<p>Barrons, since you're responding to me let me respond to you. I was responding to the notion of a luxury degree, i.e. something that doesn't have a job category or title attached to it. My experience has been that hyper-specialization early on is the ultimate luxury.... especially if a kid enters a major at age 19 with no concept about what people in that field do all day. That's a luxury degree.... because you've got a narrow vocational education which you don't want to use... since you don't like the field. </p>
<p>It's great that you love RE. I've met people w/Masters in RE who are trying to re-package themselves as equity analysts in pharmaceuticals or media and it's a tough row to hoe..... better to have done an MBA, which costs the same, if you're not 100% or 90% sure you're going to love RE. I apologize if you took this as an attack-- but surely you know people from grad school who are not working in the field anymore.</p>
<p>Soozie-- I was not discussing degrees in the arts as "luxury degrees" since I absolutely don't consider them luxuries. Was not attacking your kids or their choices.</p>
<p>I meet kids who mistakenly and naively assume that getting a degree in something "practical" is the best way to ensure a life of high bucks and low stress. If the choice is between being a happy English major or a miserable Business major, my counsel is, be an English major. There will always be employement opportunities for someone who can think, read and write.</p>