No STEM, No Life?

College Majors
1

I am a current freshman in college. And I have one fatal flaw: I don’t have a passion.
Don’t get me wrong- I don’t mean that I don’t have passion in general. I just am not one of those kids who has known since the second grade that he would be an astronaut, or the whose dream has always been to be a doctor. I have a passion for education: I love learning new things and exploring new cultures. I myself come from a multicultural background, and I enjoy singing. I am already bilingual and proficient in my third language, Spanish. I love to read- I have never once struggled to write a paper or analyze a novel’s plot or a character’s motivation. Although English is my second language, it comes very naturally to me.

So I guess my problem isn’t that I don’t have passion- it’s that I don’t have a marketable passion.
I’ve never been the idealistic type- I’ve always valued practicality. I know that I want to be able to live a comfortable lifestyle in the future. I don’t want to be living with my parents, unemployed when I’m 30, or go apply to work at McDonald’s with my shiny new bachelor’s degree.

I don’t like math, so I could never pursue a career with a heavy math involvement (engineering). But I’ve never had a problem with science- I did well in my AP Bio class and I got a 4 on the AP test. So why not go pre-med? Saving lives sounds absolutely wonderful- and I would be financially secure. I shared my decision with everyone important in my life and they were all overjoyed. Good for you! There’s always jobs in the health field! they said. So I went to register for my freshman year of classes.

Now, before that day, I had a very view of what exactly a college education would be like. I naively thought that for at least my first year, I would be able to take a variety of different classes in different areas and fields and develop a passion or interest that I could develop into a career, even while following the pre-med path. Maybe I would discover that I had a passion for something else after all. (It never once crossed my mind to begin college undeclared- those kids were the ones who had no future, right? After all, I have a plan.) Registration day was a rude awakening. I found out that as a pre-med student, I had no room in my schedule for any “interesting” classes. My schedule was chock full of chemistry, biology, math, and one psychology course. I decided to cut my losses and go ahead anyway- what other choice did I have?

A few months into the year, I am struggling mightily. I am very conflicted as to what to do. I am not doing well in most of my courses, despite spending almost every waking hour studying or reviewing. I guess that could be a part of the adjustment period, but all I know is that when I look to a future full of learning about glycosidic linkages and hybridized orbitals, I feel sick to my stomach. Hard work is not a deterrent- I could struggle and struggle and somehow probably eke out an acceptable GPA- but for what? To then continue on through years and years of school to then get a job as a doctor that I’m not passionate about?

So I decided to actually pursue something I’m good at and, more importantly, am very interested in- languages. I decided that I’d change my plan to double major in Psychology and Linguistics, and minor in Arabic, Chinese, and Spanish. I fully intended to go to grad school and expand on that as well with a higher level degree. An added bonus is that studying abroad is required for a linguistics major- and traveling and exploring is another major interest of mine. But do you remember the first thing I said? I want to have a comfortable lifestyle. Through my own family’s financial struggles, I have seen first hand what it can be like to not be financially secure. And it’s not like I plan on majoring in singing or drama (although I’m sure I would enjoy either.) But I’m now being told that my options are even more limited- that anything outside of a STEM major practically guarantees unemployment.

I tried telling myself that it would be okay if I just studied what I’m interested in, and hopefully career opportunities would make themselves available if I stood out enough, or worked hard enough. But it’s incredibly disheartening when I tell those I care about about my new plan and see the look on their faces- a look akin to the one they would have if I had instead told them that I had a fatal disease. Because the result they see is the same- no future. They ask, ‘isn’t this a little soon to decide that you’re not cut out for it?’ Then when should I decide? I feel like yelling. When my GPA is so low that the thought of applying to med school is laughable? When I’m too far along to pursue another path? After all, I had to ask to go to the bathroom four months ago but everyone thought I was ready to decide the career path of the rest of my life then, right?
So I guess that’s my question and the point of my post- does no STEM major = no future/prospects? I suspect I already know the answer to this question, and if anyone replies to this post their comment will likely read along the lines of other comments I’ve seen elsewhere on the internet- “Now you’ll be able to ask ‘do you want fries with that’ in two languages!” etc etc.

So I guess this is more of a rant. Now I’m in a strange place full of uncertainty and doubt, and I suddenly find myself relating more to Lana Del Rey’s 'High By the Beach" than anything I’m learning. I had to get my thoughts out somewhere and the internet is as good a place as any, right?

-FadingStar97

2

First, you are absolutely correct that asking a teen (I’m assuming you are still a teen) to commit to a lifelong career is unrealistic. I am going to give you advice that I gave my daughter - no one wants a reluctant doctor. If you really feel like pre-med is a bad fit and not just a concern about the work challenges, then it is a bad fit.

The cool jobs go in and out of fashion like everything else. When I was in school, the “smart kids” wanting to make a lot of money went into finance. And this might have made some of them rich, but I’m not sure it made them all happy or comfortable. Yes, STEM is the new buzzword, but there are many jobs that aren’t STEM-related (although many still require levels of math and just about everything will require some computer skills.) I work in a corporate office (with an English degree BTW), and our company has hired several straight out of college business majors. So anecdotally, I see that as a positive for college grads overall.

