<p>Hi. I'm not an undergrad nor am I a parent; I'm asking out of pure curiosity, as well as reflecting on what I might do myself in 25 or so years when/if I have college-aged children.</p>
<p>One of my best friends has a younger sister in undergrad who just decided that she wanted to major in music, vocal performance. I caught myself thinking that I wouldn't pay thousands of dollars for my daughter to major in music, and then I wanted to examine that thought more fully, especially since I'd have no problem with paying for other majors that are stereotyped as "useless" such as philosophy or psychology.</p>
<p>As parents - assuming that you are paying for at least part of the college costs, and your child's attendance is contingent upon your money - are you willing to allow your child to select any major? Is there a circumscribed list or set of majors that you are more comfortable with than others? Or are you requiring your child to major in something in particular, otherwise they don't get your money?</p>
<p>I've seen all three of these situations in my own college classmates' lives. I personally had a full merit scholarship, so I didn't have to deal with it.</p>
<p>My financial support is for my child as a human being, not a contribution to a particular profession. I trust that the person my child has become is capable of identifying the field of study that meets his/her own individual needs/goals/desires and accept that this choice may well change on more than one occasion as s/he explores different fields of study. A college education is my gift to my children; what they choose to do with it is their gift to the world.</p>
<p>There happen to be successful music performance majors in my family, so I donāt see why a parent would not pay for that type of major. I know several successful art majors as well, and my son is in what is often called a useless major around CC threads, so yep, I would!</p>
<p>I paid for each of my kids to get a college degree. One got an electrical engineering degree and the other got a cinema degree. We are looking forward to see what they decide to do with their degrees.</p>
<p>By the way, the degrees (particularly for out-of-state privates) can already cost over $100-200+K, so it can well be more than āthousands,ā and even more in 25+ years.</p>
<p>Yes, I would pay for any major - and am paying for a performance major. However, the amount I would be willing to pay may be different. After discussion, my child agreed to double major - to have something to fall back on in case the performance major doesnāt end up with a paying career. I am actually more comfortable with performance then I would be with philosophy and probably even psychology (unless there was a definite plan to go on for a masters in psych).</p>
<p>That can be an extremely difficult question to answer, because different degrees have a continuum of marketability with no clear yes/no dividing line. Also, there is a need to try to find a reasonable balance between following oneās greatest passion and earning a living.</p>
<p>My youngest son is pursuing a CS degree, which is highly marketable. But what he really wants to do after graduation is to start his own video game company. I read somewhere that the average income for independent game developers not affiliated with huge companies is about $500/month. Iād guess that puts the profession in line with the legion of actors and singers and writers who are trying to become known.</p>
<p>With this long-term goal in mind, my two sons started a web development company and I handle business communications, client contact, recording-keeping and testing for bugs: pretty much everything except the hard part, writing good code. The plan is to slowly grow the businessā portfolio and reputation so that, upon graduation, it will provide my game-developer son a reasonable living wage for part-time work in a related field, allowing him plenty of time to pursue his dream without worrying about having to make a living at it.</p>
<p>So letās generalize the above situation:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Have an early and frank discussion with the student about how one can make a minimal living wage somewhere within this field, assuming one does not get a lucky break early on. Can you, for example, offer freelance tutoring lessons or similar work?</p></li>
<li><p>Come up with a plan and implement it on a small scale well before graduation, to get the bugs out of the process and to establish a following and a reputation that will lead to a referral network (this takes about 3 years in my previous experience).</p></li>
<li><p>If the above is not possible, get a degree or work experience in a field that allows large blocks of free time, along with a second major or minor in the field of oneās passion. Teaching K-12 is one possibility.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The above supposes that the family is not wealthy enough or not inclined to support the student for up to 10 years after graduation while he or she pursues his dream.</p>
<p>I suppose. Iāve already paid for a philosophy major and a biology major/french minor that will be fairly useless if D doesnāt get into dental school. . . next 2 are both going into computer science on full rides.</p>
<p>I would not dictate a major to a child, but I could imagine situations and majors for which I would not just fork over the tuition money. Sometimes a 17 or 18 year old doesnāt have the best judgment, or is following the crowd and not choosing what he or she is best suited for. Iām not going to pay for my untalented child to major in music, or for my child with no patience to major in elementary education, for instance. </p>
<p>I paid for my own college education and my parents contributed nothing, so I could do whatever I wanted. However, my father still felt free to tell me he thought the major I initially chose was a mistake - not in general for but me. He went so far as to get our next door neighbor, who was in that field, to explain to me why I was ill suited for it. My father suggested a different major and I went along with it. In retrospect (and with another 35+ years of life experience under my belt), I can say with certainty that he was absolutely right. He knew me and my strengths better than I knew myself. </p>
<p>If my student could make the case for me of why they wanted a particular major, how they were suited for it, what they intended to do with it, etc., Iād be more than willing to listen. However, in all honesty, I know there are majors for which I would not be willing to pay, and certainly would not be willing to pay $60,000+ per year (we are not eligible for any need based aid).</p>
<p>I think I would pay for any degree but I would be realistic about where they could go to school. My son chose a private school for Engineering that is close to home so he is staying with us for now. I think been budget conscientious while getting a good education never hurt anyone. Many people spend a lot in an undergrad degree but do not think of the price of grad school, which can be astronomical.</p>
<p>College is a major financial investment. We want our children to have a reasonable return on that investment.</p>
