<p>My parents are indeed Asian lol… I think I’m being very pessimistic, but after reading all of the stuff that I read on CC, there’s a reason I feel that way. </p>
<p>The way the economy is going, I keep hearing about all of these people that keep getting laid off and such. I went to college to improve my job prospects, but I keep thinking that I will end up being one of those jobless college grads.</p>
<p>I graduated in 1983 and the only graduates getting jobs were engineers. The economy is slowly getting better. With your computer science and math background, your job outlook is not as bleak as you think. It will depend on you and how pro-active you will be in your job search. Look for internships. Does your school have a Co-op Program?</p>
<p>The amount of debt is another question. Have you looked at less expensive schools?</p>
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<p>The MCAT and applying to medical school was suggested in order to make a token effort to please your parents. Let the medical schools tell your parents that you are not going to become a doctor. However, this may not be feasable if you need three more pre-med courses that you do not want to take.</p>
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<p>No (unless your current school is really lacking academically in the subjects you are interested in). But you need to be more aggressive at finding employers to apply to.</p>
<p>I’m not going to address the loan issue, because other parents can do that better. </p>
<p>Applied math and econ/comp sci majors are in high demand. These are not the graduates who are unemployed or working at Burger King. But you MUST change your attitude and start doing things different now. </p>
<p>What are you doing this summer? Get to your career guidance department and find an internship pronto. Hopefully a paid one. In fact, start camping out in that career center all the time. Start calling every alumni of your LAC to get career advice. Talk to professors in your departments. Have informational interviews at local companies. Join LinkedIn right this moment, and find groups in your areas of interest.</p>
<p>There are many, many companies who want to hire math majors. Insurance companies, banks, financial companies, consulting firms, etc. Maybe you won’t get a job on Wall St. with your GPA, but plenty of companies would rather have a math major with your GPA than no math major at all. If your computer program writing skills are at all decent, you could have dozens of companies clamoring to hire you. I know one student who majored in physics and only took a couple of CS classes at a small LAC, who is now working as a programmer. Programmers are in very high demand. Even programmers with less-than-stellar GPAs.</p>
<p>Companies like Google and Facebook and Microsoft are paying 6 figures for recent graduates. Smaller firms may pay less, but they can’t hire the top people. I know the data on salaries is out there, look for it and show your parents. If you do all the right things, starting by changing your negative attitude to a can-do one, you will earn more money than the doctor your parents think you should be.</p>
<p>I know for a fact that State Farm (next year) will be looking to hire up to 10 people with your background from my school alone. They will require a minimum of 3.0 GPA. </p>
<p>Tons of jobs in data analytics. </p>
<p>[Video</a> - Why 2012’s Big Business Story will Be Big Data and Analytics - WSJ.com](<a href=“2012: The Year of Big Data”>2012: The Year of Big Data)</p>
<p>I think a degree in math will get you further in life than you think.</p>
<p>But for what it’s worth… I have approximately 60k in student loan debt. I am one year post-college and I make 31k a year-- which translates to quite a bit more than minimum wage, but isn’t easy to live on even though it should be in my area. I am completely unable to support myself. Your living expenses breakdown is unrealistic, there are MANY, MANY expenses you are not taking into account, and what you have I suspect you are underestimating. In my case, my student loans are almost a third of my monthly pay after tax, it takes up the majority of one of my checks by itself. That plus gas to commute to work and back is pretty much one whole check by itself. If you change your attitude you will have more earning potential than I have considering your major, but your opportunities after college will very much be what you make of them-- if you decide on McDonald’s now, you’re sunk.</p>
<p>In my opinion, while a degree in math will take you farther than you think, I don’t think it will take you far enough that 70k in loans isn’t going to seriously hurt you. The only reason I am not going to be living with my parents for the next ten years is because I have a very understanding partner who made better choices than I did. I’m almost 23 years old and feel like a dependent child no matter how hard I work-- and, more or less, I am for the time being. It’s not a good place to be. I would find a cheaper school.</p>
