Arguing with DS over major
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Anonymous
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Okay, so my DS has decided he will be going to Maryland-college park next year, and now he wants to major in History and Geography.
Obviously, we are not okay with this. We are paying his tuition, and don't want to waste our money on a useless degree. He knows which degrees are okay with us (nursing, engineering, business/accounting, and computer science). We have gotten in several arguments but he seems dead set on wasting our money. We are at the point where we are going to tell him we are not going to allow him to go to college and wait a few years until he is mature enough to make an informed decision on his major, but was wondering if any of you guys had any last-ditch ideas of how to convince him to choose a more acceptable major. |
Anonymous
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Is this a joke?
How can you tell him he can't go to college? Now, you can tell him you won't pay for it but he is an adult now right? Control freak much? |
Anonymous
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Does he have any aptitude for the hard sciences?
Making your kid study something he hates and sucks at is pretty much a waste of money, too. |
Anonymous
| You couldn't be more wrong. I don't even know where to begin. 1) he is going to college so that's a huge hurdle you overcame. 2) there are plenty of people who do just fine with those degrees (mostly by obtaining other higher degrees after, but still). 3) it's way past the time where you should micro manage your child (who is now an adult). If I were him, id tell you to screw off and get into debt to do what I want to do. |
Anonymous
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I know a history major who is a successful lawyer
And another who is Dean of Student Life and head of the history dept. at a well regarded private school in NJ And another who has a good job with the CIA Why not ask if he would double major or minor in something like business or Econ? Not everyone needs a STEM degree. |
Anonymous
| Wow, and I thought *I* was a helicopter parent! You really need to back off and let your son be. I was a geography major in college and not only did I love it, I also was highly employable after graduation. CIA, USGS, NSA, etc. all need geographers, cartographers, GIS specialists, imagery analysts, urban and land planners, experts in geospatial technologies, surveyors, and many others. Do some research on geography careers. Add to that a good background in history and your son will be just fine. It may not be the path you'd choose, but it sounds like your son knows exactly what he wants to study. Good for him. |
Anonymous
Oh my. Your poor son  can he go to a different university? West coast perhaps?
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Anonymous
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OP, I'm sorry but I think you are approaching this terribly.
First of all, as a PP mentioned, does your son even have an interest/ability in any of those disciplines? The bigger waste of your money would be for him to fail out of courses and take longer in college if he's struggling to get a degree. I would have never majored in the fields you mentioned because I never excelled or had any interest in math and science. How you market yourself, the connections that you make, and how hard you work are key factors in obtaining jobs. Hard sciences = /= automatic 60k starting offers and liberal arts = / = living in a cardboard box by the side of the road. It's much more nuanced. I am sad for your son and how he is seemingly being pigeon-holed. College is the first chance he'll really have to assert his independence and decision-making skills. Please don't ruin this opportunity for him to thrive. FYI, my spouse and I both studied geography-type majors at big state schools and we are doing very well, in our late 20s, in specialized government fields. |
Anonymous
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I also think OP is a troll. This is just over the top.
if you are real, OP, you need to read these posts. If you continue on this path you will lose your son. If he doesn't get tuition money, fine he'll move out and move on and you'll rarely if every see him. And if you do pay the tuition, whether or not you continue to insist he do your bidding as opposed to leading his own life, he will pull away as soon as he is on his own and you will lose him. Why would someone stick around with such controlling parents? |
Anonymous
| Also, OP- he doesn't declare a major until 2016. Chillax. |
Anonymous
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OP here- we are paying for the college. He can't pay for it himself, so that is how we will stop him from going to college for a year or two.
Why he does not want to go into a good program because he does not want to take calculus. And yes there are some jobs out there that might take a history/geography major, but for each opening thousands of unemployed liberal arts majors send their application in. We worked really hard to get to the point where we can afford college for our kids, paying for a history/geography degree for us is like spending 100k for a car that will break down in a few years, it is not a good financial decision. Fact is your college major will determine if you are homeless or in the upper class when you are 40, maybe it is sad, but that is how it is in modern America. |
Anonymous
This has to be a troll post. Real people don't think like this... right? 
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Anonymous
This is so far from the truth. I believed you at first but you cannot be real. |
Anonymous
OP here: how so? Are you saying a guy with a history has the same job prospects as a guy with an engineering degree, assuming the same stats? I may be wrong (I didn't go to college in the US) but doesn't what job you get depend on what major you chose, for the most part? Maybe I exaggerated, my DS would probably live with us as I certainly wouldn't let him be homeless, but all I hear from parents of non-engineer/business/CS/nursing majors is that their kids have yet to get a job and are now in dire economic situations. |
Anonymous
| OMG. |