@Dustyfeathers I have taken Spanish for a couple years and my senior year teacher said I was pretty fluent (but that was compared to her class; when I went to Peru, I had some issues speaking to the adults) so I definitely want to continue that (AI has a volunteer program in Mexico though the problem would be trying to find housing because I doubt they provide) and possibly add on French and Swahili or Arabic.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that the OP’s Dad didn’t hire that person given his biases. The only takeaway is that his daughter shouldn’t ask him for a job. If taking some extra math classes could give her a leg up on other applicants in the field she chooses, I’d advise her to take some math beyond what’s required.
Well everybody, I talked to my parents about the issue. I want to go into medicine but have an international twist to it- Take the bare minimum courses for med school but do IR internships and even the Peace Corps in the meantime. During med school, I would focus on public health so after working in developing countries I could come back to the USA and get $100K/year.
@Pizzagirl “We don’t need to act as though this young woman is “struggling” with math. She just isn’t math-y enough to be a STEM major, that’s all. Big deal.”
I was mentioning that because the OP said she may consider an Economics major. Economics majors at some schools can require a surprising amount of math.
My point is that I am confident that she can do it if she decides that she is interested, and puts in the effort. The key is to ignore anyone who says you don’t have the ability.
@PaigeyPoo189 - you might also consider simply going for an MPH rather than an MD, if that’s your interest. Do look at entry requirements for those grad programs – I seem to remember that when my DD was looking at grad programs she was interested in a particular MPH program but found that she didn’t have some requisite undergrad course – she ended up getting an MPA instead. An MD is a long slog – tough to get into medical school in the first place, then several years of residency after graduation. (Plus generally a lot more debt picked up along the way - my DD got her MPA attending part-time while fully employed, and I think there are MPH programs can also be completed on a part-time basis, and in any case a student is going to rack up more debt in a 4 year program than a 2 year program. ). There is logic in your planning to take required courses to keep your options open – but you could find that the MPH is a more direct way of reaching your personal goals.
But then again, the goals you have at age 22 may be very different than what you think you want to do with your life at 18.
My DD was a poli sci/IR major at Barnard and had no problem getting a job when she graduated. Her first job was in her field --she worked closely with the UN in NY. But she then went on to do something entirely different. She has a business-focused job and makes good money.
As to the math question – my DD has never been a math-y person, but needed at least one math course in college to meet graduation requirements. I told her to take statistics --because it was a course that I came to regret not taking during my career. She followed my advice, got an A, but griped to me about how terrible the course was and what a waste of time it was. But then it turned out that the undergrad stats class was enough to allow her to waive out of taking a required stats course for her MPA degree… so in hindsight it turned out my advice was good.
I’d add that my DD did not choose to study econ in college, but her fiance was a poli sci/econ major at Columbia. He’s got a great job, but his college major has absolutely nothing to do with it. His college work-study job was far more important in that respect.
DON’T select courses because of parental or peer pressure-- and don’t select a career that way either. If you want advice on course selection or career planning, then go to your college advisers and your college career center.
I’ll say that international medicine and public health are perfectly fine choices for a career path, and that it could certainly work out well. However, I would also like to say that you should take the opportunity to evaluate yourself and your capabilities to determine whether or not medical school is a good option.
The first issue is that it will definitely take a long time. Medicine is quite a few years of schooling - four years after the Bachelors, plus whatever time it takes for your residency program, plus the Peace Corps if you want to do it. You have to be absolutely certain that that’s a good path for you.
The second issue is to evaluate your capabilities and decide whether or not you have an honest shot to get into med school. This isn’t a slight on your abilities - it’s just an acknowledgment that the admissions are highly competitive and it takes a lot to get in. If you really have a blanket aversion to STEM, then the prerequisites and the med school itself are going to be tough. Biology and medicine may be cut from a different cloth than the physical sciences and mathematics, but they incorporate a lot of the same science that make the latter difficult. If your skills really do lie in the soft sciences, then medicine might not be your strong suit. I know a lot of people who were really not med school caliber who insisted that they wanted to go to med school (often for the money). It didn’t work out.
Third, think about backup options. Things might not ultimately work out for any number of reasons - what then?
If medicine is your ultimate choice, it’s a good one. Just make sure it’s one you actually want, not one that you’re pressured into by your parents’ desire for you to have a profitable specialization.
"Ability matters some, but effort is primary. Most parents in the US do not believe this. American’s are much more likely to tell their kids, especially girls, that they are “just not good at math,” when the student struggles. That is a big mistake.
Unfortunately, the parents were no good at math, and the Elementary school teacher was not good at it either, so when a girls struggles, they tell her she probably isn’t good at it either when they should be supporting her. The girl grows up to make the same mistake with her kids. Rinse and repeat."
