<p>Horse hockey, if you can’t live on $140K I don’t know what the hell you’re doing wrong. Like Manorite said, there are many parts of LA or DC or NYC or San Francisco where one can live within their means without living in a high crime area or a bad school zone.</p>
<p>$140K a year means you can afford about $420K worth of house. Let’s see how many houses are worth no more than that in Montgomery County, MD, a county with a very good school system:</p>
<p>[Rockville</a> Real Estate & Rockville Homes For Sale — Trulia.com](<a href=“Rockville, MD Homes For Sale & Rockville, MD Real Estate | Trulia”>Rockville, MD Homes For Sale | Trulia)</p>
<p>That seems like a good selection. Now, if you wanna live in a very large house with a luxury SUV and send your kids to private school, you might find $140K isn’t much.</p>
<p>I don’t care where you live, if 140’000 a year is not enough for you to live comfortably, then you probably have a distorted notion how what “comfortable” is. I’m from Switzerland, were the cost of living is much higher than in the U.S, and my family lives very comfortably on about 100’000 a year. Of course, if you need a big house, expensive cars and luxury items to feel “comfortable”, then you may need way more than that.</p>
<p>My major is broadcast journalism/media studies. Yeah I get criticized for it a lot but truthfully I love media and writing and reporting. The classes are easy to me (because I enjoy it… Trust me, there ARE unmotivated people who fail some classes even though media studies seem to be one of those “easy majors.” </p>
<p>regardless, I just plan to make the best of what I get and reach for more opportunities to rise up in the media/journalism world. Its better to me than studying bio or business because those subjects are not interesting to me. </p>
<p>My mom always told me to study what I like otherwise i’ll be miserable and stuck with a career I hate. Haha</p>
<p>I’ve been thinking about what I want to do and I’ve actually been looking at sonography. It looks like a decent career. My desire to be in a four year college is more so about gaining that extra knowledge. Most of the time I convince myself that I will go on to get a higher degree and then get a decent job, but lately I’ve been thinking that I would probably have a real good chance at getting into a sonography program. For starters I’ve seen many community colleges that do point systems and I would have a fair amount of points once I graduate from Uni. I’m also trying to be able to become a CNA so I can start paying my loans or at least the dreaded interest that has start to build up. Plus CNA adds on more points for admission.</p>
<p>I’m not so sure how content I would be with a salary $40,000-$60,000 (starting and in some places median is $40,000). I’ve always imagined a comfortable living would be around $60,000/yr after taxes.
I began to become more interested in looking for something even higher ($100,000-$500,000+), but I would still imagine the amount that I would use for myself would be considerably low. (Hello charities and saving up money for possible future kids? 
)
I don’t know… I imagine I would be less concerned about how much I’m making if I were married with someone who also worked full-time.</p>
<p>This is a view from a person many years older than college students:
- Be realistic about your capability. Try to select the subjects/majors that you think you can do best.
- Among those, choose the one you like most (that is, tending to be relatively easy to follow, the more you learn the more curious you become, feeling manageable with more workload, and learning with relish).
- If it is the major that is not competitively marketable employmentwise, think of a possibility of doing your master in a subject that relatively is.
- After all, leading a good life should offer:
4.1 enjoyment in what you do in your career;
4.2 a chance for your career advancement;
4.3 affordability for your life style; and
4.4 an opportunity to self actualize.
The above is based on the assumption that majority of kids do not know what they want in life until much later. And those who think they know are not disappointed with what they end up or become too late in their career to switch.
This may look hard-and-fast, but it is realistically applicable to most, I guess.</p>
<p>I’m not in college yet, so I guess I’m not entirely qualified to enter this discussion, but I guess that I’ve been lucky that my passion falls in a highly marketable career. I’ve always loved math, science and business and I’m aiming for a major in Computer Science/Applied Mathematics into a grad school Financial Engineering Program so I can work on a wall street as a “quant.” (Yes, some people work on Wall Street cause they like it, crazy I know). That’s the goal anyway. But I always liked this job because it looks highly interesting and something that I could do for the rest of my life. The money is just a plus (although I’m not complaining). I’ve never been entranced by money and I never will live my life for money, and if my passion was french and theater, then I sure as hell would’ve have majored in that, regardless of the <em>immediate</em> job outlook.</p>
<p>I have a friend who is pursing an degree in Art. Do you know how many people advise people against getting a degree in Art due to the job market.? I told him, however, that if he wants to pursue his art and take it to the next level, then he should pursue it. After all, many, if not all, of the universities in the US had a School/College of Arts and Sciences. I always felt that you should major in something that you enjoy and want to further your education on. </p>
<p>When I didn’t do well at my first university as a Computer Science major, I thought about changing it to Marketing. However, while I like the marketing aspect of business, it isn’t my passion. Sure, I can get a job with a Marketing degree, but I can also get a job with Computer Science too. The school I’m transferring to now has a better Computer Science program than my previous school, so I’m very excited to learn from there.</p>