<p>$70k at 9% (I don’t know your average rate) over 10 years is $886 a month. It’s huge. (I don;t think any student should go over $23k except under very special circumstances.) Yes, you should worry about it.</p>
<p>Having said that, I can’t see why a math/statistics major can’t get a $35k/year job, rising to at least $60k-$70k over 10 years. You have to look, and you have to be committed to looking. Get thee to your career advising office, start working on your resume NOW, get an internship or two; ask what courses in the next two years will be most useful in employability; learn how to write a cover letter; practice interviewing (I can’t stress that one enough) with people who know what they are doing; network, network, network. And if you don’t know what that means, back to your career advising office,</p>
<p>“You’re a CS minor. Become really good at programing. Programers are in great demand and make good money. The math would be a big plus to employers with complex software development needs.”</p>
<p>Sounds like great advice. Have you considered consolidating your major/minors into just a comp sci major (or possibly information systems if your school offers it)? Or double major math/comp sci? It sounds around your line of interest, and if you’re looking for guarantees of job/internship and income, it’s more of a guarantee than engineering and potentially even medicine. With a medical degree you’re pretty much guaranteed loads of debt, but with the health care system changes, there might not be that substantial of an income. You might be able to pay off that student debt within two years of graduation.</p>
<p>Of course, that is one of those fields that you’d need to enjoy and do fairly well at. Many employers hiring CS majors do not require extremely high GPAs, because they realize it’s a difficult major.</p>
<p>If you make any effort you won’t be stuck in a minimum-wage job. My 17 year old makes a lot more than that in a part time computer support job, with only one h.s. programming class and some hacking for fun as background. You are employable, even if you don’t find something exactly in your field.</p>
<p>But I agree with everybody else–get to the career services office, find out what types of jobs/fields to look at, and find a summer job and/or school year job or co-op. Do you have a job now? A job in some related field will give you money to lower the loan amount ($70K is not advisable), connections, recommendations, and possibly even a job offer at the end. If employers like you, your GPA won’t matter so much.</p>
<p>You might be surprised at the course combinations that prospective employers find useful. A relative’s son has taken a great job with a medical software company. The young man was hoping to get into a physician’s assistant program after undergrad but didn’t, even with excellent grades. But that medical background, coupled with his strong CS skills, got him where he is now and he couldn’t be happier.</p>
<p>As for the loans, I’ll just echo what everyone has said: $70K is too much!<br>
Are you working during the school year as well as summers? You may need to take a semester off to earn more so you don’t have to take those loans. And that may give you a better idea of how fast the money you earn goes right back out to pay for expenses.</p>
<p>Good luck to you!</p>
<p>Yes, math majors can be in high demand for certain great jobs because math kids know how to solve problems. But, a math degree and little confidence or good self-presentation- and few ideas- and no relevant experience- won’t get you as far. And, you’ll find it extremely hard to move into a good job, if your first few years only show McD’s on your resume.</p>
<p>Our loan paperwork suggests a 10-year repayment is around $850/month. It will go higher if you ever take advantage of a payment moratorium (or whatever they call it.) And, if the govt raises the interest rate.</p>
<p>You don’t just pay taxes and rent; there are utilities, transp costs, the desire to eat out once in a while. (I know I’m repeating some bullet points.) The older you get (ie, further away from college years,) it’s often harder to find a good shared living situation. A roomate could bail. Car insurance up to age 25, for guys, is high. Car payments can run several hundred dollars/mo. And, cars need maintenance, new tires, they break down. You may need to foot the bill for your own health insurance, depending on your parents’ situation. What if the economy takes another downturn and plenty of experienced adults are competing with you for $28k jobs- as has been true in the last few years? What if you’re laid off? </p>
<p>But the biggest thing kids forget is that you want to live life in your twenties, before setting down. Not be eating mac and cheese for a decade, renting movies. And, what if you fall in love and want to get married, buy a car, save for a home? How will you build a nest egg for emergencies? Can you wait til your 30s for these?</p>
<p>Plenty of parents are tightening their belts to pay for college and cover any loans- skipping dinners out, doing day trips instead of overnights, wearing the same old favorite sweaters, whatever. But we are older, we’ve done the living, the traveling, the discretionary spending.</p>
