Struggling With Major/Career and Asian Parent Backlash

I’m a sophomore at an Ivy, and my very strict Asian immigrant parents are really stressing me out. I want to major in the humanities (maybe history and/or anthropology), but my parents absolutely abhor that. They keep telling me that if I don’t get a job after graduation that directly lines up with my college major, my undergraduate education will have been completely worthless. They keep pushing me to major in Econ/CS/something lucrative, but I’m really bad at those subjects (and also have no desire to do them). I got a C plus in Econ 101 at my school (which my parents yelled at me about every day freshman year when I was home) and dropped the intermediate CS class I was taking because it was too hard and I didn’t think I’d be able to get a passing grade (which pretty much sent my parents into an angry fury for six months).

Every week my father yells at me “WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO WITH YOUR LIFE IF YOU’RE GONNA STUDY SOMETHING THIS WORTHLESS!?” and I don’t really have an answer because I’m not sure what I want to do after graduation (which sends my parents into an even deeper frenzy). My father yelled at me today for three hours about why I was an ungrateful, bratty child because I wasn’t willing to take a lucrative job after graduation and that he regretted raising me. I think I made things worse when I told him my friend (an anthropology major) graduated from my school last year and currently teachers English abroad as a Fulbright Scholar— that set my dad on fire and he spewed out an entire monologue about how my friend’s college education was worthless and how if I ended up like her, he would completely cut off contact with me.

I’ve fallen into a deep depression ever since I got to college (not just for academic reasons but also other reasons), and my parents academic and pre-professional pressure that they exert on me exasterbates my anxiety and depression. I’m so lost and I’m not sure what to do. I attempted suicide in August and after surviving my attempt, I had to live with a friend in my area for a month because my parents refused to talk to me. I’m so burnt out and exhausted. I don’t even like my current school.

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I don’t have any practical advice – I’m sure others on this board can advise you better than I can – but I just wanted to say that your parents are wrong, and that I’m sending a virtual hug. And I’ll add that two of my college friends and I all have STEM degrees from an Ivy, and 30 years later none of us have jobs that have any meaningful connection to our major.

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