<p>Another vote here in praise of UW's message, which I think is spot-on. </p>
<p>I was a comparative literature major who became somewhat interested in economics along the way; I wound up as a corporate lawyer. My wife began in psychology, ended up as a double-major in psychology and American Studies, and has had a brilliant career in public policy related to health and education. One of my sisters is a successful portfolio manager whose college major was Spanish; the other majored in history, then studied art history, and is now a physician. (Obviously, in the latter case, there were a couple years of additional education in there. But at 18 she was completely incapable of seeing herself as the doctor she later became.) I know two hypersuccessful, brilliant businessmen. One always wanted to do that; he was pointed towards Wharton when he was 14. The other got a PhD in astronomy before he found the calling that made him a centimillionaire.</p>
<p>I do think that there are some class issues here. A kid trying to climb out of poverty, without a lot of family or community support, and borrowing a lot to do it, may need a more linear relationship between the skills learned in college and self-sustaining employment. But I think that the teenagers who truly know what they want to do are the exceptions, not the rule. And the actual function of American college education is not to provide specific marketable skills but rather to provide both a broad framework of basic culture and communication skills and the experience of going deeper into one area to get a sense of what real expertise is. For that, it almost doesn't matter what one's major is.</p>
<p>Of course, someone who winds up designing computers or software may look back and wish she had used her college time to acquire some of the skills she had to pick up later. But there's no guarantee that if she began that way she would have ended up on the same path she's on now.</p>
<p>My feeling on college majors is that you should major in what you want, but you need to find a way to ensure that you're employable (at the bachelor's level) for a reasonable salary in a field you can enjoy. These are not mutually exclusive.</p>
<p>For example, I majored in neuroscience, widely believed to be largely unemployable (other than as a lab tech) at the bachelor's level. I supplemented my major requirements with classes in diffeq, linear algebra, discrete math, computer science, computer architecture, robotics, and a notoriously intense software engineering lab class. It gave me a leg up in my major anyway, as my interest within neuroscience was systems & computational neuro. I also did a summer research internship where I wrote neural signal processing code in a prestigious lab in Switzerland.</p>
<p>After I finished my grad school apps (I didn't get in anywhere), I started applying to jobs in robotics engineering and software engineering. I got a great job as a software engineer for a small defense contractor that specializes in applied AI. The company likes that my background will help me spot potential research opportunities in neural-inspired computing, and also that I pick up HCI stuff very easily because I was trained in psychology and psychophysics as part of my degree.</p>
<p>So as long as you keep a solid pragmatic base and have backup plans, I think you're fine majoring in your interest.</p>
<p>Also, a lot of majors that are stereotyped as being unemployable by themselves are actually not. My housemate, an undergrad, is a comparative media studies major. She loves it and is very, very good at it. People shake their heads and say "Why would you go to a tech school to major in something like that?" But her success in this major got her a part-time job as first a tester and then a game designer in her department's experimental video gaming lab, which will give her a huge edge in becoming a designer in the lucrative, competitive, video gaming industry, especially if her games end up shipping.</p>
<p>Another MIT friend was a creative writing major. Yes, at MIT. She has a nice job as a tech writer for a software company, and is also in a PhD program in creative writing.</p>
<p>Well I just want to echo A.S.A.P.: mamochka, your daughter sounds like a mature, thoughtful young woman who writes well, knows herself, and has a realistic outlook about her coming college years. Relax...she's going to be fine.</p>
<p>There are a few exceptions. If a student wants to be an engineer, doctor, vet, dentist, CPA, etc, appropriate undergraduate curriculum is quite important. But even in the most restrictive of curricula, engineering, the student should take every effort to stimulate his intellectual curiosity in the wise selection of technical and non-technical electives.</p>
<p>As an undergrad Civil Eng major I was able to take city and regional planning as a tech elective, a course which was more sociology than planning, learning about the likes of L'Enfante, Mumford and Moses. The micobiology course was interesting and stinky too. Non tech electives were all over the map, from medieval music to Serbo-Croatian lit, to social cybernetics, to macro economics, to the role of race in American. No stinking survey courses for me-well maybe macro qualifies.</p>
<p>Both my sisters-in-laws were English majors. Both have had no problems being employed. One has gone through a series of mini-careers - children's librarian, nursery school teacher, private school teacher, journalist and is now happily being a developer. The other one was getting a Phd. in English when she dropped out and started working in the office of the performing arts center at her university. Her job was to make all the arrangements for the visiting performers. She was so good at that work she's been doing some version of it ever since.</p>