You seem like an analytical person, so these might help. Try going to your advisor or the departments you’re interested in. Ask them for typical jobs associated to your degree plans. Take those to the Occupational Handbook (http://www.bls.gov/ooh/) and see if the salary ranges fit into what you consider “comfortable”. If they don’t, look through the associated occupation groups and see if there is something that gets you excited and adjust. Ask about placement rates for your degrees - how many graduates got jobs in their chosen fields (as opposed to “do you want fries with that”.) If you don’t like the answers you get, tweak the degree plan again.

Take a deep breath, you can do this.

3

Not true, although skill with math, logic, and statistics will be helpful in employment prospects regardless of major. Also note that biology majors do not really have any better major-specific employment prospects than humanities and social studies majors – the STEM majors with the stronger major-specific employment prospects tend to be engineering, computer science, math, and statistics, if the associated industries are doing reasonably well. Also, pre-med can be done with any major, as long as you take the needed courses (although if you do not get a very high GPA, your chances of getting into medical school are miniscule).

Those graduating in majors without strong major-specific employment prospects, or those who find the employment prospects associated with the majors to be unattractive, need to seek employment in the market for jobs that tend to ask for a bachelor’s degree but are not major-specific. Understandably, many students are not aware of all of the kinds of jobs that exist; you may want to check your school’s career center.

4

Have you ever tried an introductory CS class? If you like it, you could double or minor in CS. There are jobs for folks with the combination of CS and linguistics. Ucbalumnus would know better than I, but I think in natural language processing?

Frankly, if you become fluent in all three of those languages – especially Chinese and Arabic, I have to think that that is fairly rare and would be in high demand. Lots of folks might be fluent in English and one of those languages – but to be fluent in 4 languages? Dynamite! Perhaps something in international relations or international business? Perhaps the Peace Corps and then the Foreign Service? Might you be interested in getting an MBA later?

While it feels like there’s more job security in STEM/engineering these days, usually trying to force a square peg into a round hole is a recipe for ultimate disaster down the road. And with no deep-rooted passion driving you so far, you probably do need the time to explore lots of different areas to find one that lights a fire in you.

5

MODERATOR’S NOTE: Paragraphs are your friend. I broke up your post to make it more readable.

6

-You don’t have to have a passion. A lot of people don’t have one, and even a lot of people who do have a passion end up changing their mind or doing something else.

-You don’t need to major in STEM to get a job that’s not fast food or retail. I majored in psychology and I work in technology. I have friends and former students who have majored in many fields across the social sciences, arts, and humanities and are gainfully employed in jobs that support a middle-class lifestyle. There are actually relatively few people with BAs flipping burgers, contrary to popular belief.

-Additionally, I think most college students overestimate what is necessary for a comfortable lifestyle that doesn’t involve struggling. I was a grad student in New York on $32,000, and while I didn’t live the most comfortable life, I wouldn’t say I was struggling. I have friends that live there on $45-75K and they live fine (the lower end has roommates; the higher end lives alone). And that’s in one of the most expensive cities in the country. If you live in a less expensive city or in a suburban area, your costs will be lower - around $50K will let you live quite comfortably, if you are just supporting yourself on that income. (I made $50K in my first job out of graduate school in a small town not nearby an urban metropolis. It was enough to live comfortably and save a bit.) If you partner with someone with a similar income you’ll 1) be fine and 2) actually be in the top 25% of households in the U.S.

-Please don’t do pre-med just because you don’t know what else to do. I always felt the sorriest for those students. It absolutely tanks your GPA without much purpose. If you later decide you want to go into medicine you can always take the pre-med classes later.

-Ignore those people and the looks on their faces. A lot of that comes from ignorance: most people are not aware of the vast majority of careers out there; they are only familiar with a select few that earn high salaries. “Doctor” sounds good to a whole lot of people, so they get excited when their kid pursues that, and disappointed when they don’t. I knew a whole lot of struggling, unhappy pre-med students, several who didn’t get into medical school, and a few more who made their parents upset when they dropped. I call it the circle of life, lol. You have to do what YOU want to do and what makes you happy - nobody but you is going to be sitting in organic chemistry, doing your problem sets, doing your clinicals or working your 36-hour shifts as a resident. You have to do it, not them and if you hate it, you’re going to be miserable.

You don’t have to commit to a lifelong career. Your major doesn’t do that. It’s just a course of study for 4 years. Even your first job, second job, fifth job doesn’t commit you to a lifelong career. I changed careers from public health to tech research myself; I didn’t study this in college. I am in a job I really love, and I could potentially stay in this field forever, but if I decided tomorrow I wanted to be a nurse instead I could go back and get a BSN in a year and go into nursing. There are many things I could do without going back to school.

It’s true that there are lots of careers that combine psychology with linguistics and computer science. So if you like CS, that’s an option. But if you don’t like math, and you don’t want to do CS, there are also lots of jobs a psychology and linguistics major can do that will still allow you to live. Some of them might even buy you a house on the hill, if you want that.

7

Thank you all for your responses! I have decided that I’m going to double major in Poly Sci and Global Studies (with my chosen region and language being the Middle East and Arabic, respectively.) I’m going to minor in arabic as a result and informatics. I hope to work in international relations eventually.

8

This. So many people seem to think you need to be making 100k+ a year to be able to live in an apartment and eat. I’m wondering how they come to this conclusion, as everyone I know in college(a few rich kids aside) are actively living on less than 20k, right now.

9

Agree. You see that type of thing among parents as well in threads where someone complains about not being able to afford kids’ college on a $200,000+ income.