<p>The OP is comparing two perfectly viable, high-paying careers, either of which is well worth funding, so I don’t see any gray area there.</p>
<p>I do see some gray area, though, when it comes to Italian poetry. If funding a college education is going to be a financial burden for the parent, then s/he does have the right to consider return-on-investment.</p>
<p>For example, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say something like this: “I will pay $30,000 for you to attend any college in any field of study. Above that amount, it depends. If you want to major in Italian poetry, where there are no significant career prospects, you’ll have to find the extra money yourself. If, on the other hand, you want to be a doctor, I will find a way to give you more than $30,000, because I know you will make it back manifold.”</p>
<p>Or s/he might say, “I will pay $30,000 for you to attend any college in any field of study, including Italian poetry, but only if you get into a top school, because that’s the only way you’ll be able to make a career out of Italian poetry. If you want to study Italian poetry at Alabama A&M, then I’m only paying $10,000.”</p>
<p>The numbers and other details are arbitrary. The point is that the parent’s willingness to fund a college education shouldn’t be an all-or-nothing proposition, but some consideration of future career prospects is not unreasonable.</p>
<p>Without being able to see the whole arc of a student’s education (including MBA, law, medical and/or grad school), you can’t really determine what the return on investment is. </p>
<p>For example, Carly Fiorina was a philosophy and medieval history major at Stanford. Would not have looked promising in terms of return on investment. But HP paid her more money NOT to work than many people make working.</p>
<p>That happens, sure. But for every Carly Fiorina there are a hundred forty-year-olds living in their parents’ basements playing World of Warcraft all night after finishing their shifts at Arby’s. The parent must make a judgment: Is my child the future CEO of Hewlett-Packard? Or the future Balrog Macewielder of Zaruth?</p>
<p>the doctor thing is probably more of a prestige issue with your dad [my dad is the same way]. just do your best to make it perfectly clear to him that you’re almost an adult & can make your own decisions.</p>
<p>So few people end up staying with their initial major or following a career that matches the major they graduated with. Now is a time for exploration and following your passion (as you know it now).</p>
<p>Thy words are right and true! And if you are so inclined, o student, go and study whatever you’re passionate about (now). But if your passion is something really unusual with no clear path to the ability to support yourself one day, just don’t expect your parents to pay for it. Be willing to take out a loan.</p>
<p>Really passionate? Then take out a really big loan! Put your money (not your parents’ money) where your mouth is. Mind you, I would pay for my kid to study Italian poetry, but I wouldn’t expect every parent to do so without question.</p>
<p>But get this: If I chose not to pay for it, and my son was so passionate about it that he followed my advice to the OP and secretly majored in it anyway…well, I’d grudgingly respect that. Actually, I might even think it was pretty cool. It take ■■■■■■■ to keep an Italian poetry major secret from your dad for four years. It’d be like the kid who loved theater in Dead Poets Society.</p>
<p>Most of the Asian and Indian parents I know limit what their kids can major in. Usually it’s math, science or engineering. The really liberal ones who were born here themselves sometimes also allow business.</p>
<p>To specify premed, I agree with cc: it’s a prestige thing. The dad wants to say, “My son/daughter is a doctor.” Hard to say if watching Dead Poet’s Society can compete with his ego.</p>