different can be something totally different - new field, new type of work, etc.
Finally, the world of work is changing so quickly that the jobs these kids are getting today did not exist 20 years ago. Who knows what jobs will exist 20 years from now? I don’t believe they will be retiring at 40 or 50 (forced or not). I think they will be working later into life then ever, as they will have to pay for their health care and have no pension to fall back on.
Every few months we recreate the same arguments about choice of majors, job choices, and careers. Students need to be flexible, adapt to economic opportunities, overcome roadblocks, yet also gain skills and experiences that cumulate into something that we call a “career.” To quote myself from 2 years ago (an argument that I’d made here before then): Who here among the 'rents had one job or even one career that they began right out of college and continued until they retired? I would venture that this is less than 25%. It hasn’t gone that way for the last couple of generations.
I’ve used this metaphor before. A career is a ‘climbing wall.’ Not even a ‘ladder’ with well-defined and reachable steps up a specific hierarchy.
As a climbing wall, a career is something one begins, but to advance further one may have to make a sideways move, or a downward move, or even “get off the wall” for a spell perhaps for more training, relocating, or addressing family contingencies. A good starting job might provide contacts and experience that will not only pay the rent but make opportunities for subsequent job changes.
My son has had 3 or 4 jobs (employers) in the last 15 years while broadening his experience and building an excellent career b/c he’s ambitious, energetic, and willing to learn new things. My daughter “got off the wall” and went back to school for another degree, and thus made a career course correction. Numerous employers and consultancies along the way, but after 12 years now with a large employer and interesting job that brings much of her experience and training together.
I can’t say in the U.S. but here in Canada engineering degrees in particular are extremely structured with only about 3-4 free electives that can be taken not from a constrained list. It was in large part the very strict structure of the program that led DS19 to choose Physics over Engineering. Both are STEM, but engineering being a professional program leaves very little room for exploration of other interests.