Having money won’t make one happy, but without money can make one miserable.
My younger one was in law school “on her own” for 3 years. When her dog got sick I had to pay for vet’s bill. When her mover unexpectedly ran away with the deposit and she had to get another mover I paid for it. When all of us went away on a family vacation the only way she could go was for me to pay for it.
There are a lot of young adults, maybe not so young any more, whom their parents claim are living on their own, but in fact their parents are paying for their health insurance, car payments or even housing sometimes. I wanted to make sure my kids had jobs where they could truly be self sufficient and not have to rely on me or their SOs.
FYI - last time I checked a professional dancer made 12-15k. My friend’s nephew is a dancer at ABT and his very well to do parents are paying for his expenses.
There may also be social status issues with the parents and those whom they associate with. If the parents are in a social group that sees the kids’ status as a judgement on successful parenting, it is so much more impressive to the parents to brag about a kid who is a physician, investment banker, etc. than an artist living frugally and happily on an income level that the parents and their friends consider poverty level.
I would think for the prestige conscious family, a kid who is an artist is a prestige statement — ie that the kid doesn’t need to work for a living. It is the opposite of what you say I think.
At Princeton the middle class is heavily into the pre professional majors. They can’t afford to take the pure passion majors.
Oh please. My artist kid DOES need to work for a living. And his work as a musician has morphed over the years. He started out performing full time…now does other things he really enjoys too….recording mastering, teaching CC courses, teaching private lessons. He even wrote a book.
But mostly he likes what he does…and lives within his means.
It is ridiculous to think parents have nothing better to do but to brag about their kids. When I get together with my friends, we politely ask about each other’s kids and then we quickly move on to our work, travel, movies/tv shows, restaurants, etc. The most interesting stuff we say about our kids are their SOs. My favorite topic is my grand baby.
I am saying for the prestige conscious family…
I am not saying anything about any family here.
A prestige conscious family can’t always have talented kids who could actually be artsy.
We definitely suggested to our youngest son not to get a degree in theatre. We told him there was no good reason why he couldn’t double major, that’s so common nowadays. We were not enthused about paying 250K for a theatre major, when it’s definitely not necessary to get acting roles. Fortunately he took our advice and got a degree in computer science (and decided not to double major). Now he’s a software engineer, making a good salary, with a job flexible enough to pursue acting. He likes to live well, so I know he’s glad he got job that pays him enough to follow his dreams. Though of course he’d love to be able to make enough $$ acting to pay the bills.
That the student be a competent artist is not a serious requirement. The kid could do what s/he wants, and the parent is simply being supportive, to make the kid happy. I also told my son if I had more money to give you than I currently have, you could do whatever you wanted with your life. Which parent wouldn’t want to be able to say that to their kid without having to teach them about the value of money, which careers will provide for a comfortable living etc?
This parent definitely would not want my kid to live off my money for the rest of her life even if I could. Life is unpredictable, money can be gone very quickly (just look at last few months), I would rather if she is capable of earning a living by herself.
I just want my kid to have as much freedom in life as he can get
And I don’t know one that isn’t completely burnt out and wouldn’t quit tomorrow if they could.
I would not say that to my kid even if I could afford that. I have no respect for anyone just living of parents money.
Wow! I guess I don’t and the reason I don’t is because of having gone to school (not college) with too many trust fund types.
Strangely, being given that much money (or knowing the well will never run dry) can be de-motivating.
I remember earning my own money as a college student, and using it to support myself. What a wonderful feeling of freedom and independence.
This is just a parent’s wish. And the parent wouldn’t say this unless the parent is comfortable the child wouldn’t abuse it, or doesn’t need it in the first place. 
I want to be able to provide choices to the kid because the kid will use the choices appropriately. Anyway it is a moot point.
It’s good that you are considering individual student differences when comparing salaries, rather than assuming that name of college is primarily driving salary. Many/most seem to ignore individual student differences when looking at salary surveys.
That said, salary surveys at “top SLAC/Ivy/T20” colleges consistently show huge variation by majors, with some majors averaging early career salaries that are double others, and some majors having far higher unemployment than others. The major and career field has a strong influence on salary, at colleges with a high concentration of top students, just as it does at less selective colleges.
Tech majors and majors associated with “elite” finance tend to be at the higher end at more selective colleges. Humanities, performing arts, and life science tend to be at the lower end… I’ll use Yale as an example because they have particularly detailed public reporting. Numbers below are for classes of 2016-21.
- CS – Median Salary = $110k, 1% Seeking Work, Most Common Function = SW Development
- Math / Stats – Median Salary = $85k, 1% Seeking Work, Most Common Function = Finance
- Economics – Median Salary = $83k, 3% Seeking Work, Most Common Function = Finance
- Electrical Eng – Median Salary = $80k, 3% Seeking Work, Most Common Function = Engineering
- Mechanical Eng – Median Salary = $70k, 5% Seeking Work, Most Common Function = Engineering
… - Music – Median Salary = $46k, 2% Seeking Work, Most Common Function = Teaching
- Art – Median Salary = $43k, 9% Seeking Work, Most Common Function = Visual Arts
- Biology – Median Salary = $40k, 5% Seeking Work, Most Common Function = Research Lab
- Religious Studies-- Median Salary = $40k, 9% Seeking Work, Most Common Function = Healthcare / Teaching (Tie)’
You mentioned engineering. I think you might be surprised how little correlation there is between early career salary and college selectivity among engineering majors. I’d expect many far less selective colleges show similar early career engineering salaries to your more selective colleges, both of which are typically higher than grads from Ivy+ type colleges who pursue majors that are associated with lower early career salaries, without further degrees.
As an example, the median reported salary across all engineering at Yale was $70k. UConn does not offer engineering, so I looked at UMass instead. The median reported salary across all engineering majors at UMass was $70k, exactly the same as Yale. Yale isn’t exactly known for engineering. Cornell is typically considered the top Ivy for engineering, which shows a similar median of $73k. Even MIT is not much higher for non-CS engineering (not counting EECS major as engineering since most purse CS, rather than EE) Rather than engineering, majors for which pursuing “elite” finance is more common tend to show far larger variation by selectivity, ,such as economics and mathematics.
I notice a very common trajectory in parental topics. For a while, it’s college, internships, first jobs, interesting/prestigious stuff kids are doing.
Then suddenly, it morphs into SOs/engagements/marriage, careers be damned.
Until there’s the first grandkid, then the first grandparent is shunned until everyone can talk about their own grandkid, too! And then it’s all grandkids - until it’s about health.
Happened to my mom, who was the first grandmother among her family and friends, and was very put off by people’s reactions because this early grandkid was an “oops”baby and the circumstances were very stressful, necessitating grandparent involvement - and they hadn’t been ready to be grandparents in the first place. She didn’t want to brag, but could have needed support and sympathy! (First grandkid is in med school by now, and parents finished school, stuck it out and have been married for 20 years, so didn’t end up in disaster, but could have).
To circle back to the topic, I wanted to point out that parental bragging about colleges, jobs, prestige is a fairly short time window. And then it’s all about can they support a family, and are the grandkids alright.
An undergrad major does not necessarily define career. A student can major in one of the arts and still get a job outside that art, or enter a professional grad school. Nothing wrong with doing what you love for 4 years and then continuing as an amateur while doing something else after college. I know many examples of this.
As I wrote before, arts and music majors can improve employment options with interning, volunteering or working, and building skills, whether in the arts/music or completely outside of that field, including during the summer.
That said, yes, a CS major is probably going to make a lot more than a music major, right out of school. For some, that is a priority. I think once family/kids enter the picture, things get a lot more complicated.