Are only kids of wealthy parents in elite professions majoring in arts/going to elite colleges?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At Harvard a high % of kids major in CS, which surprises as I thought it hardly matters what you major in if you get in there.

But if you’re at a state school, especially a “lower tier” one, the history or English majors are going to be teaching high school. You’d be wise to major in nursing, CS, engineering or accounting at such a school. Nothing wrong with that, but they’re not going to be recruited to IB.

I'm always confused by comments like this. Someone has to teach high school. Or elementary or middle schools. Who do YOU think should teach in our schools.

The best and the brightest kids, ideally. But teaching is not what most kids at elite schools or aspiring for elite professions (regardless of how realistic it is) are aiming for.

It's a shame. In other countries to be a teacher is a really respected profession. It's one of the most important ones for our society.

It’s a chicken and egg issue from my view. Nobody wants to increase teacher pay dramatically partly because current and recent education majors are usually the lower performers in their university class (by SAT and entering GPA, although not all teachers majored in education). So the logic is that current and soon-to-be teachers do not deserve higher pay because they’re low-performing. But higher performing students, particularly women, who have more career options than they once did, aren’t going to gravitate toward teaching, because it’s low-paying. Not only is it low-paying, parents and kids are a PITA to deal with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like you made the right call. In my eyes, unless you’re at an elite school and have zero loans to pay back, it’s too risky to major in the humanities.

NP. As MC parents, we feel the same way and we encouraged our kids to pursue interests like languages and classics on the side. What if your kid is more inclined toward the humanities? I've talked to some parents who think they cannot intervene but many teens are also somewhat naive and believe that they will become the next best-selling author or artist. Our neighbors' son who majored in fine arts at Yale is in his mid-30's, is financially supported by his parents, and is still waiting for his big breakthrough. Our family cannot afford to do that though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like you made the right call. In my eyes, unless you’re at an elite school and have zero loans to pay back, it’s too risky to major in the humanities.

NP. As MC parents, we feel the same way and we encouraged our kids to pursue interests like languages and classics on the side. What if your kid is more inclined toward the humanities? I've talked to some parents who think they cannot intervene but many teens are also somewhat naive and believe that they will become the next best-selling author or artist. Our neighbors' son who majored in fine arts at Yale is in his mid-30's, is financially supported by his parents, and is still waiting for his big breakthrough. Our family cannot afford to do that though.

It depends on which humanities major you’re aiming for, how much money you’re spending on the degree, the school’s location, how marginally prestigious the school is and how intrinsically motivated the student is to freelance or write in the school newspaper or take on unpaid journalism internships.

[Anonymous]

As someone who hires applicants I'm always glad to see humanities majors among the resumes because they tend to have better writing skills.

[Anonymous]

I worked at a top 10 consulting firm. Most of the C level had undergrad degrees in liberal arts. A large number of philosophy majors which I thought was surprising.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I worked at a top 10 consulting firm. Most of the C level had undergrad degrees in liberal arts. A large number of philosophy majors which I thought was surprising.

Philosophy is a discipline that trains you to really think deeply about the world. Most philosophy majors I know are wicked intelligent.

[Anonymous]

I know a number of low-income students who have gotten full ride scholarships to RISD. They say that fine arts majors are the wealthy students and low-income students cluster in the more technical majors (design, architecture). All of the students these students have been very successful post-grad. A rigorous art school definitely makes students work extremely hard.

[Anonymous]

funny thing is how many board members at my (major) university run big corporations or otherwise make a lot of money and were humanities majors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:funny thing is how many board members at my (major) university run big corporations or otherwise make a lot of money and were humanities majors.

Yes, humanities majors from top schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like you made the right call. In my eyes, unless you’re at an elite school and have zero loans to pay back, it’s too risky to major in the humanities.

NP. As MC parents, we feel the same way and we encouraged our kids to pursue interests like languages and classics on the side. What if your kid is more inclined toward the humanities? I've talked to some parents who think they cannot intervene but many teens are also somewhat naive and believe that they will become the next best-selling author or artist. Our neighbors' son who majored in fine arts at Yale is in his mid-30's, is financially supported by his parents, and is still waiting for his big breakthrough. Our family cannot afford to do that though.

It depends on which humanities major you’re aiming for, how much money you’re spending on the degree, the school’s location, how marginally prestigious the school is and how intrinsically motivated the student is to freelance or write in the school newspaper or take on unpaid journalism internships.

True, we were just thinking generally along the lines of paying in-state or reduced tuition with merit aid (so not the tippy-top echelon of colleges but the ones with decent regional and maybe even national reputation). If the child is interested in med or law school, that's a different scenario. My sister who is a humanities professor is encouraging her own children in double major in a social science or stem degree if they decide town tudy the humanities. The folks who don't need to worry as much are the kids attending elite universities - our friends' kids majored in comparative literature and classics at Brown and now work in consulting in NYC.

[Anonymous]

Those degrees are common pre-law and pre-health majors.

[Anonymous]

No. We are strictly middle class and our DD is majoring in History at Yale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It seems that the kids I know going to T-10 schools and are majoring in things like philosophy or sociology are from families that are in big law, IB, or medicine. They also have generational wealth from grandparents. We are first generation college grads with no parental help but worked our way up to UMC with no advice or mentoring. Our kids did well enough to get merit at some private universities but ultimately chose the state flagship to save money. They also pursued majors that led to high paying fields upon graduation. But are people like us short-changing our kids in not providing them with a liberal arts education at an elite school so they can join the rarefied alumni clubs and networking opportunities that lead to the truly big bucks?

We were in your shoes with full pay for elite schools and free full ride offers at state school, went for top 20 schools where there was some merit money to make it more palatable but many of our friends in similar situation opted for free rides at state schools or ivies at full price. I see mixed results so do what you prefer. We have no regrets, money was better spent than on luxury cars or wedding events.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. We are strictly middle class and our DD is majoring in History at Yale.

Strictly middle class at Yale usually gets financial aid.

[Anonymous]

Four of my humanities and liberal arts major nephews got six figure offers before they even started senior years. Now making big bucks at consulting and private equity firms. It’s hard to say if it was college or their IQ but their majors didn’t stop them from lucrative careers.