<p>So, I don't really have an interest in engineering, but I don't really like anything else either. The subjects that do interest me don't really have good job prospects (e.g. philosophy). Should I just do engineering anyways to get an above average salary when I graduate? Also, I'm rather introverted, so I probably wouldn't do well in business.</p>
<p>How about a math major or computer science?</p>
<p>You only live once. Do philosophy, excel, and go for law. You’ll make more money, be happier, and be better respected by members of your community than if you just major in engineering or CS and become a (albeit well-paid, comparatively speaking) wage slave.</p>
<p>Don’t lawyers work like 80 hours a week? That sounds miserable. And CS jobs are being outsourced steadily.
I was thinking accounting, but idk. I just don’t understand this whole “do what you love” mentality, because, at the end of the day, a job is a job. And, I want to make sure I that I’m making at least a decent living so I can travel and eat out a lot and enjoy life instead of pinching pennies for the rest of my life.</p>
<p>Engineering is going to be outsource too. Had a friend who was an EE and could not get a job when his company closed in his state. He went back to college for a computer science degree in his 40’s.</p>
<p>the mantra is: if you dont like it, dont do it.
you see my entire family is up for me becoming either a successful engineer or a reputable surgeon(kinda stupid i know), but im all for astrophysics. and im firm about it.
analyze what you like best and do it. just do it(courtesy: nike):D</p>
<p>“I just don’t understand this whole “do what you love” mentality, because, at the end of the day, a job is a job.”</p>
<p>Yep, and you’ll feel a whole lot better if your “job” is doing “work” you enjoy (they are different things.) .</p>
<p>The Answer depends on your current grade level:</p>
<p>high school: you’re not even in college yet; your anxiety level is too high if you’re worried about something that is a year + away</p>
<p>frosh: now that you’re in college just take a course or two in areas you are interested in and see what they are like; The OSU is right to call it “Exploring” instead of “Undecided”</p>
<p>soph: yes, I know that some of the people around you have picked their majors and career paths, but you aren’t them; use your breadth requirements to take courses in areas that interest you</p>
<p>junior: at the beginning of the year talk with your academic advisor about how to narrow down to a major and a minor; keep taking courses that interest you</p>
<p>senior: look for “job” opportunties in areas that you want to “work” in . … even if it’s in your major :-)</p>
<p>@Kei-o-lei so you mean do whatever others are telling you to do and make good money? is that it? will that be life? i know a hell lot of people do just that but i dont care. after all it is my degrees in particular disciplines are what gonna be with me throughout my life. and i aint gonna get a freaking engineering degree just to earn money. at least im not that kind. just remember job dissatisfaction is one of the major causes of suicide in successful people.</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone recommending a career in law right now is a good idea.</p>
<p>The job prospects for anyone other than the top 10% of a class at a top 100 law school, or the top 50% of a class at a top 14 law school are really bad. My wife is a 3L right now at a top 30ish school and the job prospects she’s facing aren’t good. It’s very competitive and the few jobs open aren’t paying nearly as well as they used to. Many people in her class won’t make over 50k after graduating if they have a job at all… that’s with 8 years of school.</p>
<p>It’s really not a good idea IMO. If you are doing law for the money, do engineering first if you can handle it. Only engineers and some science majors like physics and chemistry are allowed to work as patent lawyers, and they get paid a lot more (like double), and have a lot better job prospects than everyone else.</p>
<p>Your post is too vague. Assuming you really aren’t at all interested in anything but Philosophy. I’d just start school, focus on general classes and see if something sparks an interest. I wouldn’t recommend a philosophy major even if that’s what you feel is your calling unless your aim is to be a scholar and get a PhD. College is supposed to give you skills that you can apply to a career. This is reflected by the job prospects and starting salaries of philosophy majors. Sure, philosophy majors gain writing skills and abstract thinking skills, but not the skills you get from four years of work experience.</p>
<p>If you do something you don’t like just for the money, you may not be very good at it, so you may not be as successful at it as you hope.</p>
<p>If you like philosophy, do you also like math? If you do, it may be a doable double major which gives you a somewhat greater range of jobs and careers to go into.</p>
<p>
Not all lawyers; and if they did, it would be because they loved their work.</p>
<p>
Not if you enjoy what you’re doing.</p>
<p>
Not for people who are good at what they do… and regardless, you think engineering’s safer in this respect? Check the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook.</p>
<p>
Sounds like you’re pretty excited about this possibility.</p>
<p>
And yet you thought it was relevant to mention that the only subject you’d enjoy majoring in is philosophy. If you don’t want to be a lawyer, many other career paths are available to you: politics, military, academics/teaching, etc., and for all of these philosophy is a completely adequate choice of major.</p>
<p>
A reasonable thing to want to ensure.</p>
<p>
There’s a lot more to life than eating out and traveling, and working hard at a job you love so you can live a modest life and enjoying your life aren’t mutually exclusive.</p>
<p>
Most people end up pinching pennies, and most people would like a ton of money. You’ll always have something you worry about… those scenes in movies where the bank robbers are on the beach sipping daiquiris and swimming with dolphins don’t happen in real life (or if they do, they occur so infrequently that it’s like winning the lottery, or once you’re so old that you have a host of other problems to contend with anyway).</p>
