Why don’t college students understand that they’re supposed to preserve optionality?

[Anonymous]

Can’t stand the overuse of the word “wealthy” on here. If you live in Maryland and your kids go to public school, chances are, you’re not. If you really were you wouldn’t give a hoot what your kid majored in.

[Anonymous]

You're an alumni mentor for a Ivy.



Wow.



Finally I understand why they don't set any store by alumni interviews. Your ignorance is staggering, matched only by your deluded hubris.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you really asking why someone who wants to be a psychologist isn’t spending their post grad years at Morgan Stanley?

How does a 22 year-old even really know that they want to be a “psychologist?” They are too young and inexperienced to choose a long-standing career path! They might go straight to grad school to be a psychologist at 22 and end up regretting the decision at 30. Better to spend two years in the working world to get a better sense of what one is or isn’t good at, get great resume experience, and start saving up money for a downpayment and retirement.

Better than wasting your early 20s working 100 hour weeks at GS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m an alumni mentor for an Ivy, and one thing I see that frequently confuses me is that students are not focused on using their four years of college (and also their early 20s post-grad!) to PRESERVE OPTIONS. That’s the name of the game in your college years and your twenties.

I always advise students to major in STEM, since it’s way easier for a STEM graduate to go into classically liberal arts fields (law, media, politics, etc) than the other way around. I highly recommend that most college students at elite schools work in management consulting or investment banking post-grad, as those are the two fields that PRESERVE THE MOST OPTIONS for someone in their late 20s or 30s. A former management consultant (especially with Ivy pedigree) or Morgan Stanley investment banker can always decide to pivot at 28 to politics, media, the arts, the business side of tech, non-profit work, etc. — but it’s much harder to do the reverse.

But it seems like many students are averse to the idea of keeping their options open. Even at elite colleges, and especially so at state flagships — I see way too many bright kids in my wealthy MoCo neighborhood major in useless crap like marketing or psychology at elite colleges or at excellent flagships like UMD.

Do these kids not get it? Why don’t they understand the importance of optionality?

How fulfilling is life when your always waiting on the next exit opportunity?

[Anonymous]

Not everyone has the same goals in life as you. Shocking, right?

[Anonymous]

A marketing degree from UMD is WAY more useful than a Chem or Bio degree from, well, anywhere if you care about immediate earning potential.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would rather pluck my eyelashes out one by one than work in investment banking or management consulting.

Are you a 22 year-old? That’s the only way I can justify such an immature response. Most adults in the working world would kill for an opportunity to work at Mckinsey or Goldman for their early twenties.

You must be clinically insane then.

No one I know (research scientists, doctors, lawyers, journalists, etc) ever wanted to work there. Ever. And yet they're happy and fulfilled.

Please seek pharmaceutical treatment and therapy for whatever mental disease you have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would rather pluck my eyelashes out one by one than work in investment banking or management consulting.

Are you a 22 year-old? That’s the only way I can justify such an immature response. Most adults in the working world would kill for an opportunity to work at Mckinsey or Goldman for their early twenties.

You must be clinically insane then.

No one I know (research scientists, doctors, lawyers, journalists, etc) ever wanted to work there. Ever. And yet they're happy and fulfilled.

Please seek pharmaceutical treatment and therapy for whatever mental disease you have.

LMAO. MBB funds law school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m an alumni mentor for an Ivy, and one thing I see that frequently confuses me is that students are not focused on using their four years of college (and also their early 20s post-grad!) to PRESERVE OPTIONS. That’s the name of the game in your college years and your twenties.

I always advise students to major in STEM, since it’s way easier for a STEM graduate to go into classically liberal arts fields (law, media, politics, etc) than the other way around. I highly recommend that most college students at elite schools work in management consulting or investment banking post-grad, as those are the two fields that PRESERVE THE MOST OPTIONS for someone in their late 20s or 30s. A former management consultant (especially with Ivy pedigree) or Morgan Stanley investment banker can always decide to pivot at 28 to politics, media, the arts, the business side of tech, non-profit work, etc. — but it’s much harder to do the reverse.

But it seems like many students are averse to the idea of keeping their options open. Even at elite colleges, and especially so at state flagships — I see way too many bright kids in my wealthy MoCo neighborhood major in useless crap like marketing or psychology at elite colleges or at excellent flagships like UMD.

Do these kids not get it? Why don’t they understand the importance of optionality?

How fulfilling is life when your always waiting on the next exit opportunity?

That’s what you’re supposed to do in your twenties!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A marketing degree from UMD is WAY more useful than a Chem or Bio degree from, well, anywhere if you care about immediate earning potential.

OP here. Chem and Bio degrees are pretty useless, barring med school. I encourage any student who’s not 100% dedicated to getting into med school to major in a quantitative STEM field instead.

[Anonymous]

Has to be a troll. No one could possibly graduate from Ivy and be so myopically stupid

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has to be a troll. No one could possibly graduate from Ivy and be so myopically stupid

Not my experience, especially the ones who are older and didn't have as much competition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I'm a research biologist. You don't understand that most people cannot, and will not, pick a field of study they are not interested in. If they're not interested, they won't do well in it. It would be a giant waste of time and resources.

It's amazingly cretinous to propose that
one should just study this, or study that, then go into investment banking... as if we're all robots looking to maximize a paycheck. We're not. We have our predilections. We can't all study the same thing. This is the beauty of individualism. There are many ways to lead a successful life.

My husband is a doctor and my kid wants to major in international affairs. He has always been interested in history and military strategy. It's his thing. Who are we to tell him to do something else? Would he do well in a STEM career? No, he'd be miserable. We did tell him to add data science to his studies and make it a Bachelor of Science, because his degree will be more marketable. (He'll go to grad school or law school anyway.) But no hard science beyond that. That's just not who he is.

So don't be stupid, OP.

Thank you. Same here. My DC would be miserable if he had to major in STEM. As a successful lawyer, I always advise young people who want to go to law school to pick a major that they enjoy. The most important thing is that they do well and get good grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would rather pluck my eyelashes out one by one than work in investment banking or management consulting.

Are you a 22 year-old? That’s the only way I can justify such an immature response. Most adults in the working world would kill for an opportunity to work at Mckinsey or Goldman for their early twenties.

Consider that your circle may be limited. I am a quantum physics researcher. There is no world in which I would want to be a consultant or work for GS. I am sure there are lots of others like me who are well past 22.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you really asking why someone who wants to be a psychologist isn’t spending their post grad years at Morgan Stanley?

How does a 22 year-old even really know that they want to be a “psychologist?” They are too young and inexperienced to choose a long-standing career path! They might go straight to grad school to be a psychologist at 22 and end up regretting the decision at 30. Better to spend two years in the working world to get a better sense of what one is or isn’t good at, get great resume experience, and start saving up money for a downpayment and retirement.

Better than wasting your early 20s working 100 hour weeks at GS.

Grad school is even more of a waste — living off of $30k/year while working 60 hrs/week to finish some irrelevant dissertation. Better off getting industry experience.