<p>Approve? For all practical purposes my oldest chose computer science (or did it choose him?) in second grade. He ended up at the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon. Guess what his major was? (His minor was physics.)</p>
<p>Younger son spent much of high school worried he hadn’t found his calling like big brother. When looking at colleges I suggested he might want to consider international relations since it seemed to go well with his interests (history, ecology, military tactics). He looked into it, like what he saw and chose colleges that were strong in that major. He’s a sophomore majoring in IR and we are all happy with the choice. He’s studying Arabic, plans to do a junior year abroad somewhere in the Arabic speaking world next year, and has gained a lot of expertise on nuclear issues.</p>
<p>Not to long ago I found the answer to a letter I’d written to my parents explaining why I was choosing to major in Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard (which for me at least was pretty much studio art with architectural history thrown in), my parents wrote me back a very sweet letter saying it was my life and to do what I love. I ended up as an architect and don’t have any regrets about my major.</p>
<p>If you can make a good living as a wedding photographer and enjoy the work, is it so bad if that’s what you end up doing with your art degree?</p>
<p>While true, some of the short term decisions involve an all-or-nothing hurdle (e.g. medical or prestigious law school admission). It would be hard to have a career as a physician or lawyer if you don’t pass that hurdle, so students seeking such careers do have consider short term goals as well as long term goals here. You can blame medical and law schools for giving the “wrong” incentives to pre-med and pre-law students when it comes to choosing rigorous versus less rigorous courses as undergraduates. (In contrast, university freshman admissions gives incentives for high school students to choose more rigorous courses.)</p>
<p>DS came home in 1st grade with ‘fisix’ written on a piece of paper in answer to ‘what do you want to do when you grow up?’ Never wavered since. We were bit concerned because he showed no interest in science fairs, electronic or chemistry sets he’d get for christmas, or even books about science. Now majoring in theoretical physics, with a double major in pure math, so that explains the lack of interest in ‘things.’ :D</p>
<p>I did worry as he was growing up whether he would have the appropriate hardware in his brain for physics, and how he would handle the disappointment if he didn’t. Fortunately, he knew himself better than we did. We approve because he is doing what he loves, fortunately has the aptitude for, and is working very hard because he wants to learn and is appropriately challenged.</p>
<p>ucbalum, That may be true. But given the low flunkout rate in medical schools, and the importance of critical thinking in medicine, I’d say that whatever the med schools are doing, it’s working.</p>
<p>OTOH, I know some REALLY clueless lawyers - and they’re struggling to find clients who are themselves clueless enough to retain them.</p>
<p>^^I know some REALLY clueless doctors that don’t seem to have any trouble finding work as the general public doesn’t know enough to know that they’re clueless.</p>
<p>They have a strong incentive to avoid flunking out any medical students, because then they would have wasted capacity that cannot be refilled the way undergraduate schools take in transfer students.</p>
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<p>That does not mean that all doctors have the same ability for critical thinking or problem solving. Indeed, enough people complain about bad doctors that it is not necessarily a given that medical school admissions and other practices are optimal for getting the best doctors.</p>
<p>I have interviewed many a candidate that would answer technical questions just fine (hint: Google “Informatica Interview Questions”) but could not code their way out of a paper bag when needed. Under the same criteria, I would probably fail the interview for my own position if asked something arcane that I always end up looking up even after using the stuff for 20 years (am I supposed to remember ioctlparameters?)</p>
<p>Back in the days where we could actually spend 8 hours talking to a candidate (my own position was filled after two 8-hour day interviews) we could talk shop and see how deep the candidate’s understanding is (mostly problem solving). When we only get an hour from HR (total 2-3 hours) it’s a completely different ballgame. </p>
<p>And then there was the candidate that claimed that wrote 100,000 lines of C code in 2 years of graduate school…</p>
<p>Why not bring them a laptop with a simple programming task, if you need programming ability? Make it an open man page problem so that things like ioctl parameters that everyone looks up anyway don’t get in the way.</p>
<p>The question is one of self-image. If one sees themselves as just a wedding photographer with a BFA, that’s fine. If they think their BFA makes them the next Ansel Adams…</p>
<p>The kid I mentioned that is doing BFA photography came from an Asian family with an MD father. However, the family was incredibly supporting - I’m talking living significantly below their means and spending the extra cash vacationing in places that redefine the term ‘exotic’. Needless to say, when you spend 3 months in some place that even the US State Department has never heard of, and have the interest and equipment, eventually your brain will likely start clicking… Do that for a half dozen years and that’s all the approval you need. I’ve seen the kid’s work and he’s so good it’s not even funny how good he is. Awesome kid, incidentally, academically as well…</p>
<p>There are many other majors, tho, that in order to succeed you have to be this good. So, it’s not really a question of ‘just good enough’…</p>
<p>Good enough coders or good enough engineers, those are a dime a dozen. Success goes far beyond this, and parents and kids have to know exactly where they are in the food chain. In STEM and similar courses, grades are a fair assessment of skills (to a great extent) so if lil’ Johnny wants to study Number Theory at Harvard and got 510 on his SAT Math, well, maybe not. But a lot of the ‘do you approve’ majors invariably end up on the not-so-easy-to-quantify side of the field…</p>
<p>I’m an artist and my experience has been that the biggest difference between “successful” artists and less “successful” artists is their level of business sense and the marketability of their work rather than the quality of their work. I know many mediocre artists who manage to sell and exhibit their work because it is mainstream marketable and appeals to a large group of people. Others find “success” because they are good at making contacts and connections and these connections help them find opportunity. To be successful in the art field you have to be ba11sy, not always talented.