<p>If you want a lot of money without having to work for it, three popular options are crime, gambling, and inheritance. Of course, each of these involves an element of chance, and these aren’t necessarily “easy” jobs either. If, on the other hand, you get a job where you can do things that you find tolerable more often than not, it can take the sting out of having to work for the money. Work can be a source of satisfaction in its own right. Take pride in what you do.</p>
<p>Another way of saying all that: if you decide you want to be an engineer, or accountant, or whatever just so that you’ll have a job and make good money, you’ll hate your job, have to penny-pinch anyway, and always wonder what could have been.</p>
<p>Your life, your choice.</p>
<p>@aegrismonia perfectly describes my idea…:D</p>
<p>@KamelAkbar: Law was just one example of something a philosophy major could do. Politics, the military, academics and writing/editing also come to mind. There are plenty of options. Also, not everybody agrees with your contention that college is meant to prepare people for a job. I, for one, feel like people who believe that are setting themselves up for disappointment in both their academic and professional careers. Also, some people are competing - and competitive - as lawyers, and do make it big. The trick is that these people have an aptitude, (ostensibly) enjoy the subject enough to pursue it, and have decided to give it their 100% (likely). If you’re not willing to do one of these (among other) things, I’d agree that you’re not going to be the best lawyer in the bunch; but neither would you have been the best at anything, or made particularly much money in any other line of work.</p>
<p>
I’m not sure how much better the career prospects are for somebody who does a “pure” math track (more aligned with philosophy)… if he’d enjoy applied math, he might as well do engineering or CS anyway.</p>
<p>If nothing else except engineering will do for you, then go for it.</p>
<p>hahahaha this thread title actually made me lol, it was so blunt xD</p>
<p>The guy said he wants money. There are plenty of things you can do with philosophy, but the supply and demand just doesn’t make it at all lucrative (actually, one of the least lucrative majors). The military requires being willing to get deployed and shot at (and philosophy majors have virtually no chance at getting into the Air Force or the Navy as officers via OTS - I was in the Air Force), and that’s not something everyone is willing to subject themselves to. Politics, by its very nature, is intensely competitive and requires you to be amazing at networking, but the guy said he is an introvert. I also don’t know of many successful politicians that majored in philosophy and certainly only a minority of lawyers majored in it.</p>
<p>Now, even though you can do those things with a philosophy major doesn’t mean you should. It’s not really an ideal choice of major for anyone. </p>
<p>I just disagree that college isn’t job training. Outside of our country, 60-70% of college students around the world choose practical STEM majors, medical school, pharmacy, etc. The others choose things like foreign languages and other practical majors that directly lead to a career.</p>
<p>I don’t understand why anyone would go to college for learning’s sake. If you want to learn about philosophy, there are Stanford lectures and books you can purchase and learn it on your own time for much less of a cost. There are clubs, etc. To pay $60k in tuition plus another $120k+ in opportunity cost to major in something that will not have a significant return on invest is, to me, crazy. If you’re rich and you want to spend four years learning about something cool, that makes sense. I just feel like you’d be wasting taxpayer money with loans or your parents hard-earned life-savings picking a major like philosophy unless it is totally and completely your life’s dream to teach or write philosophy.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Actually, a large percentage of students in the US choose majors for pre-professional reasons (though not all of them necessarily lead to good job and career prospects at graduation, and there are some misconceptions involved, as it seems that many do not realize that pre-med and pre-law do not require any specific undergraduate major):</p>
<p>Art practice: artist, graphic design, etc. jobs
Biology, chemistry: pre-med, pre-dental, pre-pharmacy, or jobs in biotech, pharmacuticals, etc.
Business: various “business” jobs
Computer science: computer software
Economics: various “business” jobs
Engineering: engineer
English: pre-law
Math, statistics: finance, actuarial jobs
Music performance: musician
Nursing: nurse
Political science: pre-law
Psychology: “business” jobs in marketing and consumer behavior
Theater: actor</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It was likely more common a few decades ago in the US, when college was a lot less expensive, and any bachelor’s degree from a decent college was a significant distinction when only 10-20% of the over-25 population had bachelor’s degrees. Now that college is much more expensive and probably 30-35% of the over-25 population has bachelor’s degrees, studying to a non-job-specific bachelor’s degree without considering job and career prospects is more likely to be seen as a luxury for those from wealthy families.</p>
<p>That said, philosophy majors may have an edge over other humanities majors, because they have learned how to think logically as well as humanistically; having both modes of thinking is likely to be advantageous over just one.</p>
<p>Wow, lots of replies. To clarify, I’m not in love with philosophy. I’m just saying I like it, and I kind of like psychology too. I was just listing examples of subjects that are interesting, but if I majored in these, I would just be one person in a sea of humanities majors. Tbh, I’d rather spend my free time playing video games, listening to music, etc. than studying these subjects though.
Anyways, what I’m trying to say is, I think I’m more interested in having a decent job that allows me to buy some nice things and do some cool stuff. Sorry if I sound pessimistic, but I’m just trying to be realistic.</p>
<p>lol that was so blunt.</p>