WashPost: College is remade as tech majors surge and humanities dwindle
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Anonymous
+1000 But do not take Parent loans for undergrad, and certainly not if you are a humanities/social science major. While you may make more later, it will be hard to pay $1000+ in loans each month if you are only making $45K/year. So study what you want, but be financially smart and dont go into major debt when your starting salary might not be 6 figures. |
Anonymous
Major in what you want, but do it somewhere that you can afford---ie with only student loans and cash flow/from your college savings. No need to take more than $27K in loans for anyone. Student loan crisis is cause by kids with any major having their parents taking loans to put them thru schools they can't afford---it's not the major, it's the loans. |
Anonymous
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I majored in CS in the late 90s when no one wanted to do it, particularly women (like me).
Now it’s saturated so I probably would steer my kids to other fields (not discourage but not encourage either, I guess), although one wants to major in engineering and I’ll let her do that because I think it’s a good choice for her skillset. |
Anonymous
BTW I minored in English and toast year I got a job based on that minor….my boss told me it was what differentiated my application. |
Anonymous
There are too many lawyers and not enough jobs for them all. |
Anonymous
definitely don't need more lawyers. |
Anonymous
In college, I discovered that my true passion was to not work, and I had a talent for doing what I wanted to do, instead of doing anything that was required. Unfortunately this wouldn’t pay the bills, so I majored in something that I disliked but helped me live without financial worry. But my dream is still to quit and follow my dream of not working at all. |
Anonymous
+1. I remember telling my mom at age 16 that I wanted to retire at age 18 and just go up college for fun. |
Anonymous
There will always be demand for new good lawyers, but if you're kid would do it just because they can't think of anything better to do and probably will only be mediocre, then it's definitely not worth it. Of course, the same advice applies to lots of fields. |
Anonymous
| Most people I know who have “made it” professionally with a humanities degree have something else going for them - elite law school, college athlete or in top frat/sorority, wealthy/connected parents, attractive, etc. STEM is much more democratic. I think English majors can be successful, but it seems to the exception, not the norm. |
Anonymous
+1 STEM is much more of an egalitarian field because if you mess up, the ramifications are much bigger. So, companies want to hire based on ability, not based on who your daddy is. |
Anonymous
In what circles?  Unless you are planning on a lucrative grad school degree, there's no reason to get one.
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Anonymous
Didn’t have any of that and am doing very well thank you very much. |
Anonymous
Don't be an idiot. Majoring in Lazy is not something. However, if you have a passion for art history, major in that, learn to write, communicate, critical thinking skills and use it to launch yourself. You may not work directly in something relating to Art history or you might, but the skills you learn are all good for getting a job. |
Anonymous
English majors have to "market themselves more" than say a CS or Mech Eng major. Nobody posts jobs at businesses that say "needed One English major"---ok, not many do. They likely are looking for someone who can communicate, write well, manage a project, etc....so many majors are capable of doing this. So you have to work a bit harder to find the job for you---stem it's easier to just apply to someone who needs a Mech Eng degree. |