@OHMomof2 - something to add to my “why I don’t like Reagan” list. (I really, really don’t btw- he is my 3rd least favorite president. I’m a History teacher… I have lists like that 
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@OhioMom2 I hope the schools we are targeting have all of those options at their career center. We are visiting Oberlin, Kenyon, and Denison this week and it looks like they all have some if not all of these opportunities. Denison is a safety for S19 so I hope he likes it. He liked Beloit last week but I’d have to ask more questions regarding their placement office before we will put it on his list of safeties. I’m going to use your list as a wish list!
Homer, all the resources in the world mean nothing if your kid doesn’t take advantage of them.
There are colleges with unbelievable career development operations- staffed with people who know different industries (important- getting a job at CNN is very different than getting a job at Boeing or Morgan Stanley), people who manage a robust alumni mentoring effort (as in- a kid can name a type of job and a specific industry and the career services folks can have three alums who are happy to serve as mentors), and have a special team devoted to fellowships, programs like TFA or Peace Corps, can help get a job teaching English in China or get a funded Master’s degree overseas.
None of this means anything if your kid won’t show up for the resume workshops, the video interviews (who knew that twirling your hair was annoying?), or won’t follow up with the mentor.
Make sure your kid understands that a launch plan is part of junior/senior year, and that ditching a final round interview to go to Mexico with your sorority is only an option if your kid has already accepted another job.
@homerdog at least you’ll have somewhat unusual and specific info session/tour questions when they ask the dreaded “does anyone have any questions?”
@homerdog - Denison was one of my D’s safeties as well, and I remember they spent a lot of time in info session talking about career and grad school placement
@blossom. Good info. I have no worries at all when it comes to S19 being a go-getter. He will use all of the resources available to him without any prompting from me or my husband. He’s advocated for himself at school since middle school.
@OhioMom2 I’m totally asking some questions!
@toowonderful I may be in touch with some questions for you as well! LOL.
From the early 19th century onwards, there has been a contestation between those who viewed the liberal arts education as a luxury(Mainly the SES elite who regarded it as a preserve solely for themselves/their male offspring and those who were of a strong anti-intellectual bent) and those who felt it is vital for all citizens to be viable participants in our democratic franchise.
This was one of the reasons why some public universities(What would become CUNY/CCNY and the land-grant universities) and some private universities(i.e. NYU and many private LACs and universities) were founded by those of the latter camp.
The importance of a strong liberal arts education also wasn’t necessarily limited to the to the US colleges.
For instance, due to General Douglas MacArthur’s observations that the West Point curriculum through WWI didn’t adequately prepare its graduates for the diplomatic/cultural challenges/demands of occupational duty in post WWI Germany, when he was named West Point’s Superintendent, he instituted radical curricular reforms to place more emphasis on the arts and humanities/social sciences especially foreign languages, government, history, international relations, economics.
While some of those reforms were rolled back, this was the origin of West Point and later other Service Academies broadening their curricula well-beyond military subjects and engineering.
Ironically, just a few decades later, the US propaganda newsreels would cite the greater broader liberal arts education its military cadets at the Federal Service Academies/Military Colleges are exposed to in contrast to the much more narrow circumscribed curricula of the Nazi German or Militaristic Imperial Japanese military academies during WWII.
Related to this, most German, Japanese, and other academy trained officers were woefully lacking in knowledge about foreign cultures, political science(especially international relations), or even economics. And some of them…especially the generals were openly PROUD of their ignorance in those areas.
As someone pursuing a vocation-driven major which requires a great deal of creativity (interior design), I generally find the rallying cries of "STEM or death! " to be, paradoxically, small-minded and inflexible. They are often driven by fear of the unknown and deemed practical. But in practice, this kind of thinking produces adults who are afraid to take risks, afraid to experiment, afraid to think their own thoughts and live their own lives. Sure, there are some kids in STEM who are driven by innate curiosity, and it is always fascinating to pick their brains (passion, it turns out, can itself fascinate regardless of its subject). But I can’t even begin to count how many threads over the last year have been the subject of laments about their parents forcing them into a STEM major. If this sounds familiar to any parents out there, then all I have to say to you is: this is how drones are made. Expect your child to live a tepid life of mediocre middle-management. Perfectly satiating your fears of joblessness, sure. But also perfectly dull and inconsequential.
@violaine. I hear you. My brother in law forced his kids to be business majors. His daughter, my niece, really wanted to be a kindergarten teacher. She would have been an awesome one. Instead, she’s an executive assistant at a big consulting firm making copies. There’s no doubt in my mind that she will be unfulfilled working the corporate life. My nephew was also a business major and is now in one of those trainings programs at a financial services firm. He also seems bored out of his mind.
