Why would non-one percent families let their kids major in the humanities?

[Anonymous]

Because whatever the news reports or trendy online headlines state, a college degree is still the basic requirement to most jobs. Not all dc have the aptitude for stem but can still learn, grow, and contribute in other ways.

Even those of us who are not 1% can still pay for an in-state college degree if we make it a priority. Our dc will never be a superstar earner but a good person and will have a shot at a decent life with the boost of college degree. ( we would have also supported a trade but I find most that are drawn to trades also seem to have aptitude for stem!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not everyone is motivated by money and greed.

This is a really bizarre question to me. A lot of people just want to enjoy their day-to-day life rather than build up a Scrooge McDuck pile of coins to swim in?

Haha, yeah I grew up not worried about money and followed a career I was passionate about. Huge regrets because in this day and age, a modest income consigns you to long commutes, substandard housing, and crummy schools. It’s great if you never plan to marry and have kids; maybe even okay if you marry someone with similar values, but find a DW who is content to live a simple life and doesn’t want kids, that’s a pretty narrow field. And I wanted kids, I just had no idea how expensive they were and neighborhoods with good schools are.

And you can say “move to X” where X is some random place not in a major city, well a) my passion career has no jobs there, I guess I could become a teacher eventually but likely will still be poor there 2) most cheap places, if you want good schools, housing has still gotten really really expensive over the last 10 years, even more so COVID era

I’m the PP you are responding to. Real estate is hot everywhere right now because of the historically low interest rate. But prior to that, you could buy a really nice, updated home with character in my area for ~ 300-400k. 250k if you were willing to do the updating yourself. New construction was running at around 400-500k. We live in a small city near the Finger Lakes in NY. Definitely possible for teachers, nurses, cops, firefighters, professors, social workers, doctors and lawyers with a lot of school debt, etc. etc. to live well here. The public schools are considered very good and it’s a nice area with lots of opportunities for outdoor recreation. Lakes, gorges, ski, etc. You are paying a premium to live in DC. Which is fine but realize it’s your choice and don’t complain about it. There are other nice places to live.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not everyone is motivated by money and greed.

This is a really bizarre question to me. A lot of people just want to enjoy their day-to-day life rather than build up a Scrooge McDuck pile of coins to swim in?

Haha, yeah I grew up not worried about money and followed a career I was passionate about. Huge regrets because in this day and age, a modest income consigns you to long commutes, substandard housing, and crummy schools. It’s great if you never plan to marry and have kids; maybe even okay if you marry someone with similar values, but find a DW who is content to live a simple life and doesn’t want kids, that’s a pretty narrow field. And I wanted kids, I just had no idea how expensive they were and neighborhoods with good schools are.

And you can say “move to X” where X is some random place not in a major city, well a) my passion career has no jobs there, I guess I could become a teacher eventually but likely will still be poor there 2) most cheap places, if you want good schools, housing has still gotten really really expensive over the last 10 years, even more so COVID era

OP here. THIS is what we’re worried about. Income inequality is rapidly rising, and we increasingly have no safety net. A philosophy degree is a one-way ticket to downward mobility. I don’t want my kid’s standard of living to decline, so I’m trying (trying being the operative word here) to help him realize that he’s squandering his future. If we lived in, say, Sweden or any place with more social security, I’d be okay with having my kid major in the humanities. But we do not, and I have to help my kid realize that life after graduation won’t be a bed of roses.

You have to leave philosophy majors out of this. They make more than many stem and business-type majors do.

Sure because people who major in philosophy largely come from connected families and know that major is just for fun. You have to disentangle FOO effects.

Okay then let’s also take into account the fact that you can only get an engineering degree if you’re smart and apply yourself but you can get an English degree pretty easily if you’re just naturally smart.

(But none, and I mean none, of the philosophy majors that I knew at my large undergraduate university came from “connected” families. There are too many philosophy majors for most of them to come from connected families.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Easy reason: Because parents don't pick majors, their adult children do.

Reason in my family: The humanities are critical, and enhance your ability to succeed. DH and I both have jobs that are basically translating STEM concepts into policy and persuasive documents. STEM in the absence of humanities (includes history, communication, ethics, cultural studies, etc) is often useless or harmful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
DH and I are doctors and scientists, definitely not in the 1%, and our teen son is passionate about history. He does LATIN as well, and if his school offered ancient Greek, he'd do that too!

What do you want us to do? Force him into STEM?

That's a bobby

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Easy reason: Because parents don't pick majors, their adult children do.

Reason in my family: The humanities are critical, and enhance your ability to succeed. DH and I both have jobs that are basically translating STEM concepts into policy and persuasive documents. STEM in the absence of humanities (includes history, communication, ethics, cultural studies, etc) is often useless or harmful.

If there weren't stupid non stem people you wouldn't have a job thus everyone do stem and no translation needed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not everyone is motivated by money and greed.

This is a really bizarre question to me. A lot of people just want to enjoy their day-to-day life rather than build up a Scrooge McDuck pile of coins to swim in?

Haha, yeah I grew up not worried about money and followed a career I was passionate about. Huge regrets because in this day and age, a modest income consigns you to long commutes, substandard housing, and crummy schools. It’s great if you never plan to marry and have kids; maybe even okay if you marry someone with similar values, but find a DW who is content to live a simple life and doesn’t want kids, that’s a pretty narrow field. And I wanted kids, I just had no idea how expensive they were and neighborhoods with good schools are.

