How Can I Persuade My Parents to Accept My Major?

Parents Forum
1

<p>Some background: I am a second-year student, but I entered college as a Biochemistry major. I spent the rest of my first year taking a lot of GEs until I stumbled across the Linguistics and Computer Science major. In spring quarter, I took a lower division intro to ling course and a lower division intro to programming course (C++). I did well in both classes, and I found them both pretty interesting. </p>

<p>While Ling&CS is not my passion (I'm not sure what my passion is, really), the courses required for that major at my school appeal to me. I feel that the major would be a good fit, but my parents are really pushing for me to study something that directly leads to a career (Nursing major for nurses, CS major for programmers, Accounting for accountants, etc.).</p>

<p>However, I like that studying Ling&CS leaves options open for me to go to grad school in computational linguistics, go to grad school in CS, or even go into speech pathology if I decide that the technical programming side of things aren't for me.</p>

<p>My parents don't like the absence of predictability though, and they really don't like that the job stability, growth, and salaries for comp linguists don't seem to look as promising as those of careers with more straightforward degrees associated with them. I halfheartedly tried to talk to my parents about my desire to study Ling&CS a few months ago, but they expressed the sentiment that they "wouldn't feel comfortable paying so much money for a degree [we] don't believe in." </p>

<p>They view my attending a university as an investment, and while I completely understand that this is a privilege, not a right, I can't see myself enjoying any major that my parents want me to consider. I know they want the best for me and for me to live comfortably later in life; I just wish they could be more understanding of my interests. </p>

<p>At this point, I'm 95% certain a degree in Ling&CS would suit me best, but my parents don't know that, and I really don't know how to approach them about it. I don't want to come off as ungrateful, especially since I don't know if my parents are going to pull financial support for something they "don't believe in." And the recent 32% fee hike for UCs doesn't help my guilt.</p>

<p>My uneasiness about talking to them about this has made it so that I don't even want to call my parents or even visit them for fear that the topic of "What are you going to do with your life?" will come up, and unbearable tension will ensue. </p>

<p>After reading so much good advice from CC parents, I'd like to ask for your opinion on the matter. How do I talk to them about my desire to major in Ling&CS? Am I being naive in thinking that I can still make a comfortable lifestyle out of something that is a little less predictable? Should I just choose a more practical major to appease my parents and maintain our good relationship?</p>

<p>If you've made it this far, thank you so much for reading.</p>

2

<p>I think you could reach some compromise here. Why can’t you major in CS and minor in Ling?
This way you’d still learn stuff you are interested in, you will be employable in CS (so your parents will be happy), and you will still be a candidate for computation linguistics grad programs if you choose that pass.</p>

3

<p>Go to your career counseling office. Get some data on job placements with your major, with starting salaries, places that recruit on campus for people with your major, etc. Your parents are simply assuming that there is no job market for your major. Provide them (and yourself) with some information.</p>

4

<p>I agree with the recommendation to major in Comp Sci with Linguistics as a minor or just as some extra classes. </p>

<p>Certainly your parents will be comfortable if you major in Comp Sci, right?</p>

5

<p>ohlimey: I’m not sure how to convince your parents of anything, but a few tips.</p>

<ol>
<li>You can always have a passion and study for something outside your major (I majored in business but studied psychology like crazy)</li>
<li>Watch this Steve Jobs Speech on YouTube</li>
</ol>

<p>Again this may not be helpful for your parents but… While in college everyone thinks their major is going to be their admission ticket to their entire future or job. Things just don’t work out like that unless you are in something like accounting, teaching, nursing. And if something like that doesn’t fit you, don’t do it.</p>

<p>The girl next to me at work was a Biology major and our CEO studied History.</p>

6

<p>I think your parent think linguistics is not useful.
Here some info you can use to convince.

</p>

<p>[MIT</a> Department of Linguistics](<a href=“http://web.mit.edu/linguistics/]MIT”>MIT Linguistics – Department of Linguistics and Philosophy)</p>

7

<p>If what you are saying is that your parents want you to be a pre-med, you ought to be able to complete the pre-med requirements while majoring in Linguistics or (maybe not and) Computer Science. In many respects, a Linguistics major would probably be a plus on a medical school application compared to same-old Biochem. If you couldn’t double-major, you could still get a minor, or take a bunch of coursework in the desired field.</p>

<p>I’m not saying you have to go to medical school. I’m saying that there’s room for compromise between you and your parents for the moment.</p>

<p>If your parents think that, without medical school, a biochem career is more certain than computational linguistics or computer science, I think they’re probably wrong.</p>

8

<p>I can understand your parent’s perception and concerns. I would echo the advice mentioned by a couple folks. Major in Computer Science and minor in linguistics. Receiving your major in Compute Sciences will open a lot more doors for you (ie meeting your parents concern) while minoring in Linguistics will still keep that door open if you want to pursue that at the grad level</p>

