Ah, but health care is now recognized as a major cost driver for companies and gov’t organizations. I see lots of “leaning” in health care in the future.
Maybe! So far it is creating more work than ever so the future looks bright.
Yeah, I guess it’s a YMMV type of thing, and healthcare is certainly growing in many areas, but you won’t want to be in the one that needs to shrink when it’s determined. I think the point is more that our parents’ world of working at the same place from graduation to retirement is long gone, and everyone should expect to have multiple jobs (and maybe careers) during their working life, either by choice or maybe not. I read that the millennials will have on average 10 jobs by the age of 40, at least some of those will likely be involuntary. And crazy stuff like 1/2 the jobs in 2030 haven’t even been created yet.
At the end of the day, your daughter should seek an education which will provide her with the utmost flexibility to do many different things, especially if she wants to try and make money with her passion b/c it may not work out as a career.
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At the end of the day, your daughter should seek an education which will provide her with the utmost flexibility to do many different things, especially if she wants to try and make money with her passion b/c it may not work out as a career.[QUOTE/)
This is the reason I probably push healthcare for her since she is solid in math and science. As an RN,FNP I have sooo much flexibility it’s crazy. So do my OT and PT friends.
One of the most famous photographers alive today is Annie Leibovitz. She takes a lot of celebrity portraits for magazines like Rolling Stone and People. She went to the San Francisco Art Institute, here’s a little blurb about her from Wikipedia:
If your daughter is really interested in pursuing photography as a career, you should encourage or even help her talk to professional photographers in the area, see where they went to college(if at all), how they got started and perhaps what advice they would have for her. A good place to start would be those photographers who come to her school to do annual school pictures.
While a few top photographers may make a good living, I don’t think the rest make much. I recall once reading in the NYT about a girl who graduated from NYU with a degree in Religious and Women’s Studies, after $120k in debt, the only job she could get was as a photographer’s assistance for $27,000 a year - in San Francisco. After paying rent and her loan, she barely had enough to live on.
IMO a degree in Photography today is a luxury that only the rich can afford. If one is going to spend 4 years of one’s time and a hundred thousand dollars on a college degree, might as well get an employable degree out of it, if not STEM than accounting/business/finance. One can always change one’s mind and pursue photography after college, but at least one will have some options.
I too have a son who has all the grades but is for the moment, “passionate” about digital photography. I gave him the same advice. He intends to major in mechanical engineering.
I know of a guy who was laid off mid-career from his high paying IT job. He decided to make a career out of his passion for photography and became a wedding photographer. It was probably hard to make a living though. When the economy came back he eventually went back to work in IT. But the point is she can always go back to photography later on, after achieving some financial stability with a “real” job, or married to someone with one. 
“We would love for her to have a narrowed down list of schools”
- I created such a list for my D. It had very few schools but contained tons of information for each, my spreadsheet did not fit printing on one page. I did it for fun, I knew exactly what D’s is looking for and all her criteria for choosing. I did it for personal fun and it took me about 2 years to compile. When time come to apply, I told her that I have a list, but she did not have to use. She got interested and loved it. She ended up attending her #2 from my list. She love it so much that based on this experience, she asked me later to compile a list of Medical Schools to apply, This second project was so much easier and was accomplished in about 30 min. D. was thankful again.
This was my approach. I do not know the dynamics of your family to suggest anything specific in your case.
Other than that, we were not involved, except later driving her for out of town interviews. D. also took the PSAT “cold”, did not get a high score and did not care to re-take it. Her ACT score and GPA were good enough to have couple very high Merit based offers, one from public and one from private, that happened to be her #1 and #2 on a list. As I mentioned, she ended up attending her #2 - in-state public on full tuition Merit award. Actually, during her application cycle, we encounter only one school that was using NMF status for decision making in regard to acceptance and Merit award. So, I am glad that my kid did not spend any time preparing for her PSAT.
Best wishes!
" I’ve yet to meet an engineer who is not a slave to the 9-5 + daily grind and I don’t think any of them are particularly happy." - I’m an engineer married to an engineer, with of course many engineering friends. Work has sometimes been a pain in recent years but honestly it seems that every field has its pros/cons.
I’ve always suggested students do engineering (or any field) for the love of it, not just based on earning potential.
" I’ve yet to meet an engineer who is not a slave to the 9-5 + daily grind and I don’t think any of them are particularly happy." - my engineer H. is working much more than 9 - 5 and he likes his job a lot and all people at his work seem to be a happy bunch. He works for small but prominent on the international market engineering firm. We go to his office parties on a regular basis, there are lots of people there who have been there for few decades and some do not want to retire at all, They have an engineer who, I believe is in his 80s and just remembers everything, they consult with him when they do not want to search on computer or some older project may not be on their data base at all. Everybody is so friendly, very happy bunch and so are many other engineers that we know who feel the same.
Earning potential is not anywhere near like MD or so, you got to be in a very high position while many engineering firms are small and do not have much of the vertical organization. They seem to enjoy their job though…But you got to love it, for sure and the love of math and sciences is NOT an indication that you will enjoy engineering at all. I know, it was my reason for choosing engineering, and I was OK academically, but I did not like the job at all and after 11 years of working in a wrong for me field, I said, enough is enough and switched to CS. love this one with all my heart, it is nice to feel that you belong, it makes your every day happy…