<p>If you take deep loans to finance the best education available to you, at least follow the advice to get aggressive- and wise- about bettering your job opps.</p>
<p>You know what? You are right. I’m going to try my best from now until graduation to have the start of my career waiting for my once I graduate. I’m definitely going to talk to my advisor and see what I should do from here.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. I know my pessimistic attitude won’t get me anywhere, but the time and effort I put into my job search will.</p>
<p>Also, I think it’s best to stay at home and get whatever job I can and while I’m working, look for a job that’s related to my degree. After college that is. </p>
<p>This way as my salary goes up, I can still devote all my paychecks towards paying off my loans and my parents will still be able to support my other expenses.</p>
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No - you should start the job search within your planned career before you graduate. Ideally you’ll have a job lined up that you’d go to upon graduation. You do this by getting an internship while in school (summer), which may result in a job offer, and working with your college’s career center before grad as well as your own apps to companies while still in school shortly before grad (around the last semester/quarter).</p>
<p>If you are going to take out those kinds of loans, get good grades. I know three recent math majors, my son, my nephew, a old friend of my son’s. All of them got jobs straight out of college. My son is a software programmer, and the nephew got a job with an insurance company (actuary). The nephew has applied to grad school and has an offer that will pay his way through grad school. (Ph.D. in statistics). The friend is a middle school math teacher. None of those jobs are minimum wage jobs, btw. My son worked downtown, didn’t get a car until he had worked for three years. That saves a lot.</p>
<p>rks, Please don’t plan on having your parents pick up your living expenses once you graduate. You should contribute a portion of each paycheck towards the household expenses. It really isn’t your parents responsibility to pay for your food, entertainment, clothes, insurances, gas for car, etc. once you graduate from college.</p>
<p>IMHO, the biggest mistake kids make is “stay at home and get whatever job I can and while I’m working, look for a job.”</p>
<p>I agree with GladGradDad, but would add this: that internship may not lead to a permanent offer, your first job applications may not even result in an interview. BUT, getting internships, doing some research now (or even other) for profs in your dept, holding some sort of responsibilities, etc-- these go on your resume. These make you look worthy, a little more experienced than the next guy. (And, make you look like a go-getter, not just the next bump on a log.) In the sciences, it may also show you have an edge- you’ve done some real-life work, learned the procedures, realities, teamwork that the first real jobs will require. These can also lead to solid references that matter. Think like an employer.</p>
<p>In what school that you go to that you will be even more in debt if you go to your state school? You have to have a cheaper option, unless you live in CA, I guess.</p>
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Even CA is cheaper than $70K (assuming one commutes).</p>
<p>Really? If I were you, I would admit defeat, cut your losses, and transfer to a community college, trade school, or a different state school. Because your state probably has more than one public university. 
Seriously, there is no way there is one state school.</p>
<p>I promise you’ll feel so relieved and unencumbered. You won’t be stressed out like crazy by your crushing loans and poverty-stricken ways 
You won’t be a burden to your parents or future spouse. You’ll be relaxed enough to find your better half out there.</p>
<p>I chose the “cheap” school over the super-elite one, and I don’t regret it. Partly because unpredictable circumstances can happen and DID happen - my dad quit one of his jobs, and my parents got divorced. Stuff happens.</p>
<p>Also, I can assure you, if you’re worried about state schools not being high-quality, stop right there. That’s a very common misconception – even here, on CollegeConfidential, by many students and their parents. They went the ‘creme de la creme’ but a quality educational experience of a lifetime can really be found anywhere; you just have to seek it out, make the most with what you’re given, or be the best.</p>
<p>^^ I mean, there’s a branch campus that’s about 8-10k a year if I commute from home. I’m already 24k in debt, so if I graduate on time I would be in let’s say 44k debt.</p>
<p>Also, I miscalculated my debt… it’s actually going to be 56k-60k.</p>
<p>I’m just afraid of losing the name value of my degree from my LAC for a branch campus of my state school.</p>
<p>Edit: Also, I’m afraid that all my credits won’t transfer and I am unfamiliar with all the reqs for the majors offered. Most of my classes are science, math, and gen req courses.</p>