I was a humanities major.
The ironic thing? My parents have a room in MY basement in the house that I own. They lived there when finances were tight.
These threads are so redundant.
The majority of liberal arts majors I know end up going to graduate school
the real question is which majors live in their parents attic?
not very smart
…maybe your parents will give you a real life lesson on economics come graduation…an eviction notice, one bag to pack your stuff and a 25.00 gift certificate for Target!
Biomedical engineering
@zobroward and @NotVerySmart, my cousin made it very clear, albeit kindly, to his wife’s two kids from her first marriage that they were out of the house for good by July 1st after their college graduation–both have been very successful and are close to their mom and their stepdad (my cousin). I am waiting to see if this same rule also applies to the daughter they have together.
Physical science. Yup. I’m fine. :)>-
(Sorry I’m a student commenting in the parents forum. I shall take my leave now.)
I refer to the lower level of my s’s house as the in-law suite. That doesn’t go over too well 
I said I was going to be just enough of a nag that they wouldn’t want to come home and live in the basement. Guess it was too successful-- they live thousands of miles away.
As for majors, hopefully if the economy continues to improve, even the students who major in Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations will be readily employable.
It’s kind of like Club Med, all inclusive food, maid service, entertainment, utilities, etc. I can see the appeal.
Club Med with your mother… Not too appealing.
I did a Bachelor of Liberal Arts degree as part of the 6 year combined BA/MD program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. I must have missed the memo about being relegated to living in my parents’ basement. I’ll go right now and tell my wife and newborn that we’re moving out and moving back in with my mom and dad. I’m sure she’ll be absolutely ecstatic (/sarc off)
^ You didn’t do a terminal 4 year degree. You went to med school. BIG difference.
@jym626, Yes, I was being sarcastic. My point being that it’s not a terminal 4 year degree by any means, but let’s face it, most Bachelor’s degrees aren’t terminal degrees to begin with, because you have way too many people going to college these days. I guess that’s what happens when going to college becomes a “right”.
Perhaps not, depending on the way the TIME did the analysis. The article is short on methodology and results (no margin of error, probably because it would make the numbers pretty uninteresting), and it just says “Only those with completed bachelor’s degrees between ages 22 and 29 were examined.” Well, an MD holder can easily be a 26-year-old with a completed bachelor’s degree.
Not only are these threads redundant, but assumptions like these amuse me. Being a Millennial just emerging from the “danger zone”, apparently (I’m 29) I know lots of friends who lived at home at some point during the period of time between 22 and 29 - aka, their parents were probably listed as the head of household on the Census form. None of them were living this kind of lifestyle. They were all employed. They did their own grocery shopping, made their own food (and often cooked for their parents), cleaned their own rooms and did their own laundry, and most often were contributing funds to the household. I had friends who moved back home to help pay their parents’ mortgage when the recession hit and their parents were underwater. Two of my closest friends’ fathers lost their job during the Great Recession and the main catalyst for them moving back home was this reason - to help their parents not lose their house. Both of them had entire floors to themselves. A couple of friends I have (married to each other) rent the basement apartment of one of their parents’ brownstone in the city, but they otherwise live completely separate lives. My sister lived at home for several years post college and now lives with an aunt, but she’s worked the entire time and paid her own bills and cooks her own food.
Like I literally know 0 people who moved home after college and had their parents waiting on them hand and foot.
And even my friends who didn’t move back home because their parents were in trouble were contributing to the household in some way - some paid all the utilities; some did all the grocery shopping; some paid a reduced amount of rent or shared the mortgage with their parents. And it was often because they were staying at home because they couldn’t afford the astronomical rents in the cities in which we lived, or they were trying to save up money for deposits and furniture for said housing (because don’t you know, our alma maters don’t magically give us several thousand dollars and good credit when we graduate from college).
