Zobroward, I mentioned the burdens of tuition and loans. I am not starry-eyed or naïve, and also do not have a lot of money. I stand by my advice. For the long term, it is as practical as the most vocational major is now. I am the parent of three grown kids and my observations aren’t entirely theoretical : )
compmom this is not a " theoretical" situation. what happens if her parents cut off the cash flow? I would not confuse a lofty ideal of going off to college to find your passion vs. the real world where your parents who control the purse strings are objecting. unless another source of money becomes available to the OP she needs to align with her parents. I doubt anyone on CC is going to write a check to her college for her.
You could show them this: https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/09/02/meet-the-parents-who-wont-let-their-children-study-literature/
If you really are terrible at math and if you stay in the CS program, your GPA is going to start to tank once you get into calc. That will hurt your options going forward when it comes to internships, grad school, keeping any merit aid you may be getting, etc.
Maybe you can compromise with your parents…you’ll get off the CS path but won’t formally declare your new major right away. You can promise that you will explore the job and career options of several different fields and will take those into serious account when you choose your new major. (Assuming you’re at a college where this is possible)
Zobroward the idea behind the thread is to help this young person convince her parents so that they don’t cut her off. Her parents view college as directly vocational, which is understandable considering the cost. But it is still true that a major in English still leads to great jobs. I am not suggesting a frivolous pursuit of passion. The transcript will be much better if the major is one the student enjoys and is good at. I hear many parents steer their kids away from the humanities these days and I think, for practical not idealogical reasons, that it is misguided. But it does depend on the personality of the student in question, as it does in many majors.
I think some internships would reassure the parents perhaps.
Look for colleges where you can pair English with Technical Writing or Non Fiction Writing or a business certificate.
I’m thinking colleges like Dickinson or Denison, or the LACs that have the Harvard Business certificate (Amherst, Carleton, Hamilton, Wellesley, Spelman…)
Actually, if one’s really terrible at math, its likely the minimal mathematical foundation necessary to survive, much less do well in intro CS courses for majors may not be adequate. No need for calc for the GPA to start tanking.
When I took my first 2 intro CS courses for majors in undergrad, one of the critical reasons why many aspiring CS majors flunk out or barely eke by with a C/C- grades is because of an inadequate mathematical foundation*.
- Not solid enough in algebra
Maybe combine the two and focus on Technical Writing as a career.
OP, for the requested information:
[url=http://www.nber.org/chapters/c13697.pdf]This[/url] report shows that the probability of working in low-skilled service jobs (food service and retail) is pretty low for most college graduates. For English language majors, it’s about 12%. (See the appendix). Most college graduates, including those in humanities majors like English, are gainfully employed in professional jobs that pay decent salaries.
Your parents may also be interested in knowing that the unemployment rate for recent college graduates who majored in English hovers around 9-10%. While that might seem large, the rate is 7-9% for computer science graduates; 2 percentage points is not a statistically significant difference (what that means is that it falls within the margin of error, meaning that the difference is more likely due to random chance than any actual differences). CIS and IT majors actually have higher rates of unemployment than English majors. Also important is that these differences tend to level out after a few years in the work force. (https://cew.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/HardTimes2015-Report.pdf).
I work in tech. Program managers are paid about the same as software developers. In my area, program managers average over $102K a year; software developers average about $98K a year. I know a lot of program managers who did not major in CS; some of my PM friends majored in linguistics, nursing, history, women’s studies, and psychology. Technical writers do make a bit less - they average around $75K. English is a pretty common major for technical writers (although so are other humanities and social sciences majors and communication).
However, I would definitely not say that technical writers and program managers are considered less important for the business. I work with a variety of tech roles and all of them are considered vital, especially program managers. They keep the programs on track and prevent us from wasting money and time and effort. And technical communicators and writers convey necessary information about our products and services to the public. Without them, nobody would know about what we do, and all the work would be for naught. It’s just that typically, there are more people competing for PM and tech writer roles because there are a wider range of majors that can compete for them. Still, though, there are about a billion* PM jobs between Seattle, Silicon Valley, New York, DC, Austin and other tech hubs.
*A billion is a gross exaggeration, but you get it.
OP hasn’t been back since he first posted 2 weeks ago.
Observations:
- Math is primarily practice not ability. practice, practice, practice.
- If one of mine wanted to switch to English, I would suggest that they read Stephen King's On Writing.
- I would want to know what passion they have shown inside and outside the classroom. How are English grades? How much do they read? How often do they write? Have they been published? What awards have they won? What is the feedback from teachers? I think an English major needs to have a level of talent and a high level of commitment.
An average English major at an average school is probably not making a great decision, in my opinion, but for the right student, it is an excellent choice.
A college “major” is an area in which you specialize but represents typically much less than a majority of the courses you may take. Perhaps only 30-40%. While the name of your major says something about your special competencies and skills, it usually doesn’t tell a lot more.
I told my two kids that they could major in anything – just graduate in 4 years. This was mainly a matter of cost but also a way to tell them to be disciplined in how they planned their program. Their majors were economics and industrial design. Each of those majors also involved developing some skills in cognate areas (math, statistics, computer-aided-design, etc.). As an English major, you also have required courses outside the major – imposed by your department, your college within a university (e.g., letters and arts), or other programs.
When you go on the job market, “English major” isn’t going to tell prospective employers what your skills are, your special interests, your hobbies and experiences – both leisure, voluntary, and employment. So what you do at that point is to assemble a dossier in which you enumerate your skills and experiences. Many of those are from courses you have taken. But most are not.
I helped my kids to make a dossier, a curriculum vita, and statement of interests that was far more than just a list of courses taken. For my kids, this statement, as well as their CV’s, listed items such as: travel and study abroad, foreign language competency, extracurricular organizational activity and achievements, leadership, awards, publications, public speaking, and so forth. It is THESE things that a prospective employer will be interested in. The employer will take for granted that “English major” means you are literate, write well, and can speak effectively. But your CV says much more than that.
This comment is intended as practical advice not just to you but also to your parents. You have a core interest in English, but what you are as a person, including as a prospective employee, goes way beyond that.