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and
“College Confidential forums exist to discuss college admission and other topics of interest. It is not a place for contentious debate. If you find yourself repeating talking points, it might be time to step away and do something else… If a thread starts to get heated, it might be closed or heavily moderated.”
I’m not sure why it’s difficut to mention these unworthy majors?
I mentioned a few majors above that I remember being the lowest paying in one of the surveys that’s been posted on CC in the past. Biology majors get “sand kicked in their faces” by some people on CC.
My D graduated in one of the biological science majors. She plans to go to grad school, but she’s doing quite well post-graduation in his first job. I can suffer the “slings and arrows.”
College majors that I am not willing to fund for my children:
Music
Art
Anthropology
Anything that ends in “Studies”
Early Childhood Education at an expensive school
Marketing
Not every major is right for everyone, especially financially. But this seems a different issue than the one contemplated by the thread.
Do you consider any of these majors (or any others) to be “pseudo-academic” fields of study created so that academically weak students can get a degree in something? Are universities doing a disservice to students by even offering these majors? Because it is these types of majors that this thread is hoping to identify.
I’ll tell you why I am unwilling to list the majors that I think are not worthwhile( notice I didn’t use the word worthy). People are different and there is someone for every job.
In our family, we value spending money wisely and are full pay. So the $tary value has to have impact on the result. At the same time, it has to be a pursuit that fits my kids, not your kids or someone else’s kids. I know my own kids strengths and limitations. But how could I know someone else’s? Someone’s best plan might be really different from my own. And then factor in biases and perceptions about what’s important in a college education. Why call out a specific major and argue it back and forth? Makes zero sense to identify, IMO. I don’t think there is any major that I don’t think fits someone to a tee.
And that is not even getting started on whether or not someone values something like art or music etc as mentioned upthread. It’s a values questions and purely subjective.
There are some on your list I wouldn’t exactly be thrilled to fund. At the same time, any of those could be combined with a second major to create something wonderful.
I’m not in the position to have to tell my kid I won’t pay for their major. But if I was, I’d ask them to add to it rather than nix the entire undertaking. I have family members in some of the majors you list who are doing quite well financially and otherwise. YMMV.
Lots of majors’ major requirements take only about 1.5 to 2.5 years of full load course work (i.e. about 45-75 semester credit hours out of the typical 120 to graduate). Would that make them unworthy based on your criteria?
By “sufficient substance and rigorous content”, I don’t just mean some number of credit hours. That’s essentially how we let pretty much anyone to graduate high school. Are we going to use the same standard for college?
I live in a fairly affluent area. In our friend group on our block, all college educated, we have engineering majors, English majors, history majors, finance majors, biology majors, psychology majors, business majors, and theater majors. Pretty much no rhyme of reason to undergrad major and future success. Also we have everything from regional universities to the Ivies repped on the street. For careers we have everything from professors to doctors to lawyers to industry professionals, etc…
I see the same but then I realize my ‘wealthy area’ - Williamson County Tennessee where the median home price last month was $840k - is not representative of society.
I wish it was so that my kids grew up in the diverse world they will face. But unfortunately we’re in a bubble that is likely the exception, and not the rule.
Isn’t it the case that many or most people’s encountered social diversity will decline after leaving school (at whatever level attained)? I.e. may associate mostly within those of one’s own SES and educational attainment level, driven in part by housing choice and spending much time at work.
I’m very much aware that our area is not representative of the US as whole. I was just trying to point out that undergraduate major isn’t necessarily predictive of long term success.
100% agree !! The individual…and yes some socio economic luck - are.
I was just noting - I felt a similarity to you and I always try to slap myself in the face for a wake up call.
One of my kids chose engineering because he said so he can make a living. But his passion is weather. He has loved his two internships which sought engineering students but as he said weren’t necessarily engineering roles. He said these places want people who ‘think’ like engineers.
The other is majoring in International Studies. Someone earlier said they aren’t paying for any degree ending in ‘studies’. Technically, with scholarship I’m just paying her room and board. She has Chinese as part of the major and is required a second major as part of a Scholars cohort she is in. Her school has Urban Studies with a track on policy / issues I think is up her alley. But she’s heard the intro prof stinks (all majors will have a bad prof at some point I tell her) and she leans toward sociology of which she has her first class this semester.
So my kids run both sides.
Interesting the engineer is more a follower. The ‘studies’ person is a flat out leader. And personally, I think she’ll be fine.
But I am cognizant she has a head start. ACT tutoring, top rated public schools, parents involved, etc.
I was just slapping myself to reality. Not contradicting one of my favorite posters @momofboiler1
I am always suspicious of applying generalizations that were valid 50 years ago to today’s students. I wonder how many of today’s CEO’s would even pass the hirevue and pymetrics tests they so glibly require of their applicants. But it doesn’t matter; there were no such barriers when they got jobs.
