Illinoismom4- What did your children think about their choice of athletic training - Physical Therapy major. My daughter also wants to get an undergraduate degree in athletic training and then go for her doctorate in Physical Therapy. My daughter is currently a junior in high school so any thing learned about this plan would be helpful.
Suzie, why not start a thread about this planned course of study? You might get more answers than in this thread…where that is not the subject.
S - Computer Engineering, graduating in May, is now looking for jobs in US after an internship in Taiwan. We were just on spring break and I asked, are you happy with the course of your studies? He said yes, because he can combine his degree with his devotion to energy efficiency and lower emissions.
D - Sophomore in a communications science and disorders major, but taking math, CompSci, and neuroscience classes. She is on the quarter system, so she can take 48 classes theoretically, so she is exploring lots of different things. I heard her tell her brother over spring break that she is a bit conflicted about her choice, but we are relaxed. She is starting a big Math/Stats sequence next year, so, as actuaries, we know her analytical skills will lead to employment.
We have two nephews who graduated in the recession and both now have nice “quant” jobs.
We lived in Italy when my d was 5-9. We visited many archaeological sites and museums and she developed a passion for history. We were delighted and did everything we could to encourage her, including 2 internships in Israel on early Christian archaeological sites, which only increased her determination to study archaeology. Now she is doing that at Cambridge in the UK and loves it.
We do not know where it will lead, but feel that her passion propelled her into a great uni and that she is learning vital skills in critical thinking, project management, and even physical labor. So even if she doesn’t pursue it as an occupation as an academic, she is getting a grounding for whatever she chooses to set her mind to.
My D’s major was Zoology. It just happen to be the most common at her college among pre-meds.
She is graduating from Med. School in May and starting her residency in July.
@micheli @smartgirl14 @illinoismom4
DS graduated in 2013 with a BS and PharmD with a minor in business administration from Northeastern University in Boston. He is currently licensed in CA and MA and working on a medical information team in the pharmaceutical industry. BTW Northeastern is one of 10 universities that has a true guaranteed zero-6 year PharmD program (it is a year-around program which includes a bachelor’s degree as well as a PharmD for incoming freshmen) —guaranteed acceptance meaning no test, no interview, as long as you maintain a 3.0 GPA and no grade less than a C.)
DS had our total support (mentally and financially) and has found many great opportunities in the pharmaceutical industry as well as retail pharmacy. All of his classmates across the country that he keeps in touch with have done very well with their pharmacy careers as well in clinical, industry and retail. (Many pharmaceutical industry jobs seem to be available with better hours and benefits than retail pharmacy.)
I am a FNP and ACNP and now divorced from a MD. He said he wishes we could switch careers, so his life would be less stressful.
S began as a Microbiology / Human Health major, with the intention of ending up in medical school. Went to school on an Army ROTC scholarship, and found he absolutely loved everything Army. He changed his major halfway through his sophomore year to Anthropology. He felt it would be the best use of his existing knowledge base in the hard sciences, while giving him the cultural exposure he was missing in his original curriculum. He couldn’t be happier with his choice. He graduates and commissions as an active duty Infantry officer next month!
Communications major and theater minor. She is getting into theater management.
My high schooler wants to be a psychologist.
DD double major journalism and history, we were supportive of that choice as it was what she was interested in, will graduate law school this year and has job lined up for next year in NY
DS majored in economics, again, we were supportive of it as it was what he was interested in, will graduate this year, has a job lined up for next year as an analyst at a private equity firm in NY
My D will graduate this spring with a Spanish major and a public health minor. She is currently taking the EMT class and will take the national certification exam sometime. She has taken all of the pre med classes and will apply to med school this summer for fall 2016.
S HS’16 wants to major in criminal justice.
I don’t care what my kids major in as long as they can support themselves. And, there are many jobs a college graduate can get to support themselves, no matter what the major is.
S-music performance. He is full time music instructor at community college also performs locally. We supported his choice-H and I knew too many people who wish they would have… We didn’t want our son to ever wonder. I’m pharmacist glad I’m not starting out now.
My D is a Sports Mgt major. She is not sure where her focus will fall, possibly Compliance. She has not ruled out working with sports teams or venues either. She initially wanted to major in athletic training, but as an athlete herself, it is a very tough major to have and she decided not to pursue it.
D - English Lit. It was what she was always going to do, so there wasn’t any question of supporting it or not. Also, I was a Literature major in college. She went to college wanting to be a writer/journalist. She did Teach For America teaching English in a high school in the South Bronx. She now works on education policy and design at a large foundation, and I think she intends to stay in the education world. Along the way she has picked up an MAT and an MPA with massive employer subsidy. She has been self-supporting since graduation (and was self-supporting but for tuition even before graduation).
S - Sociology. Started college as a pre-med, never picked a major, baled on the medical school path after a year and a half. Really found a home in Sociology, loved it. Went through two rounds of applications to PhD programs, but was didn’t like any of the places that accepted him enough to commit there. Got a stand-alone MA that he started in order to improve his PhD applications but changed his mind halfway through. Now works at a social science research institute, still somewhat searching for what he wants to do when he grows up, which is fine. In between college and graduate school, he worked two jobs – academic counselor at a small, urban college and assistant manager of a theater (he had a lot of theater background) – and was self-supporting at a subsistence level. It took him a couple of months after graduation to get the full-time job that let him do the part-time job that added up to OK, in part because he thought he was going to grad school and didn’t start looking until late spring.
My wife was a double-major in Psychology and American Studies, which basically meant she was a Women’s Studies major before that existed. She has had a great career in and out of government working mainly in a policy area that grew organically out of her interest in women and their children in poverty. She did go to law school a few years after graduating from college, and she was a Legal Services lawyer for a few years, but all of her jobs in the past 25 years have been non-legal, and she would have done fine without the law degree.
Older daughter started as Environmental Engineering, then changed to Science Writing, and ended up graduating with a degree in English and certified to teach K-8. I was supportive of all of those things. Not to say I didn’t worry occasionally, but there was nothing to worry about, she has been nearly self-supporting since before she graduated - she paid the last two years of college herself (she got a good scholarship so it wasn’t very expensive), she worked, but I let her live with me rent free. Now she’s married and lives with her husband, who she met at college.