And you can say “move to X” where X is some random place not in a major city, well a) my passion career has no jobs there, I guess I could become a teacher eventually but likely will still be poor there 2) most cheap places, if you want good schools, housing has still gotten really really expensive over the last 10 years, even more so COVID era

OP here. THIS is what we’re worried about. Income inequality is rapidly rising, and we increasingly have no safety net. A philosophy degree is a one-way ticket to downward mobility. I don’t want my kid’s standard of living to decline, so I’m trying (trying being the operative word here) to help him realize that he’s squandering his future. If we lived in, say, Sweden or any place with more social security, I’d be okay with having my kid major in the humanities. But we do not, and I have to help my kid realize that life after graduation won’t be a bed of roses.

Unless he moves to Sweden. One of my cousins did and she loves it.

If he works internships, and works part time jobs during school which give him adult skills other than teaching (or working with kids), and works full time during the summers. he will probably be fine. It's the kids who don't work while they are in school who are more in trouble than humanities majors who work.

How did she get a visa to move to Sweden?

I am really unclear about this. She first went to teach at US military schools in Europe, and then she went to get her Masters in Education in Sweden. Now she has a Swedish partner. She didn't go into details.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
You have to leave philosophy majors out of this. They make more than many stem and business-type majors do.

+1 It's amusing to me that people are using philosophy as the example of the ultimate frivolous degree. Philosophy majors take a ton of rigorous math and logic, giving them a leg up in a lot of lucrative fields.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not everyone is motivated by money and greed.

This is a really bizarre question to me. A lot of people just want to enjoy their day-to-day life rather than build up a Scrooge McDuck pile of coins to swim in?

Haha, yeah I grew up not worried about money and followed a career I was passionate about. Huge regrets because in this day and age, a modest income consigns you to long commutes, substandard housing, and crummy schools. It’s great if you never plan to marry and have kids; maybe even okay if you marry someone with similar values, but find a DW who is content to live a simple life and doesn’t want kids, that’s a pretty narrow field. And I wanted kids, I just had no idea how expensive they were and neighborhoods with good schools are.

And you can say “move to X” where X is some random place not in a major city, well a) my passion career has no jobs there, I guess I could become a teacher eventually but likely will still be poor there 2) most cheap places, if you want good schools, housing has still gotten really really expensive over the last 10 years, even more so COVID era

I’m the PP you are responding to. Real estate is hot everywhere right now because of the historically low interest rate. But prior to that, you could buy a really nice, updated home with character in my area for ~ 300-400k. 250k if you were willing to do the updating yourself. New construction was running at around 400-500k. We live in a small city near the Finger Lakes in NY. Definitely possible for teachers, nurses, cops, firefighters, professors, social workers, doctors and lawyers with a lot of school debt, etc. etc. to live well here. The public schools are considered very good and it’s a nice area with lots of opportunities for outdoor recreation. Lakes, gorges, ski, etc. You are paying a premium to live in DC. Which is fine but realize it’s your choice and don’t complain about it. There are other nice places to live.

Teachers in rural areas make around $40k, so a $400k house is hardly affordable. Even a $250k fixer upper only works if you are handy; doing things wrong and having to hire someone to fix it is even more expensive.

Nurses I think can get to $80k, same with state college professors.

Now if you marry two professors, maybe they have a chance, but you better not marry a teacher or someone who’s wants to SAH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not everyone is motivated by money and greed.

This is a really bizarre question to me. A lot of people just want to enjoy their day-to-day life rather than build up a Scrooge McDuck pile of coins to swim in?

Haha, yeah I grew up not worried about money and followed a career I was passionate about. Huge regrets because in this day and age, a modest income consigns you to long commutes, substandard housing, and crummy schools. It’s great if you never plan to marry and have kids; maybe even okay if you marry someone with similar values, but find a DW who is content to live a simple life and doesn’t want kids, that’s a pretty narrow field. And I wanted kids, I just had no idea how expensive they were and neighborhoods with good schools are.

And you can say “move to X” where X is some random place not in a major city, well a) my passion career has no jobs there, I guess I could become a teacher eventually but likely will still be poor there 2) most cheap places, if you want good schools, housing has still gotten really really expensive over the last 10 years, even more so COVID era

OP here. THIS is what we’re worried about. Income inequality is rapidly rising, and we increasingly have no safety net. A philosophy degree is a one-way ticket to downward mobility. I don’t want my kid’s standard of living to decline, so I’m trying (trying being the operative word here) to help him realize that he’s squandering his future. If we lived in, say, Sweden or any place with more social security, I’d be okay with having my kid major in the humanities. But we do not, and I have to help my kid realize that life after graduation won’t be a bed of roses.

Unless he moves to Sweden. One of my cousins did and she loves it.

If he works internships, and works part time jobs during school which give him adult skills other than teaching (or working with kids), and works full time during the summers. he will probably be fine. It's the kids who don't work while they are in school who are more in trouble than humanities majors who work.

How did she get a visa to move to Sweden?

I am really unclear about this. She first went to teach at US military schools in Europe, and then she went to get her Masters in Education in Sweden. Now she has a Swedish partner. She didn't go into details.

Oh her partner is Swedish. I’m sure they have some non-marriage domestic partner visa in Sweden. I guess I’ll encourage my DD to get her MrS /s

[Anonymous]

Because some people are confident that they can live a happy and fulfilling life in the richest country in the world without making gobs of money or even *gasp* living in the best house in the beat school district?

[Anonymous]

Read Joseph Campbell and you’ll understand. Be the center of the wheel.

[Anonymous]

"let." LOL ok.

[Anonymous]

Also is OP the lady who always posted freak-outs about her daughter (at either Dartmouth or Brown) not being interested in STEM?

[Anonymous]

Should we now start calling it the Swedish dream?