<p>By the way even as an architect you can major in anything as an undergrad and just do architecture in grad school. :)</p>
<p>Listen to Jessiehl - although I'm not getting my D to pay attention to this path - along with the broadening of a liberal arts education, I think it is important to acquire skills with an eye to future employment. It's all about the minors. Minors in accounting or econ or those software courses Jessie mentions. It could be layout work on a yearbook or newpaper or jewelry making classes my friend's daughter is taking. At her art school, many of the kids get spending money for grad school through selling jewelry at craft shows. It could be organizational skills or writing. It could be that physics class combined with writing.</p>
<p>With any major, even in the sciences, there are all kinds of careers that one might not be aware of unless one knows someone in that field. My parents were not college educated and could not provide guidance or advice on this topic. I majored in biochemistry because it was interesting to me, but I did not know about many of the possible career paths with this background until much later, aside from the well known medicine or academia...every college student knows about physicians and professors, obviously. I went to graduate school to study a subject I did not know about of until I was a senior in college, toxicology. I found out about this field by taking an elective course which sounded interesting to me in my senior year, Chemistry in the Environment. For that course, I wrote a term paper on a topic related to my major, biochemistry, on how a particular group of chemicals which are environmental pollutants produce their toxic effects. I applied to graduate school in this field and have been working in it ever since. Who knows what I would have been doing for all of these years if I had not taken that particular elective course after completing all the requirements for my major?</p>
<p>I think the UW website is terrific. I particularly like the "What can I do with a major in...?" link. I added it to my favorites and will have my daughter peruse it.</p>
<p>I liked the article too, and am sending to my Sociology majoring son. Thanks to the "kids" who responded on this thread, it is very heartening to hear that you all can connect the dots. How boring it would be without the rich diversity of our college/university offerings and the impact that all those offerings have on young individuals. I look at it this way, My H and I are paying for the most part for my son's college education. I certainly hope he comes out the other end (in four years LOL) more inquisitive, more mature, more diverse, more worldly and more articulate than the day we dropped him off. If he is all those things, he will find a meaningful way to pay his bills and put a roof over his head (maybe he'll need a roommate or two for a copule years) but really that's all I want.</p>
<p>"So as long as you keep a solid pragmatic base and have backup plans, I think you're fine majoring in your interest."</p>
<p>Wise advice!</p>
<p>I was so worried my son doesn't know exactly what he wants to do...but I've found it's much better to chill & not pressure either of us. The 18 year olds who know exactly what they want are definitely the exceptions, agreed...</p>
<p>My advice to a friends whose child does not have a clue what to major in... ask not "what do I want to do/study?"; instead ask, "what do I definitely NOT want to do/study?" You can eliminate a lot of possibilities and narrow down the list of potentials.
My son always knew he wanted to study science- didn't really matter which science; he just loves science and math. We did the "elimination" approach just to get a sanity check, and lo and behold, we were left with math/science. He hates reading fiction/poetry (loves non-fiction, though), hates creative writing (doesn't mind straightforward, technical writing, though), didn't want to do anything in art or music, and he does want to do something that is lucrative... Right now he's in bio engineering/minor chemistry (if he goes an extra semester), with plans for grad school or med school.</p>
<p>Make that another vote of praise for UW's stand. My D is currently pursuing a Liberal Arts Education. She isn't sure what she wants to major in, so she is taking a little bit of everything for now. I would rather she wait and major in something she is passionate about, not just something that she can make a lot of money at. Not that I'm against making a lot of money.LOL But I would hope my daughter could find a career that she finds fulfilling in addition to making a living. My D is smart and a hard worker. I don't worry that she won't be employable after college, I worry more about her happiness.</p>
<p>I'm on the UW side, although every course I ever took is useful for my job.</p>
<p>I had ninety credits of English and philosophy when I graduated and found I hadn't read enough, so Masters, PhD. Read myself into a career as a professor. Never gave it a thought; just wanted to read books.</p>
<p>I know many who trained for careers now being outsourced. This is particularly true of computer programmers I know, a degree their parents considered very practical.</p>
<p>H was a business major, but a horrible business man. He has the instincts of a Buddhist monk. He owns a photography studio but he is a more talented photographer than business man. I actually make most of the business decisions; never took a business course in my life; am not interested at all but found I have so much common sense that I could easily run the business. Boy, sometimes I wish I couldn't.</p>