And you know, what’s really wrong with that? As was mentioned, it’s only recently in American culture that we expect to shove people out of the nest at age 22. It’s pretty normal and not stigmatized in other Western cultures for college graduates to go back home and save money. I had some Caribbean friends in college would roll their eyes at us American kids when we talked about the apartments we wanted straight out; the expectation for them is that their parents would set aside some space for them to make their own and they’d stay at home to build wealth before they went out into the world.
Let’s instead talk about how the average age of first-time homebuyers is 35 because nobody in my generation can afford to save up the the $100,000 necessary to purchase a $500K home yet (and in many markets, like mine, that’s the starting price for a pretty small house), and how in the suburbs of a lot of cities companies are building lots of fancy huge luxury homes but virtually no small starter homes that are affordable for younger graduates to purchase and build equity, and how vacancy rates in and near large cities are at historic lows and rents at historic highs. We’re the generation that graduated into a recession.
I don’t think this is nearly emphasized enough.
Growing up in factory-landia, I have MANY friends who in some way contributed to their household after graduation not because they were in dire economic straits but because their parents were. They were employed but living with their parents helped out BOTH of them.
Now, I know many on this site will likely never been in that situation because the average income of people on here is well above the national median, but for many of us whose parents lost jobs, income, etc, moving back home or combining households with our parents made a hell of a lot of economic sense.
My basement is a separate apartment. I wouldn’t mind having my soon-to-graduate son as a tenant. I would give him cheap rent, and he’d be able to save $. My oldest son has lived in someone else’s basement apartment (1000s of miles away) since he graduated from college 5 years ago.
A number of my grad students live at their parents’ home while attending grad school because it’s cheaper; I guess they’d be counted in the “living at home” category. An even larger number continue to list their parents’ home address as their “permanent” address because it lends stability; so in a certain sense they could also be considered to be “living at home,” though I don’t think the Census Bureau counts that way.
Curious that 37% of “Liberal Arts and Humanities” majors are living at home at age 25, but if you look at actual social sciences and humanities majors, the numbers are much lower: 26% for English majors, 26% for Fine Arts majors, 30% for History majors, 22% for Linguistics and Foreign Languages majors, 22% for Philosophy and Religious Studies majors, 29% for Psychology majors, 26% for Social Sciences majors. (I know, “Social Sciences” isn’t a major at most schools, either, but at least it’s a recognizable category). Also notice that these figures are in the same ballpark as many STEM fields: 26% for Biological and Life Sciences majors, 22% for Computer and Information Sciences majors, 23% for Mathematics and Statistics majors, 26% for Medical and Health Sciences and Services majors, 23% for Physical Sciences majors. In light of that, I think the figure for “Liberal Art and Humanities” majors should probably be disregarded entirely, because it doesn’t reflect the pattern for any recognizable liberal arts field.
Nationally the most popular major by far is Business, another “practical” major. But by this metric, 27% of Business majors are still living at home at age 25–a higher percentage than English majors, Linguistics and Foreign Language majors, and Philosophy majors.
By age 29, a higher percentage of Computer Science, Bio, and Physical Science majors are living at home than English or Social Science majors.
This is a very good point. Most of the young people I’ve known who have recently moved back in with their parents after college did it to save money, either for some additional educational credential or for a down payment on a house. They were working, but it’s hard to save for a big-ticket item like a graduate/professional degree or a house if 25-30% of your gross income (or more in some high housing cost markets) is going toward rent.
I read a book called “The Boomerang Generation” on the topic of kids worldwide living at home after college. I wouldnt break it down by major in this way: it is a larger phenomenon. (And “liberal arts” is a major in adult learner or degree completion programs, online programs that cannot offer a full range of courses in a narrower area, or in schools that don’t have the ability for some reason to offer narrower liberal arts majors.)
I read, two years ago, that 82% of college grads live at home. Sorry I cannot cite this. Whatever. Time isn’t the most reliable source of information, in my opinion.
It can take a little while to get that first “real” job. And yes, it can be very helpful to parents to share rent with their working kids (I am one of these. I had to move to a one bedroom when my youngest moved out of our two bedroom.)