<p>Basically right now I go to a top-15 USNEWS ranked university and am currently hoping to double-major in Political Science and International Studies and after that go to law school. </p>
<p>However, I'm experiencing a lot of pressure from my dad who sees the social sciences as all "wasteful fields" and only sees the sciences/math/engineering as real fields. He constantly says how even though I'm getting a good first-year GPA that it's meaningless and how I'm wasting the money he works for, and how even if I do get a high-paying job out of a top law school and become very well off I'll still be useless to society because society needs less people like lawyers and more scientists and engineers. Overall it's very discouraging and depressing. My mom is very supportive of me and although she wanted me to become a doctor she understands that I want to be a lawyer, however my dad is a very stern person. [It would be also useful to know that my parents are both immigrants and we used to be very poor, to get a better understanding of the culture here]</p>
<p>What should I do? I feel obliged to listen to his wishes but I can't succeed in the sciences/math/engineering and would hate my life if I ever were to enter those career fields.</p>
<p>Don’t do something you hate/cannot do well in. As Cal Newport puts it, don’t discuss your major choice with your parents. Just tell your dad to stuff it.</p>
<p>I listened to my parents to major in something I didn’t care for. I now have a 3.2 GPA because I took classes in something I didn’t care for and got terrible grades. I should have listened to my guts when I said that I wanted to be an English major. I love English so much. I love reading and writing. </p>
<p>My parents saw it as a wasteful field as well, but I prefer to go with what I love and succeed than major in something I hate and fail. I’m going to grad school anyway. I think you should do what you love. You have plans of going to law school, and your father doesn’t see anything good in that? Don’t discuss you major with your parents as the previous poster above me have stated.</p>
<p>There comes a point in everyone’s life when they have to make a decision not to acquiesce to their parents wishes. You know better than anyone else what is right for you. Incidentally, your plans sound fine to me.</p>
<p>My parents thought that finance was a wasteful major. And it wasn’t because they hated Wall Street for breaking the economy, either. They just thought that it was somewhat soft. They too, encouraged me to be an engineer. </p>
<p>Then I told them about the prospects of investment banking (a field that I doubt I would be able to break into) and then they finally shut up.</p>
<p>As much as I would like to advocate for the Sciences/Engineering and concur with your father, I would have to say that your major should reside within your interests. You do not want to regret the time you have at college. If he really wished for you to head into the engineering field, he should have instilled those values while you were being raised.</p>
<p>You can however, look into somehow managing English with a bit of science. A person to refer to is Nobel Prize Winner Harold E. Varmus, writer of “The Art and Politics of Science”. He has both a Bachelors and a Ph.D in English, but still contributes widely to society; currently by being on the council advising the President on scientific affairs. It should be noted times have changed since he graduated, but his story is still pretty relevant.</p>
<p>However, law is a terrible field (job prospect wise) and the world does not need more lawyers. Perhaps a diplomat or some other field using your major would be a good compromise?</p>
<p>Be a lawyer. If you become a scientist/engineer/doctor/etc just because your dad is pressuring you to, you will resent it–and that resentment will be reflected in your scores and overall success (or lack thereof).</p>
<p>There is nothing wrong with being a lawyer :)<br>
Not everything is about what your parents want.</p>
<p>As other posters have noted, there’s a real risk of not succeeding in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields if you’re just not that interested in them. They’re challenging and intense even for people who have an aptitude and genuine interest in them. Without both the aptitude and the interest, they’re almost impossible.</p>
<p>For me, I was strongly encouraged to go into the STEM fields. Rather than being actively forced to choose a STEM major, I was only minimally exposed to non-STEM careers. My writing showed promise as early as elementary school, but this talent was ignored. Despite realizing that my strongest interests lie elsewhere, I completed a Computer Science degree.</p>
<p>I’ve had limited success in the IT field. This is partly because of factors beyond my control, notably the economy. But just not having a passion for IT is a large part of the problem. Now, this is with a solid aptitude for the field. It would be even worse if I were merely average, let alone mediocre, at software development.</p>
<p>The real advantage of a liberal arts education is that it prepares you for a wide variety of fields. By contrast, the STEM fields are highly specialized and often don’t apply well to other careers. In my case, IT has minimal overlap with any of the fields I’m interested in. So I’d need substantial additional coursework. The problem is that once you have a degree in a field that wasn’t a good choice, financial aid becomes very limited, especially for undergraduate coursework.</p>
<p>Years after getting a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, I’m now working at a job that’s not even in IT. Nor do most employers in this industry even require a Bachelor’s degree for this job title. It might be easier to put your foot down now.</p>
<p>At the beginning of high school, this was my situation but I knew that I didn’t want to enter into any STEM field. I didn’t quite settle on my interest as an English major till junior year in high school. I too want to become a lawyer one day. I have taken the science/math classes to satisfy my parents wishes (and out of respect for their chosen professions) but I refuse to change my major. I echo those that tell you to choose what you really want. Ultimately, you will be the one working for 30+ years in a chosen field. What might help is to compile a portfolio of accomplished people in careers that you might eventually pursue and show these to your father. People have changed the world through other fields besides science/math.</p>
<p>Though I can’t speak for engineering or most of the sciences, I’ve done a LOT of research into Physics and Maths and getting a job there (i.e. in industry or academia; not high school) is VERY VERY difficult unless you’re a genius AND are passionate about what you’re doing.</p>
<p>Though I kind of agree with him, I think you’d contribute even less if you were somehow forced to do science/engineering. You just can’t FORCE yourself to be passionate enough about something to make me a meaningful advance in it.</p>
<p>Thank you all so much for your thoughts and advice! (and especially that website link too, that website is extremely helpful). I really sometimes do wonder if what he says is right too, but I feel that there are tons of people who do make a good living who aren’t science/engineering/math majors. </p>
<p>My ideal goals after law school are to practice law for a few years and eventually either go into diplomacy and/or politics, if circumstances permit (I’m already very involved now in such).</p>
<p>Be a lawyer if that’s where your strengths lie. If you go into the math and science fields and you A) dislike them and B) are weak in the subjects, then you won’t be of use to society anyway. =p </p>
