There are also generational issues. Cost of education is now higher than it was, and many professions require more education and credentialing than they used to. For example, someone of parent age may have been able to live on their own on a high school graduate job pay, while taking a small student loan to pay for in-state public college tuition and books, without much or any parental support. That is rather more difficult to do today. Add to that the fact that some professions now require a post-bachelor’s professional degree to enter the profession, where they did not a generation ago (e.g. occupational therapy, physical therapy).
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I attribute that primarily to rising wealth inequalities — wealthy and upper-middle class students must work harder and be more practical/pre-professional to maintain the same lifestyle as their parents. Barbara Ehrenreich (of Nickel and Dimed fame) writes about this in “Fear of Falling,” where she characterizes the primary emotion of the upper-middle class as anxiety. You see a lot of that phenomenon on this website.
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I too was poor in my teens, or my family was poor, I qualified for Pell Grants in college, I had to work in high school and college for spending money. I still changed my major because it didn’t suit me.
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In general we all have different circumstances. I am of the belief that regardless of your child’s passion the financial implications should be discussed. Studying something without having to consider present and future financial impact is a luxury. That doesn’t mean they ignore their interests but it might mean looking at how what they study might be used in alternative ways.
It has been my observation that those students who were very self directed and knew what their end goals were before they chose their universities tended to have the best outcomes at least in the short term. They can direct their energies towards their goals rather than trying to determine a path.
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By the time a student applies for college, it should be fairly obvious which way, broadly STEM or humanities, her/his interest and talent leans toward. A college can be a place to refine one’s interest, but shouldn’t, IMO, be a place to “explore” aimlessly one’s possible career path. A college education is too expensive for that purpose for most families. That extra cost comes from somewhere, either from the families themselves (they’ll feel it unless they’re so well off), or the colleges (which will pass the extra cost to the other paying students), or the taxpayers, or some combination. Nearly every family, every college, and even the government, have to live within their respective financial constraints.
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My observations have been similar. But I’ve also seen kids with clear-cut major and career goals change their mind as soon as they get a taste of it in college, as @DrGoogle123 just alluded to. They may slide over to something related, or may find themselves back at square one.
At least in the case of non-preprofessional fields, most majors don’t have to be declared until end of sophomore year. And four years is usually enough time to try various majors and get some relevant work experience so they are immediately employable upon graduation.
Just to be clear, by trying out majors, I’m not talking about floundering around aimlessly, taking any old courses. I’m advocating systematically and logically taking introductory prerequisites in subjects of interest, so that when it comes time to finalize a major, a student could go in a few different directions and still graduate on time.
For parents or students who are only interested in pre-professional majors, this likely doesn’t apply.
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Thanks for the link. I agree and disagree. Let me address the networking issue that the article brings up, even though I have soft disagreements with the other two issues that are highlighted as well. This is my understanding on how networking works on campus (at least at Princeton where I have a kid).
- Kids don’t know each others’ socio economic status in a wide band – unless someone is conspicuously extremely rich. They don’t know what the parents do. Presumably they will also know if the kid is conspicuously extremely poor.
- Atleast the middle class kids have no issues hanging out with both rich and poor kids.
- Lot of hanging out happens on shared interests – e.g. nerdy kids, math kids, music kids, kids who go rock climbing together, kids in your eating club (and that is 80% of the campus), kids in the same dorm/wing, campus activity clubs etc. None of these associations preclude a FGLI kid from becoming friends with other kids. People won’t know you are FGLI unless you tell them. If you are FGLI, the school pays for you to join an eating club. Alcohol is free on campus at eating clubs – you don’t even need money to hang out if you need to hang out with alcohol.
For jobs, no networking is needed (for getting interviews etc) for management consulting, tech and non-IB finance (including IB trading and perhaps sales roles as well). Some networking is needed for IB jobs – because the job itself requires you to network eventually, and they want to make sure you are wired to network. Otherwise you won’t fit into the job. For management consulting, tech and non-ib finance it is still helpful to network because you know what other kids are doing on campus to get jobs, you can talk to people senior to you about the nature of these jobs, pros/cons etc. You can’t function in this world without some networking. But the networking is not closed off or even more open based on your wealth. We are middle class and my son has never had issue with networking. He has cold called alums. They don’t care (or know) whether you are rich or poor.
Interestingly, some of the networking transcends school. He knows kids from Harvard and MIT that have same academic interests that he has at meets and conferences.
