Majors to go into
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Anonymous
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With just a few exceptions, an undergraduate degree in business is not valued. Major in English or Philosophy then get an MBA. Employers want people who can think and write. Minor in marketing if that interests her.
Our country desperately needs professional, real journalists. It’s hard to make it but critical to a healthy country. It’s important work but I can’t imagine how maddening it is to compete for clicks with all the trash bloggers pretending to be journalists. Kids change their majors all the time. Let her explore and figure it out on her own. |
Anonymous
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OP, is your DD currently doing any kind of high school journalism? Is she on the school paper staff, school magazine if there is one, student television news--? I'm not clear if she's entering her junior or senior year of HS. Why does journalism interest her at this point? What does she picture herself doing as a journalist? She should ask herself these things. I would suggest that she get involved with some form, any form, of reporting, if she isn't already involved. If she is interested in journalism -- not general "communications" or marketing, but journalism -- she should look at universities with highly regarded undergraduate journalism schools plus grad programs in journalism (the thought being: if the university has a grad program in journalism, its undergrad program is likely to benefit from that too, generally speaking). I spent two decades in newspaper and magazine journalism, both in print and online, and know people in TV journalism. It's a truly important field and we need more, not fewer, well-trained, serious journalists. If she feels a strong interest in journalism, please encourage her. Right now, as others have noted above, science journalism is a very good field to get into, as is data-based journalism. Reporters who can interpret data and translate it for the layperson are going to be employable forever. Look at the many reporters who are specializing in things like covering the Covid pandemic--a good example of combining science journalism with the ability to explain data and research to the public. Journalism is not a super high-paying field until one is at a certain level, in most cases. But if it is your daughter's interest, well, it's absolutely a field where having a passion for the work trumps the so-so pay. |
Anonymous
It's a good information and reality people need to know when making decisions. That is in fact an important function of this forum. |
Anonymous
Not everyone's cut out to be an MD, a JD, or an engineer. Nor should everyone aspire to be one of those three. |
Anonymous
You are wrong. MBA is someting you would consider much later after you had a real career. Business progams are harder to get in, and they get recruited first. (for universities with undergraduate business programs, ie UPENN UVA Cornell Notre Dame MIT Georgetown, etc.) School prestige matters more than STEM field for business. However you would really need school prestige for majors like English Philosophy. |
Anonymous
So you’re the PP from earlier with the reading comprehension issues, correct? Not sure I’d count on your kid being smart enough to be an engineer, with those genetics. |
Anonymous
Congrats, as I said my DH is a journalism major and has been working for oh 20 years in IT marketing communications in multinational companies from small startups to huge names you know. No STEM degree... guess what, I bet he can describe what your software or technology does to lay people WAY better than you can. The execs in marketing almost never have an IT background as it's an ENTIRELY different skill set. I am in HR and was Head of HR for several IT companies as well as a quant trading firm. Government major, NO STEM. But you do you. Just stop telling everyone here that you have to have a STEM degree or your working at McDonalds. |
Anonymous
DP, not the one you're responding to. The bold above, and another PP's earlier comment about "I advise students to get a STEM minor" are simplistic. I suspect a lot of parents on this board, yes, including parents who will insist, "But I hire people and know what I'm talking about," have no real idea of what it takes to get a formal minor in certain subjects at many colleges and universities today. It's not as simple as, "I'll just tack a computer science minor onto my marketing major" or "I'll do some kind of STEM minor with my communications major." Those are fields where colleges often have very specific sequences of courses for majors AND for minors, and getting minors in STEM or comp sci or many other fields can be challenging--or even impossible, if the student ends up shut out of some courses due to majors getting priority. And if the student doesn't have any real interest in a STEM or comp sci field, the student is burning a lot of classes and credits doing a minor in something he or she may never want to use professionally anyway. Just going around here telling parents that their kid should simply add a minor, as if that's a simple thing to do, shows a lack of understanding of college right now. My own DC is doing a major plus two minors but that is only becuause DC's college's open curriculum means there are almost no required general education classes, so students can specialize in subjects much earlier. In most universities, that's not necessarily the case. DC has friends at several large universities who have found they can't just "add a STEM minor" because they didn't start the sequence of classes soon enough, or they can't get a seat in the one or two higher-level courses they need, due to demand from majors who need the class. |
Anonymous
who says it's "GOOD" information? It's BS and you've been called out several times. not everyone is going to be a lawyer, doctor, dentist, fireman or engineer and what you cannot seem to understand is that most of the world is not and there are jobs that enable those other jobs which pay VERY well. I am not talking about trash people or McDonalds workers. Even the nonprofit sector, if you work your way up to a leadership position, you're making a very comfortable living and working in a mission oriented field. There's a job out there for everyone and all degrees. Some degrees may not directly and clearly relate to the job someone has, but the learning they had along the way to that major has enabled them to be successful in their job. |
Anonymous
WTF expected salary for chosen major and career field is not good information? People like you make the student loan problem a national crisis, and beg for debt forgiveness. |
Anonymous
According to my honors college director sister, you are wrong. I trust her more than you. |
Anonymous
So you trust info form one source. I trust myself from various sources altogether. You are wrong. |
Anonymous
“A few exceptions”, yes. Business at most schools is a waste of money and those graduates are managing the local Anthropologie. There are specific business schools that are worthwhile, and it’s a short list. |
Anonymous
The degree is communications. I never mentioned journalism. Are you drunk? |
Anonymous
One source who is a Fulbright Scholar and spent 30 years in higher education over rando internet guy. Yes, I do. |