@happymomof1, same here. My classmates who majored in art history and went to work for a museum or Sotheby’s were usually from very well-to-do families. But, so were many who went into i-banking or wealth management. Back in the day, connections and proper etiquette mattered a lot in those fields (probably still do). Middle/upper middle class kids often went into engineering or law or got PhDs or MDs or MBAs.
We have a number of very well-to-do friends whose kids attended HYP or Williams or Wesleyan or Penn or Brown … and then go into things like teaching or do-gooding NGOs. (Very few of these families have only $300K in income). But, the teaching kid then writes a book (with publicity help from well-connected family and friends) and then applies to grad school or does a startup. The kid who goes into politics later decides he wants to go into business and gets introduced by family friends to a wealthy family office where he transitions from policy-related work to business-related work and then to business school and then a private equity job. In such cases, parental support both provides guidance (I’ve been asked a number of times to counsel friends’ kids on careers and career changes) and connections enables the changes or risk-taking – even if no subsidy is given. The kid for a lower income family going into teaching may have less capacity to switch if he/she gets bored (as has happened to several of my son’s friends) or frustrated.