<p>I think unless someone knows s/he wants to be an engineer or some such right out of the gate that college develops the person, not the career. Then the well educated person is flexible enough to cope if his/her profession is completely outsourced, dries up, becomes obsolete. H faced this when digital photography took over film. We never know what is going to happen; a good education should teach us to problem solve and think so we can apply these skills to our own situations.</p>
<p>D wants law school desperately; volunteers in a legal department of a charity now in NYC; loves it, but detests political science. Her major is American Studies. She writes about legal issues often for her papers, but she feels it's her last hurrah in the Humanities.</p>
<p>S wants med school. Has since he was 4. Has experimented in programs that taught minimal clinical skills to hs kids and loved them. He is majoring in music because he is not ready to leave music behind.</p>
<p>Both have a master plan; neither wanted to devote his/her undergraduate education to these vocational aims. I can't see that anything has been lost because each must attend professional school anyway.</p>
<p>Absolutely agree with the majority. I tell my kids that undergrad is to educate who they are, not put them on a career path. Careers change so often these days.</p>
<p>Plus, and this is fairly controversial here, i'm sure, not everyone needs a "career." my D, with a government BA from a top LAC, works as an environmental advocate. Her job doesn't even require any college at all (probably not HS diploma, for that matter) but she loves it and she supports herself. Her college education, in all kinds of deep level ways, informs the person that she is--it was money very well spent.</p>
<p>If at some time, she sees a more stringent career path, she has the foundation to work from as she gets whatever more education/experience it requires.</p>
<p>I'm immensely proud of the person she is, and have absolute faith in her ability to move in whatever direction she might eventually decide to pursue.</p>
<p>I also want to add that I think summer internships and jobs are a great way to get the experience that will make one employable. In retrospect that's the one thing I could have done a better job at when I was in college and grad school.</p>
<p>I'm reading through this thread and wondering how we have gotten to the point where it is a given that our children deserve a top LAC education to become the best person they can be. How did our generation ever make it this far without the same luxury? So as a parent, I am somehow obligated to allow my children to "explore", what they "might" be interested in doing? And $200k later, they might get a job that they could have landed without any college degree? I don't think so.</p>
<p>Let's be realistic. A college education is an investment and just like any other investment the return on that investment cannot be ignored. Let's not underestimate that, which seems to be rampant in this thread.</p>
<p>I never said anyone is obligated. i said I like the article, and I feel the same way. </p>
<p>I also don't believe "I don't think so" is a particularly compelling counter-argument, but since I was stating my view, not trying to force anyone to agree, I guess it doesn't matter.</p>
<p>And yes, in my family, college is an investment. An investment in who my kids are. My D is happy and self-supporting--what more can i ask for?</p>
<p>Luv, I think the point is that one person's interpretation of "return on investment" might be entirely different than another person's interpretation of "return on investment". I don't think people are underestimating it, in fact I think people are estimating it within the parameters of their personal beliefs and what they feel is the pay-off for the investment. "more inquisitive, more mature, more diverse, more worldly and more articulate than the day we dropped him off" was the equivalent for me of a "positive payoff" for H's and my investment. I think of it more like a dollar invested grows over time. We don't expect our children to support us in our old age and conversely they know we won't support them in our old age either. I really don't "care" if they land a job they could have landed without a college education because that thinking isn't part of our investment equation. My youngest son wants to be a builder Can he do that without a college degree...yes. Will he be a "better builder and make more money" with a college degree...maybe. We will still send him to college if he wishes and he may very well change his mind about being a builder and we will be satisfied if he finishes the degree and we will still be satisfied if he becomes a builder. By the way, my husband is a builder....with a college degree.</p>
<p>Luvbeach, the problem is that an 18 year old's idea of his/her vocational interests are bound to change-- that's also part of the point of college, and so to lock a kid into being a CPA or dental hygienist or computer programmer before they've had a chance to explore other things often leads to miserable adults (albeit employed in the field for which they were educated.) </p>
<p>I don't think the posters were saying they don't expect a return on their investment.... but not necessarily in the first two years after graduating from college, and not necessarily reflected in an immediate first job which pays big bucks.</p>
<p>When I was in college, the "hot" career was computer programming. The people who did the kind of work that my contemporaries were training for now live in Mumbai and Islamabad. If your chosen career ends up getting outsourced, off-shored, or just made obsolete, far better to invest in one's own human capital (learn to read, write, think, calculate) than to train for a career that may not be there once you graduate.</p>
<p>Hospitals in the US now employ radiologists in India to read diagnostic tests and recommend further treatment or no treatment. Technology is highly disruptive even when it's creating good things.</p>