9

<p>I think the Linguistics and Computer Science major has great job prospects, so what Chedva said: show them the data!</p>

10

<p>Google Dan Pink. He was a linguistics major, and that got him into Yale Law.</p>

11

<p>In the early days, the best CS/programmers were language majors, english, foreign language. They knew the rules of language/lingistics and can tell a story-basically what is programmer designer-programmer.</p>

12

<p>

What gets people into law school is high GPA + high LSAT combo, the major does not matter, as long as it is not pre-professional.</p>

13

<p>Show your parents the data and stick to your guns. It may come down to the fact they just don’t really understand what linguistics is, a lot of people don’t or think it’s something like English, and they may also not understand how they work together. To me, and maybe to you, it makes a lot of sense: linguistics is the study of the fundamental building blocks of language, computer science teaches you to speak and use the language of computers. The most successful computer programmers are the ones who took the existing language and created a whole new language out of it, so understanding how languages are created will be really important to advancing your career as a programmer. Sure you could just study computer science and just learn what already exists and be a data puncher, but if you couple it with linguistics, it can open your mind to a lot more possibilities and opportunities to create something of your own and thus advance your career much more. </p>

<p>And really, talk to them about all the great opportunites their are for computer science majors. You can work for a big company like google, microsoft, apple, you can consult, you can work for game companies, and even for the government. CS is a very useful degree and coupled with linguistics it an take you far.</p>

14

<p>I had a quick look at a program at UCLA and it doesn’t look that bad. It looks like it provides enough base programming and computing skills that should provide good job prospects. The idea is to substitute the hardware courses in a CS degree with linguistics courses so the software side of CS shouldn’t suffer.</p>

<p>This kind of degree would be interesting for working in artificial intelligence and natural language recognition along with compilers. You might take a look at a subject called computer language theory. I suspect that there is considerable theory in this program and it would probably be good preparation for graduate school.</p>

<p>What you might do is take the major requirements for the CS+L degree and get the course descriptions and put them in a text file or word document and then show the file to your parents indicating the marketable skills that you will get from the CS side of the degree. This may reassure them that you will have marketable skills when you graduate. There will probably be several upper-level courses where they description sounds like gibberish to them (and perhaps you). You might also grab the major requirements for a straight CS program and show them the differences between CS and CS+L. They might be fairly small.</p>

15

<p>Maybe you can start referring to the major as “Computer Science and Linguistics” to your parents. :slight_smile: (We’re easily fooled…)</p>

16

<p>

I don’t think the OP’s parents have any problem with CS major. They oppose the Ling&CS major. Depending on the specifics of the school and the major, they very well may be right. Sometimes “combo majors” like this are not going enough in depth into either field. (The same concern holds for the top grad programs as well.) That’s why I think CS major +Ling minor is a win/win.</p>

17

<p>Tell them that going to college has taught you to avoid the instinct to follow the herd, and that’s what you are doing.</p>

18

<p>ohlimey -</p>

<p>How much are your parents paying for right now? All of your expenses? Part of your expenses? Perhaps your parents will be more accepting of your choice of major if you are willing to take on more financial responsibility for it.</p>

<p>Consider your options for increasing your debt load (you only have two years left), and/or increasing the hours you work, and/or going to school part-time so you can work full-time. Think about how much more that you could be paying for now with student loans and money earned by working during vacations and during the school year. Figure out if there is a way for you to pay for the rest of your education entirely on your own.</p>

<p>Knowing whether or not you absolutely need your parents’ financial support will make a big difference in your ability to decide on your major field of study.</p>

<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>

19

<p>I second the poster who recommended that you go to your career placement center and get job stats from them (how many firms interview, number of job placements, starting salaries, etc. in the Ling&CS field). You will probably be pleasantly surprised, and so will your parents. My d’s friend double-majored in linquistics and math and is working for Google now - at a very nice salary.</p>

20

<p>Since I don’t know your parents, I have no idea what will or will not sway them. However, computer science is one of those fields that is fairly ‘wide open’ in the sense that it is changing all the time, and the course of study is quite variable, depending on where you are studying. (In some places, CS is within engineering, in some places it is its own school, at others it is part of the math dept, etc.)</p>

<p>In short, it isn’t even possible, in my opinion, to predict what the exact future of a CS major or CS/combo major is. I think any CS field is potentially a good one, if you are smart and hard-working and you make sure you develop some contacts while you are in school.</p>

<p>Good luck. We parents sometimes think we know everything, and we don’t like to see a lot of $$$ wasted. Unfortunately, some of us lose sight of the fact that the world is rapidly changing, and what was true for us may not be true for the current crop of students.</p>