Oh - and as for my son - I’m leaning towards the “follow your dreams” - although I’d be happy if he followed at leat some of the money that he’s eligible to receive as a NMSF/NMF. I’m pretty sure he won’t go to a guaranteed full ride school - none really appeal to him - but hope that he’ll pick a place that at least gives some merit aid. While we’re not eligible for need-based aid, $60-70K/year isn’t realistic, either.
Kids in STEM majors have a hard time in college if they don’t really want to study it. These are weed out majors that take more than just intelligence; they require dedication and interest in the subject matter.
http://www.payscale.com/career-news/2013/08/who-are-the-fortune-100-ceos-infographic-
Here is a link from pay scale for fortune 100 CEOs undergraduate degrees.
Top degrees are from engineering, then business administration, then accounting.
And if you look at the pie chart, only 2% from history. It’s hard to claim these CEOs don’t have diversity of thoughts and became CEOs.
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-Degrees_that_Pay_you_Back-sort.html does not really show any consistent pattern of STEM versus non-STEM major 90th percentile mid-career pay levels, if that is what you are referring to.
Actually, the 90th percentile pay earners from all majors do quite well in terms of mid-career pay levels. The median mid-career pay for all majors are all higher than the median pay level for all workers of that age (including non-college-graduates), so it is not like a bachelor’s degree in a major that is not specific to many jobs and careers is worthless (though taking on huge student loan debt would be a bad deal). But it is true that the lowest part of the range (10th percentile) of many majors’ graduates’ mid-career pay is rather low.
One can also observe that some majors tend to have high-Gini mid-career pay distributions (e.g. philosophy, music), while others tend to have low-Gini mid-career pay distributions (e.g. physician assistant, nursing).
She is a US citizen.
^ Will you or some family member or friend be able to move to US when she comes to US for college? If not, it could be quite challenge (lonely, etc.) in the day-to-day life at the beginning, if she has never left your nest. You had better prepare her for this.
If the whole family will move to US with her, it may be easier (assuming that the relation between the parents and the child is good – it seems this is the case for you.)
I happen to know several quite academically gifted kids who had some troubles, not because of their academic preparedness, rather, because of their preparedness of living indepedently without assistance from close family members. (I do not imply this is definitely the case for your family.)
Well, 50% were “other” majors (and there are many STEM and non-STEM majors that could be in that category), so that pie chart alone does not really offer support for either side of the argument about STEM majors becoming CEOs.
Sure. But is the objective of getting a STEM degree to become a CEO? Should only people on the CEO track be working in tech? I know my company’s CEO - not well, but he knows who I am, and we’ve been in meetings together when he was working his way up the ladder. His skillset is different from mine, and mine is different from others on my team. We have math, a couple of CS degrees, one electrical engineer who now has an MBA, and even someone with a degree in art. Not sure about a few of the others.
What our CEO does, though, is hire a variety of people around him. He worked his way up at the company over many years, and he’s smart enough to know that employing a lot of people who think a lot like he does isn’t going to get us where we want to be. Sure, we have more engineers (including CS) than non-engineers, but a surprising, non-trivial percentage of us have liberal arts backgrounds. (In a multinational company, being multilingual and having strong cultural competence can be assets, too.)
I know other History grads at the company. I know of a couple who majored in Theatre, and at least one who has an MDiv - wait, no - make that two MDivs. There isn’t one career path in tech/engineering. My job didn’t even exist when I was in college in the mid-1980s. I love what I do, I’m paid quite comfortably, and no, I don’t want to be CEO, ever, thanks. 
I suspect my job is more stable, though, than if I were one of 10,000 people with fairly identical software degrees. Most important, I’m happy, not trying to fit into a box that isn’t what I want or who I am.
But there are other majors under STEM too that are in the other 50%, It could be biology, chemistry, physics, etc… The pie chart at least refutes the comment that the STEM majors don’t have diversity of thoughts. It’s all nonsense that dare I say some humanities majors make broad statement while claiming to be excelled at critical thinking, at least they claim more than the STEM major.