<p>Weāre not willing to pay $100,000 for our children to explore their bliss. Many majors make for great hobbies that can be pursued in a variety of different ways for a lifetime.</p>
<p>First of all, I donāt pay for college, I HELP pay for college. Theyāre expected to work, to get scholarships, and attend a public college/university.</p>
<p>Now, that being said, I have an engineering major and a music education major. I would have been hesitant to be TERRIBLY supportive of a performance major, but that might have more to do with my ignorance than anything. At her school, the degree plans are virtually identical except for the classes specific to education. This way she comes out of it with a teacherās certificate. If she wants to go the performance route, she can still do that. Nothing would be stopping her.</p>
<p>I have a bit of a different philosophy on college than many on this board. At our house, you go to college to make yourself more marketable, to learn a trade, to become an expert, and thus become more financially successful, so that you can make a living independent from your parents. Hopefully, at the same time you learn a lot about life, enjoy your classes, expand your mind, and all of those other exciting things that happen when you surround yourself with others with a desire to learn. I know that some find that philosophy very distasteful, but there it is.</p>
<p>Thereās a difference between a passion and a profession. Iāve changed major several times (completed degrees and started anew) and what I am doing right now was not even in the picture 30 years ago. I have had several passions, some of which I continue to pursue, and some of which contributed to, but are not related to, my career.</p>
<p>In our days when in-state flagships cost a thousand dollars a semester, and jobs were plentiful, a degree in our āpassionā was inexpensive and colleges were there to educate, not to prepare for a career. Thirty years later Iām not sure the model is relevant.</p>
<p>My older daughter was a no-brainer architecture major since 9th grade. She just completed sophomore year with awesome results and a pile of scholarship money. The only difficulty was convincing Mrs. Tiger Turbo of the relevance of architecture :). </p>
<p>The younger one would double major in French and Film if she could get away with it, but will likely be the CC biathlete of the year to attempt both the LSAT and MCAT in the same yearā¦</p>
<p>Well, for a long time I tried to talk my D out of a music major. I tried to push Music Ed, but she knows herself well enough to know that she does not have the patience or desire to teach (I would agree with her self-assessment). Finally, it became very clear that beyond being a strong student academically, she has a gift and that she simply cannot imagine doing anything else. In addition, I talked to several adults who had gone back to school to major in the arts, after their parents forced them to be business majors, etc, when what they really wanted to do was music or art. Itās a passion that I certainly canāt relate to, but having witnessed it, I canāt imagine forcing her to do anything else.</p>
<p>That is what most college students go to college for (about 2/3 of bachelorās degrees are in pre-professional majors, and many liberal arts majors have pre-professional goals in mind when choosing their particular liberal arts majors). It does appear that the demographics on these forums are very skewed toward the high income families (including the āmiddle class that wonāt get financial aid anywhereā) where the students and parents have the luxury of not having to consider job and career implications of choice of school and major, so they can say that ācollege is not job trainingā and stuff like that.</p>
<p>On the other hand, having this motivation for college does not necessarily mean that a student has to choose an overtly pre-professional major (indeed, pre-professional majors in areas with poor job prospects can be very limiting). However, the student will want to be aware of the job and career implications of his/her major, in order to plan accordingly.</p>
<p>Yes, and I think stradmom put it beautifully.</p>
<p>Ucbalumnus, I agree with you but, just to clarify, I am not high income. Back in the day, my dad refused to pay for the two majors I wanted so I dropped out of college. Years later, I paid to finish my own college at a state flagship where I majored in one of those two areas and minored in the other. I work in one of those fields now. No, Iām not rich. Yes, I would have done better financially if I had agreed to major in one of my fatherās approved pre-professional majors. No, I donāt regret it for a minute. It was very painful especially because I saw dad fully fund my siblingās ivy league school and law school because he approved of those fields. For a long time, I felt that his support for me was conditional. I wouldnāt do that to one of my kids.</p>
<p>There is nothing wrong with going to college to prepare for a profession or to get credentials for future job security. But it is very hard to suss out what is a useful degree from one that is not. I remember the hordes of āE-commerce majorsā who were left high and dry after the tech bust of 2001. I remember the waves of āreal estate managementā hopefuls who end up stranded every time that cyclical industry cycles downward. And Iām old enough to remember cohorts of Petroleum engineers, software developers, IT majors, etc. with every boom and bust.</p>
<p>Nobody is smart enough to consistently pick the winners and losers. My town canāt hire speech pathologists fast enough- and yet my cousin half way around the country is working as a K-5 sub because she canāt get a job in speech pathology anywhere within commuting distance. There are hundreds of unemployed nurses in cities when hospital systems merge (and yet everyone claims nursing is recession proof and outsourcing proof) and every August you read stories of cities which have a glut of new teachers who canāt get hired until the 55 year oldās retire.</p>
<p>There is no degree I would not have paid for with my own kids. There were degrees at certain schools which I would not have paid for- my engineering wanna be child knew we werenāt going to pay for a small LAC Engineering degree when there are 10 public Uās with better reputations and lower price tags in the country- but I did not see it as my role to tell my kids what they should study. They all knew they had a ticking clock senior year (we paid for 8 semesters only- anything extra on their dime) and they all became financially sufficient within weeks of graduating.</p>
<p>They were all smart enough to observe that in general, cardiologists make more money than nursery school teachers, and so they were left to their own devices to figure out what kind of lifestyle they wanted as adults.</p>
<p>Although BA/BSā have been somewhat comoditized by the sheer numbers of kids going to college the fact remains that only about half finish their degree. I think that it is still an accomplishment and says much about a person to be educated at least to that level and to have the fortitude to finish the degree. Most people donāt ādoā what their degree āisā with the exception of skilled labor like engineering, programming etc. so I would never ālimitā funding for any major.</p>