Now that S19 is looking at schools, my brother in law is giving his two cents. He asked S19 if he has a major in mind. S19 said he’s ruled out Comp Sci, engineering, and business. And his uncle said, “what else is there?” Ugh. He lectured him on finding a job and, at the very least, majoring in Econ. I was cringing. On the way home from that family gathering, S19 said, " why was uncle X so focused on my major? I think he’s pretty short sighted. There are a dozen majors more interesting than business. I wouldn’t want you and dad and to spend your money for me to get a business degree."
I almost want S19 to be some obscure major now just to mess with his uncle. Romantic Languages??
No offense to kids who choose business majors…but my D would cringe. It’s a great major for those who want it, but it’s very sad for those who are forced into it. This is true for any major that is forced.
I have come to the conclusion that my D has a liberal arts major… which is perfectly fine. She has already been asked by family members… “What are you planning to do with this?” She has an answer… as her friends from school who graduated with this degree are either employed or in grad school.
@twogirls Agreed. I do think there are kids out there who want to major in business. More power to them. 
A good friend of mine was forced by his immigrant parents to major in engineering at a large state university. He didn’t particularly like engineering so when he graduated and got a job in engineering his career quickly stalled. One day we were talking about how unhappy he was in his job and I asked him “what have you done in your life that really made you happy?” He said “well I volunteered as an ESL teacher And I loved it but it was only for a short time so it doesn’t count.” In this case I encouraged him to “follow his bliss”. He went back to school, got his Master’s in Education, and started a career as a math teacher, eventually becoming a dean and starting his own program to help underprivileged kids prepare for private secondary schools. He made more money as a great math teacher than he was making as a mediocre engineer and he was far more fulfilled.
@sue22 I feel like that might be a common story. On the bright side, anyone with a bachelors can become a teacher and getting a Masters in education can be done inexpensively.
^When my H needed to get out of medicine ten years ago, he did a post-bac program to get certified; didn’t even need to do a master’s. It included student teaching and all required courses.
His undergraduate degree was a double major in bio and philosophy. Oh, the liberal arts-ness of it all!
A couple thoughts:
1 – This issue the OP brings up has been discussed ad-nauseum on CC. Here is a thread that directly touched of the OP’s concerns.
2 – The viability of developing a career with a humanities degree likely varies directly with the caliber of the school and the student. Humanity grads from the Harvard/Stanford/Chicago class of schools will have no problem finding employment or developing satisfying careers if that is what they want. On the other hand, unless they go into education, humanity graduates from double direction state schools will face stiff challenges with the same task, so kids attending schools on the lower end of the selectivity scale would probably be better off in a pre-professional or technical training program, or no college at all. Parents can decide where their kids and educational institutions fit on the bell curve.
Recent figures show that more than 30 percent of college graduates are employed in jobs that do not require a college degree, so this miss-allocation of resources is a major societal problem. Personally, I know too many recent graduates who have experienced “failure to launch” or older adults who never used their humanities degrees in the course of their careers (lots of actors).
3 - The market for college graduates has changed significantly since the 1980’s when less than 20 percent of young adults had college degrees. If you graduated from college back then, career opportunities were readily available. Now about 34 percent of the population aged 25 to 29 have college degrees, so the market is somewhat saturated. Many adults do not realize that yet.
I’m reading a book I got from the library called “The Enlightened College Applicant”. It asserts that liberal arts major grads outearn engineers by mid-career. It’s footnoted so I’m going to see where that data came from and report back.
Arts and entertainment tend to be high Gini or winner take all professions. A few make it big, while many others leave the profession after some years as a “starving artist” (often moonlighting to pay the bills).
Found it. This part will probably be of most interest here:
I guess I am a bit puzzled by the negativity toward business degrees expressed on this thread. I agree no one should be forced to major in something they don’t want to do and, in fact, they cant be “forced” to do anything. They could choose not to accept the financial support to attend college, move out and get a job! However I would suggest that Business as a major is every bit as fulfilling and interesting as History, language, political science or any other field if that is what interests you. I find this focus on “fulfillment” to be just so much noise. Study what you want. Get your degree. get a job. Build your career. live your life. Stem, Business, Liberal arts all have their places but in general the highest rewarding majors tend to be in the Business and STEM fields and in the end everyone has to make a living. IMO more income is better than less and if choosing a major can assist in that it is certainly as valid a reason to include as any other.
It is pretty useful to read the whole thing. Among other items, it notes that engineering degree recipients are consistently higher in median earnings. It also has a weird mix of different classifications and different metrics for different age groups. I thought the most useful thing was the significant fraction of arts and sciences majors obtaining graduate or professional degrees, and the bump in salary this caused. A big weakness in this and many other surveys is only counting the graduates working full time (the first bullet on 56-60 year old salaries).
You really want lifetime earnings for these things, which I thought the Georgetown (?) survey provided.