<p>I don't have kids yet, but I would heavily steer them toward engineering and computer science. I would encourage them into the medical field if they're very set on it.</p>
<p>Perhaps it's the Chinese upbringing, but I see other fields not as useful or practical.</p>
<p>What is everyone's opinion? am I just being cynical? Of course it's possible to be successful as other majors, such as accounting and perhaps business, but it doesn't seem like it's on the same caliber as engineering & medical careers.</p>
<p>The world needs a lot more people than just engineers. I wonder how many of the students in my classes that do the absolute minimum and dont seem to be learning anything were “heavily steered” towards engineering.</p>
<p>It is correct that the world needs more than just engineers, but only 1/3 of all Americans get a bachelors in STEM, as opposed to 53% in China and 63% in Japan. We have an over-saturation of liberal arts majors that are making college debt worst. </p>
<p>As someone whose parents attempted to steer her towards computer science back in the '70’s, I have a horror of steering my kids towards anything.</p>
<p>My D is studying education; she is a natural born teacher.</p>
<p>My current senior is interested in physics, poli sci and eco but has no interest in engineering, med school or teaching. I would recommend law school to him. It’s what I did and I have never regretted it.</p>
<p>My other kids are not math-ish like my current senior so I would never steer any of them into engineering. I, frankly, could not think of anything more boring in life than doing math or science all day, but that’s why there are so many choices…</p>
<p>Perhaps it is better to let them do something that they like (because they will likely be better at it), although it is certainly a good idea to provide information about potential future career prospects so that they can make a more fully informed decision.</p>
<p>Note that getting into any US medical school or a top-14 law school requires a very high GPA in college, so any student intending to go that direction needs to think of a backup plan in case s/he does not get admitted to such. Neither pre-med nor pre-law requires any particular major as an undergraduate (even though it seems that many people mistakenly think that pre-med requires majoring in biology and pre-law requires majoring in English or political science).</p>
<p>I would steer them toward computing field. It doesn’t matter which part of computing.</p>
<p>I would actually speak against going into Law and Medical. Yes, you make loads of money. But nobody going into these fields end up loving their job.</p>
<p>I’m going to let my kids figure out their lives on their own… I hope that, as a parent, I will set a good enough example for them that they make good life choices.</p>
<p>@Joan52: That’s why people are all different. I would love to do math and science all day long. And at the end of the day I would come home to a nice house in a nice car lol.</p>
<p>In my opinion, i dont think it is that wrong to steer children towards engineering. Its a great field, will always have job opportunities, is hands on, and is cutting edge.</p>
<p>Sorry RoKr–never really heard the phrase. Happy to hear about it though.
I just happen to know some unhappy people who spent time (or rather DOING time) in what their parents thought they should do before having a mid-life crisis and reverting to their real desired career. Unfortunately a lot of time was wasted getting there.
I did say I would give economic input–how much money would be expected in a career–if you want fancy cars and big houses then you don’t sign up for a low paying career , but surprisingly not everyone has to drive fancy cars and live in big houses to be happy. For so many hours spent and such a huge portion of your day, you need to enjoy your work. The goal is to be happy doing your work and be able to live independently.
I once heard “Money, job satisfaction, location…pick two and you’ll be happy.”</p>
<p>Hi- I have 4 kids 19 -32 . You can steer , but children are not cars ! Each kid will have their own likes and strengths . I would encourage them to figure out a job that makes them happy , yet they can support themselves . PS - I am not Asian . I think Asians make more effort to " steer " children .</p>
<p>Some liberal arts have much better job and career prospects than others. For example, math, statistics, and physics graduates tend to do much better than biology and chemistry graduates.</p>
<p>1) you can try to steer them in the right direction and hope they follow and end up with an ok job and ok living
2) your kids facing many career choices, assuming all path have equal chance being chosen, in this economy, they still have big chance ending up jobless and live in your basement
3) assuming you’re the kind of parent that just kick your kids out of the house (and that’s ok). Your kids will end up homeless, jobless, and become a social burden.</p>
<p>In any case, the odds are against you. But you do want to do something about it.</p>