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Actually I was very deep into my major, I took enough courses in accounting and knew that while I like numbers, that’s not a field for me. I’m glad that I made that choice because my sister is still struggling with that career. Long hours, low pay, even though she had a CPA, and an MBA. Perhaps her personality wasn’t a best fit, what’s not mentioned here often is you personality has more to do with how successful you can be, not just dealing with people but how you view things, how you feel about taking risks, etc… there are many factors.
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The FGLI who was a humanties major with a 3.8 GPA at HYPS, in the Reddit post above, couldn’t find a high paying job (unless you’re a URM or female) and will be going to law school?
Ya, just reading those comments in the thread, I think there’s more to that story that’s not being told.
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Everyone’s experience of poverty is different as it depends on what country, what circumstances and the family situation (among many other factors).
I did not grow up as poor as my parents who went to college in a time and place where there was no opportunity to change majors or borrow money or anything like that. My mother went 4 years without going home once (no money). The thought of NOT majoring in something to her that would near guarantee a well paying job was anathema. They did not impose such restrictions on me, growing up in a time and place where I could change majors, get jobs to pay for college, etc.
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I personally attest to having those feelings. Both my kids attended specialty programs in high performing public high schools (different programs and different schools) and I certainly felt the pressure for them to keep competitive with their peers. While I haven’t been a “Tiger” Mom or a “snow plow/lawnmower” parent, I have certainly been much more involved in their educations than my parents were. While my parents had high expectations for us, they were far more hands off leaving it up to us to find our paths. I was far more involved when my kids were in elementary school but even as they got older and entered high school I stayed involved but more as a “guide on the side” or as an informational resource while leaving it up to them to make their own informed decisions. Now that they’re in university I still keep current on educational and economic trends to be able to provide advice and information to them. I worry quite a bit about their economic futures.
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However, the high school senior may not have decided with more specificity what particular college major are career direction is desired.
This really comes down the earlier versus later specialization topic. Early specialization (sometimes as early as middle school in some countries, but more commonly when applying to specific majors at colleges and universities) is more efficient in terms of delivering the needed education more quickly at a lower cost, but at a greater risk of routing people to educational and career directions that turn out to be much less than optimal for them, or their contribution to society and economy. Late specialization, involving more exploration of various subjects while in college and deciding on college major and career directions around junior year of college, likely matches more (though not all) people more optimally to their interests, but tends to be result in a higher cost of education, and sometimes less optimal education within a subject. The most extreme level of late specialization involves career paths requiring a post-bachelor’s professional degree as the entry-level degree (e.g. law, some health professions). Physician combines the cost of late specialization for medical school, but does not escape the risks of early specialization due to the demands medical schools place on pre-med undergraduates, most of whom get weeded out and must choose a plan B.
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But you are in Canada. The US is further along the scale toward an elite-or-bust (winner-take-all) economy than Canada is, so imagine how you would think if you lived in the US.
I am not at all convinced that all the years of exploring a major necessarily correlate to any increased level of satisfaction-employees in Europe seem equally as satisfied with their careers asmost Americans, despite their earlier specialization
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Not sure I agree with the last part of your sentence. Maybe I’m nitpicking here, but it’s quite possible to not commit until 4th semester (the most common condition) and still graduate in four years. This necessitates choosing courses strategically (i.e. those that will fulfill major prerequisites), and not simply bouncing around from one topic to another to another. Every student I know who went in undecided did just that, and graduated in 8 semesters.
Conversely, I do know of engineering majors at certain (usually public) schools taking longer than 8 semesters to graduate, due to difficulty of getting necessary courses. It behooves any family considering a school with that reputation to look into it further.
All that said, I’m sure for any anecdote I or anyone else provides, someone can provide a counter-anecdote. 
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I personally don’t know enough Europeans to compare, but I have thought about this. I wonder how much growing up where it is known all along that early specialization is required, often starting in high school (i.e. choosing A level subjects) helps students more quickly home in on, if not careers, at least fields of study, that they’re more interested in and suited to.
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I think the post by UCBalumnus was referring to the graduate degrees now required in fields like physical therapy, which is a 3 year undergrad degree elsewhere (compared to the 7 years here)
But is Europeans’ greater job satisfaction really due to type of job or other factors?
Prior to Covid, most Europeans had shorter commutes, cheaper childcare, stronger labor laws, longer vacations. Probably better food at the company caf too.
PS - I have relatives and friends in Europe.
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Possibly; I didn’t read it that way. I guess it was the wording “exploration tends to result in higher cost” that I was nitpicking about. Certainly that could turn out to be true, in some cases.
There are certainly many reasons for greater job satisfaction in Europe, but I know of nothing indicating particular dissatisfaction due to early specialization.