<p>As Andrew Abbott has described in his rapidly becoming classic speech on the "Aims of Education" (<a href="http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0310/features/zen.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0310/features/zen.shtml</a>) there is little evidence that one particular conception of college education is superior to another, nor is there much evidence that where one goes to undergraduate school has much affect on later success. Further, except for the sciences, there is little to predict what a person will be doing based on his or her major in college. What college does in some small way is to produce a difference in how one might respond to the world from how one would respond without college. It is primarily for that difference we should be choosing schools and curricula, not later success.</p>
<p>My S has no clear cut idea of a major. He chose schools with the most comprehensive core curriculum requirements he could find. He wants to sample the depth of historical and current human thought across many disciplines from their sources. Though not "interdisciplinary" in one sense, this broad foundation showed change him in ways yet unpredicted. </p>
<p>This is the glory of our system, there is indeed a match for each type of student. And there is a school that is eager to provide that match, if only we can find them. That is why this thread (and all the CC forums) is so valuable.</p>