There seem to be some broad categories of jobs where a bachelor’s degree tends to be expected:
A. Jobs where a specific major or course work is required or highly desired. Examples include many engineering jobs (and sometimes even sales and marketing associated with engineering) that you are apparently most familiar with. Other examples include accounting, nursing, and quantitative finance (for math and statistics majors). Not all such jobs are plentiful or pay well; consider biology/chemistry lab technician, interior designer, artists/musicians other than the few who make it big, etc… Some graduates in these majors seek jobs not associated with their majors. Also, economic and industry cycles can make even the more-in-demand jobs hard to find if one graduates during a downturn.
B. Jobs where graduation from an elite school, regardless of major, is highly desired. Typical examples include management consulting and investment banking. These employers believe that the elite schools already did most of their screening for them; the consulting companies are also selling the prestige of the consultants’ alma maters to the customers who pay for the services. Of course, it means that one’s high school achievements (admission to an elite school; they also ask for things like SAT scores) matter a lot.
C. Jobs where neither a specific major nor an elite school is required or highly desired. There are lots of these jobs, but there are lots of applicants, so the entry level pay levels are not generally at the top end. Note that some with majors in group A above may seek jobs here if the jobs associated with their majors are hard to find. Career advancement to jobs with higher pay levels tends to be most dependent on on-the-job performance.
Remember also that jobs are not necessarily in the “corporate world”, since some people (of various majors) go into self-employment or start small businesses.
What is “financially sound” for her does depend on her spending habits. If she is frugal, then she will likely be able to live comfortably on the pay level of entry level jobs in category C. But if she is spendy, then she may struggle financially even with one of the better paid jobs in category A.
Realistically, she has little chance of getting into an elite school that is recruited by employers of category B jobs. So it looks like you want her to choose a major associated with an in-demand job in category A, while her current preferred major of biology is likely to lead to a low-demand job in category A or a job in category C. Correct?
Perhaps the question should be, is she well aware of the job markets and career directions associated with various majors, and is she aware of her spending habits, so that she can make an informed decision on such matters? If not, can you help her make a more informed decision, rather than deciding for her? Forcing her to major in something she is not interested in is unlikely to lead to a good outcome, since her lack of interest may not result in good academic performance or good job performance if she takes a job in that area.