There are many good musicians and talented photographers who never become national idols or shoot for Vogue. And, fortunately for our country’s children, there are talented people teaching art and music in the classroom. These teachers didn’t end up in the classroom because they weren’t talented enough to cut it in their field. They chose to be there because they felt passionately about sharing their talent with children. </p>
<p>It is ironic to me that a website that is geared toward interest in education so often espouses anti-teacher sentiment and the belief that those who can, do and those who can’t, teach.</p>
<p>I am a teacher as well as an artist and I consider myself successful in both areas. I chose teaching because I believed in it and in the value of art education for every child, not because I couldn’t “make it” as an artist. To me, being successful at my art means that I create authentic and meaningful work. When that happens, the exhibitions and sales are just the cherry on the sundae. I hope my children find success in what they pursue and that they define success as being content and purposeful in whatever work they find that suits them.</p>
<p>Thanks, Frazzled. Many people who are not in the field of art often have a skewed idea of what it is that enables someone to become successful (defined as famous or rich or both). just take a look at the work of Thomas Kinkade (my apologies to anyone who has a piece of his work). He developed a formula early that appeals to a segment of the population. He does not deviate from this formula and he sells his work through galleries that carry him exclusively. His work is not good, IMO. But it sells. He identified a need in the market, filled the need and convinced the buyer that they were collecting something rare and of value. He is a shrewd businessman.
Until the 1970’s female artists were all but unheard of. This was not because of a lack of talent but because of a lack of opportunity. The art world, like all other worlds was male dominated and women were suppressed. Again, all of the famous male artists in history had opportunity to succeed. Women had none. No less talented, just born female. It is about tenacity and determination and the ability to assert yourself. Fortunately, the art world has become more gender equal over the last three decades.</p>
<p>Anyway, a little off topic but it is important to realize that your child’s major is just a beginning and one piece of the puzzle that is either going to lead to a fulfilled life or not. There are lots of other factors that will either assist them or hinder them. It is their puzzle to piece together, not ours.</p>
<p>“Unlike many of the others on this thread, we did have “approved” majors and not; if any of them had wanted to do, for example, “Asian Studies” we would have tried to steer them away, but had they insisted they had a passion for learning about the upbringing of women of Inner Mongolia, I suspect we would have advised them to become well versed with merit scholarships and student loans.”</p>
<p>I majored in Asian Studies. Never had any student loans. Have worked in academia for 25 years, have a great job with benefits and an excellent pension. I believe the fact that I had studied Indonesian is what got me my job in the first place (my college has a lot of International students from Indonesia). Who would have thought?
My point is you can’t imagine how the future will be. A person’s talents, personality and character haven’t fully emerged by the age of 18, 20, even 25. So many of my D’s high school friends have decided to go to law school - it seems to be almost a default grad degree. I haven’t told my D (who had a passion for music in hs, but decided not to major in that) what to major in. I just tell her to graduate, work for a couple of years, and maybe then go to grad school (or not) after she gets a better idea of what she wants to do.
It’s a little harder for them when they don’t have a specific career goal like doctor or lawyer, but there are many, many other paths in life. The undergrad major, in most cases, don’t matter that much. it’s what you do next, either in work or in grad school, that matters more.</p>
<p>I am not going to tell my son what to major in, but both H and I think it would be a VERY good move for him to add economics as a major or minor to his interests in political science, based on both his end goals and the great economics program offered at his uni. And we have told him so.</p>
<p>Tptshorty,
Good point. How many of us are even working directly in the field that we did our undergrad in? I happen to be but most of the people I know have taken twists and turns in their life that have led them to unexpected places. My H was a mechanical engineering major, went to work at a large company for the purpose of inspecting equipment for safety, found that he had talent for managing people and has worked 25 years in management. He has never looked back.<br>
When my D told us that she wanted to get a BFA, she was concerned about the practicality of it. I told her that college would be her only opportunity to immerse herself in her passion. People say that they will make it a “hobby” or go back to school but they rarely do and a hobby will never allow you to study with those who truly know more than you and will push you to grow.</p>
<p>As a teacher I have had countless conversations with adults who have regrets about not pursuing their art. Others who had parents who did not support it and who told them to do it on the “side”. As a result, they are generally not making art at all or are painting the same way they did when they were sixteen.</p>