I agree that for someone aiming to attend a US college,14 is much too young to decide on a career path, and that the 14-year-old is better advised to concentrate on getting a broad, well-rounded, and high quality secondary education, certainly including math and science but not to the exclusion of humanities, social studies, etc. It is also true that most US colleges don’t require students to declare a major until second semester of sophomore year. But the OP should also be aware that some schools do require an earlier declaration–sometimes at the time of initial admission–for certain programs. For example, many universities have separate schools of engineering and/or business, and it’s expected that prospective engineering or business majors will apply to those programs as HS seniors. It may be possible to transfer into those programs from the university’s general arts and sciences school, but it’s often not guaranteed, and a student who waits until second semester sophomore year to apply for a transfer may find that it would take an extra year, or possibly even two, to complete the requirements for a degree. This depends on the school, the major, the requirements for the major at that particular institution, etc. But for someone contemplating the possibility of an engineering or business major, it’s advisable to investigate a number of schools to see what’s required. That doesn’t change anything about how the 14-year-old should spend her HS years, but it might affect college application strategies, depending on the student’s interests by her senior year of HS.
Post #47, I picked CEO because as we all know it’s a top job. Whether one wants to be a CEO is another matter. Sure there are other majors at a tech firm, who would deny that. There isn’t one career path in tech/engineering because we have sales people, we have HR, marketing people, all sort of people.
It just the statement you’ve made sound ridiculous. People who made this statement tend to be insecure. I’m not sure you can say it’s more secure than engineering job. I have a friend whose companies just laude off most sales and marketing folks and kept the engineers. Non startup company. Supposedly more stable company.
We are an American family that lives abroad. Lots of family in the US. No worries about her - she is thrilled to be going to the US!
A follow up question - you all have been so helpful!
Her current interest (she thinks) is Economics. It seems to offer a good balance for her more social science/writing side and her very strong math skills. Dad is pretty on board with it.
What schools would you all look at that are strong in both Economics and Computer Science (and Theatre?)
THAT school would make everyone happy!
I don’t think anyone can or should pigeonhole any major as one that leads to the most/least “success” later in life. There are “successful” people from all sorts of majors. The most successful people I know got there more on drive and personality, to be honest.
I think we can all agree that forcing a kid to major in poetry when he/she loves to build radios, excels in math and hates reading, would be just as foolish as forcing a kid who loves to read and write, and hates all types of science, to study engineering. At some point, the kids’ interests and talents just have to be taken into consideration or chances are, there will be no “success” down the road.
Post #50 *laude should be laid off.
@prospect1 - I agree with you. However, what I have discovered is that that is a very “American” way of approaching things. Many other cultures have very different approaches - and successes - with other ways. For example, in India for a long time kids were pushed into Medicine or Engineering. Now, those kids did not ALL want to be doctors and Engineers. However, it was decided for them. They did their best and in the end many became very very successful. They may have wanted to be artists and poets and actors and cooks. But those were relegated to hobbies (at least for a long while) and the profession was in Engineering or Medicine.
What I have learned is that we all define “success” differently. For me success might equal happiness. But for others success means something very different. Bridging that gap is a challenge, believe me.
There are probably many, though if these are still serious interests two years from now, you may have to do more in-depth evaluation of economics, CS, and theatre departments. Economics departments can vary considerably in math-intensity, and CS departments can vary in terms of what advanced level courses they offer and how frequently.
What parents should start early on is figuring out what the budget will have to be, and doing the appropriate financial planning, so that neither the parents nor student are blindsided by costs in fall of 12th grade (or worse, spring of 12th grade). Running a few net price calculators on various colleges (not just the best-financial-aid ones that tend to be the most difficult to gain admission to) can give you some advance warning.
@ucbalumnus - yes we have done all our homework on the financial side of things. We will not qualify for need based aid. We are ready to pay what is required for her to go where the best fit will be.
For economics (math-heavy), CS (near Silicon Valley), and theatre, maybe UC Santa Cruz as a low match or almost safety if the student has high stats after junior year? But it is expensive, at $55,000 to $60,000 per year for non-California residents. (Of course, you will no doubt get plenty of suggestions for reach schools.)
However, it is probably still too early to be looking for specific schools and majors, since she has at least two more years of high school to change her mind, perhaps by being introduced to more subjects in or out of school.
If your intention is for her to go to US school then she should take 4 year math, science, social science, English, and foreign language. For UCs, also one year of art. It’s too early to focus on economics. She will have more options with a good preparation.