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I can almost promise you that you won’t graduate with a degree in ChemE. Not because you aren’t capable of doing it. But because you don’t want to do it. Engineering in college is tough. Nationwide between 1/2 and 2/3rds of those that start in engineering end up changing majors. You’ll see friends around you have fun in college and taking classes they enjoy (the way you talk about Anthro). Just to pass engineering classes is going to take much more work than most other college students are putting in, especially those in liberal-arts majors. I’ll probably get flack for saying it, but its true. Without the motivation to succeed no matter what, your prospects of getting thru aren’t great. Nor, should by some measure you succeed in getting a degree in ChemE, is there any indication you’d like the career. Or indeed that you know right now what the day-to-day life of a ChemE major is like after college, what the career path is like, etc.</p>
<p>This is an advice forum, so here’s my advice. Mom wants you to have a vocational major (accounting, engineering, etc) so there is something well-paying you can do after college. That’s one approach, and has much to recommend it. But it has to be a field that you want to enter, and I don’t get that sense about ChemE from what you’ve written. </p>
<p>Liberal Arts majors often find jobs a different way. In a sense the degree is a qualification, but to find a job you have to do things in college in addition to simply earning the degree. This means identifying area(s) that are of interest to you well before graduation (as in years before) & learning how people get started in the field. A key in most would be things like internships. You can identify areas you like and learn how to enter them by working with your college career center from the start of your college career. One good book, written several years ago, is called “Major in Success”. You can find many others by looking on Amazon, at suggested books given by the career centers at some of the colleges you are considering, etc.</p>
<p>Your mom means well, and what she is saying echoes the advice many kids are hearing. If there is a field such as engineering or accounting or nursing or teaching or whatever in which a degree from college typically leads to a job and it is something you could see yourself doing for years to come, then by all means pursue it and keep her happy. But otherwise you’ll need to start talking now with her about your future. Not that you need to pick what you’re going to do now if its down that road, but a discussion to reassure her that you have (or are in the process of coming up with) a roadmap of how you’re going to get there.</p>