Wow and wow. Up until this post I was arguing the opposite opinion in my head. But this is exactly what happened to my daughter in jr. high school. She was placed in honors math in 3-5th grade (with an extraordinarily talented teacher, who taught her to LOVE math). But her 6th and 7th grade teachers were uninspiring, and her 8th grade teacher was actually detrimental (if DD was having trouble with an algebra problem, he told her to “ask the boys for help, because boys are good at math”). She has hated math since 6th grade.
She powered through a pre-calc class in college (A+) because she thought she might need to take calculus for her major, but dropped math like a hot potato as soon as she found a way around it. She was molded to hate a subject that was initially a joy. My husband and I were powerless against this process because neither of us had a sound math foundation.
When you go on a job interview it is not your major that lands you the job it is you. I have no idea what job your dad was interviewing for but clearly the IR major got her in the door. After that it’s about you and what you bring. There is no magic bullet combination of school and major that guarantees you a high paying job. A school like Wellesley offers lots of opportunities. Take advantage of them and you will be fine.
Don’t bother with the premed route unless being a physician is truly your passion. You can consider several related fields for the public health angle. The time spent to become a physician, after the grueling work getting admitted, plus the lifestyle to earn the money isn’t worth it unless you really enjoy that. I’ll never regret becoming a physician but that became my passion (after chemistry, I declined my HS econ’s suggestion for majoring in economics back in the dark ages- did well but did not like it well enough).
Give yourself a year and you will be much better able to define your career path and explain your rationale to your father. So- enjoy college. Every course taken has value- as does the time spent with other students outside the classroom. I’m sure every college student in every generation has discussed enough to solve all of the world’s problems and then some in the wee hours.
I have no idea if OP means an MD degree or the public health route. Or if Wellesley uses intro math and sci classes weed through pre-meds.
This dovetails with what the OP’s dad was saying. I heard the same from Laszlo Bock and Jim Manzi as well. Some firms are asking for SAT scores even years after graduation. There is reason in their madness.
I strongly agree. Here in the Great White North I can not think of one school where admission requirements are lower for business than humanities and social sciences. On the contrary, business is a limited admission program in most places while the others are not. So, by definition, the business grads are stronger, on average; in some schools, significantly so.
My feeling is that the OP is all over the place right now. The advantage she has is that she is attending Wellesley, an elite by any measure. This should give her greater flexibility to choose her major and her courses than in lower tier schools. Wants to do economics but not very mathy? Stick with economic history and avoid econometrics is my suggestion.
There is a lot of good advice here. I would only like to add one other: you don’t choose a major; a major chooses you. Give it time and things will work out the way they should.
OP, Wellesley is in a consortium with MIT so you can test the waters and see what you are passionate about in college. And then get a graduate degree in whatever subject.
Canuck guy- the undergrad business programs in the US which are considered MORE rigorous than other majors at their colleges can be counted on two hands.
We are not Canada.
I think it is particularly important for OP to test the waters in several areas. My D has now changed her major/major three times over her freshman year, albeit all STEM related, but its been fascinating to see how one class can make a difference in how she views her future. I never would have dreamed that she would have gone from a Biology/Spanish double to a Math/CS double over one school year. She is now delving into Econ to see if Actuarial Science might be a potential career interest. This supports the argument that an 18 year old most often has no idea what they really want to be “when they grow up” lol.
Eh, frankly I’m biased towards the whole do what you love thing, but what I will say is that if there is something impractical that you love, then keep it in your life, whether it’s through extracurriculars or a minor. I’m doing both of those things with philosophy right now despite being a psych major (hence my username), and I honestly need it. Because psych majors just aren’t my people, and I don’t think I could function without having a place where I feel like I belong. And you’re not going to feel like you belong if you’re only taking classes to earn money and/or a job.
OP, take the two-semester intro econ sequence at Wellesley early on. Many students do this regardless of major and it’s kind of a rite of passage on campus. That will help you decide whether econ is for you. If it’s not, the coursework will still be useful in many contexts and will satisfy a social science distribution requirement.
The IR concentration at Wellesley has 3 tracks and you have to choose one: IR/Poli Sci, IR/Econ, or IR/History. You can’t major is IR alone. I believe the concentration also has a foreign language requirement.
@Philpsych, IMO (analytic) philosophy is a more practical major than psych.
Analytic philosophy really hones your logic/reasoning/thinking skills, which is very useful in many endeavors.
@PurpleTitan I suppose it depends on the branch in both cases. I’m a psych major because I want to be a therapist. I’m mildly interested in ethics, but I really love metaphysics and epistemology–neither of which can get you anywhere.
I actually have two friends who just graduated with philosophy degrees; one is off to law school in the fall and the other double majored in Econ so he’s all set. But I wouldn’t want to be in either of those careers. The psych degree (including Masters) is really just a means to an end.
@Philpsych, expand your worldview a little. Due to strong logic and problem-solving skills, philosophy majors actually can make pretty good DBA’s (and programmers as well).
A change of mind from International Relations to Biology in a matter of a week? That is impressive.