Where you go to college doesn’t matter. What you do when you get there does!

[Anonymous]

At least you're not judgmental and good at letting others do what works for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It cut off. Here is the rest:

Example 2: A neighbor’s daughter is currently a senior at Princeton majoring in Comparative Literature. I would never let my kid major in that.

By its title I thought this thread was going to be about a student's performance at college, finding something they genuinely care about and then doing a great job of studying it, being far more important than the name of the college they attend.

Instead, it's a tired attack on the humanities that perceives college education as purely vocational training. Boring.

FWIW my kid literally majored in Comparative Literature and spent his summers working at a summer camp. He is now finishing his third year at a Top 6 law school on full scholarship and will soon be making over $200,000/year. A big part of that is because he was so inspired by his undergraduate experience that he did very well academically, spent part of his under-employed summer doing independent research on a topic that interested him so much it turned into a thesis, and resulted in what I figure must have been the kind of faculty letters of recommendation that helped him get that law school scholarship.

I agree that what your kid does at college is far more important than where he goes. I disagree that what he does at college has to be some kind of pre-professional course of study and internship track.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ivy League lit major works the the PE firm which owns our company. She is 23 and probably makes $200k+ a year. LOTS of companies just hire smart people. Would they hire a Literature major from Maryland or William & Mary, no, but get your degree from Princeton and be ambitious and nothing is unattainable.

Wrong English majors are in high demand.

They can write.

My DD VT English major out of college six figures .

https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/school/?233921-Virginia-Polytechnic-Institute-and-State-University&fos_code=2301&fos_credential=3

VT English $41,550

https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/school/?166027-Harvard-University&fos_code=2301&fos_credential=3

Harvard English $43842

We go by real data

VT English is actually not bad compared to Harvard lol

I’d like to see the data for the median earnings of students who were forced by their overbearing and controlling parents to major in a subject in which they had no interest or aptitude. Then I’d like to know how happy they are.

This. I can't imagine telling my kids that I will only pay for their college if they major in something that I choose for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It cut off. Here is the rest:

Example 2: A neighbor’s daughter is currently a senior at Princeton majoring in Comparative Literature. I would never let my kid major in that.

By its title I thought this thread was going to be about a student's performance at college, finding something they genuinely care about and then doing a great job of studying it, being far more important than the name of the college they attend.

Instead, it's a tired attack on the humanities that perceives college education as purely vocational training. Boring.

FWIW my kid literally majored in Comparative Literature and spent his summers working at a summer camp. He is now finishing his third year at a Top 6 law school on full scholarship and will soon be making over $200,000/year. A big part of that is because he was so inspired by his undergraduate experience that he did very well academically, spent part of his under-employed summer doing independent research on a topic that interested him so much it turned into a thesis, and resulted in what I figure must have been the kind of faculty letters of recommendation that helped him get that law school scholarship.

I agree that what your kid does at college is far more important than where he goes. I disagree that what he does at college has to be some kind of pre-professional course of study and internship track.

+1 bolded exactly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It cut off. Here is the rest:

Example 2: A neighbor’s daughter is currently a senior at Princeton majoring in Comparative Literature. I would never let my kid major in that.

By its title I thought this thread was going to be about a student's performance at college, finding something they genuinely care about and then doing a great job of studying it, being far more important than the name of the college they attend.

Instead, it's a tired attack on the humanities that perceives college education as purely vocational training. Boring.

FWIW my kid literally majored in Comparative Literature and spent his summers working at a summer camp. He is now finishing his third year at a Top 6 law school on full scholarship and will soon be making over $200,000/year. A big part of that is because he was so inspired by his undergraduate experience that he did very well academically, spent part of his under-employed summer doing independent research on a topic that interested him so much it turned into a thesis, and resulted in what I figure must have been the kind of faculty letters of recommendation that helped him get that law school scholarship.

I agree that what your kid does at college is far more important than where he goes. I disagree that what he does at college has to be some kind of pre-professional course of study and internship track.

+1 bolded exactly.

OP here. Nice that it all worked out for your kid. But what if he decided to get a PhD in CompLit instead of law school? The prospects would be much more dire then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Forgot a few more:

Neighbor’s kid went to Harvard and majored in Philosophy. Yikes! He graduated a few years ago and moved to the PNW to be an “environmental educator” (whatever the hell that is) because he couldn’t get a real job post-grad.

But sometimes state school kids drop the ball. A friend’s DD is super smart. Turned down 3 Ivies for UMD on Banneker (donut family). She is majoring in Classics and English, and my friend told me that she wants to be an academic in the humanities. I told her that her DD should be prepared to not be able to find a job — the market for professors in the humanities is awful. And the kid wouldn’t even take my suggestion to at least minor in CS or Data Analytics (or anything useful!).

Why are you offering unsolicited advice to all of these people??? Let them live their own lives. These kids will be fine. They may flail around and try a few things for a few years, and invariably check back in with them at 40 and they are going to be living in Bethesda or Vienna with normal UMC jobs.

OP here. You are wrong. There’s a thread in the job forum called “Squandered elite education.” It’s full of Ivy alumns who *can’t* afford Bethesda or Vienna or the quality of life that they envisioned for themselves because they made the wrong moves in college. Useless majors, no internships, etc doesn’t get you to Bethesda or Vienna. Spending your 20s in tech, finance, med school, or law school does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It cut off. Here is the rest:

Example 2: A neighbor’s daughter is currently a senior at Princeton majoring in Comparative Literature. I would never let my kid major in that. Last winter, I told her that her daughter absolutely needs to find a summer internship before her senior year of college if she wants any hope of being employed after graduation. The mom told me that her daughter didn’t intern—she worked as a summer camp counselor instead. Not surprisingly, she is in February of her senior year of college and still doesn’t have a job offer after graduation.

This was me my senior year at Dartmouth. Check back in ten years.

Let me guess — you spent your 20s grinding away for peanuts at some NPO and then married rich, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At least you're not judgmental and good at letting others do what works for them.

+1

WTAF?

Is OP five years old?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Forgot a few more:

Neighbor’s kid went to Harvard and majored in Philosophy. Yikes! He graduated a few years ago and moved to the PNW to be an “environmental educator” (whatever the hell that is) because he couldn’t get a real job post-grad.

But sometimes state school kids drop the ball. A friend’s DD is super smart. Turned down 3 Ivies for UMD on Banneker (donut family). She is majoring in Classics and English, and my friend told me that she wants to be an academic in the humanities. I told her that her DD should be prepared to not be able to find a job — the market for professors in the humanities is awful. And the kid wouldn’t even take my suggestion to at least minor in CS or Data Analytics (or anything useful!).

Why are you offering unsolicited advice to all of these people??? Let them live their own lives. These kids will be fine. They may flail around and try a few things for a few years, and invariably check back in with them at 40 and they are going to be living in Bethesda or Vienna with normal UMC jobs.

OP here. You are wrong. There’s a thread in the job forum called “Squandered elite education.” It’s full of Ivy alumns who *can’t* afford Bethesda or Vienna or the quality of life that they envisioned for themselves because they made the wrong moves in college. Useless majors, no internships, etc doesn’t get you to Bethesda or Vienna. Spending your 20s in tech, finance, med school, or law school does.

You’re a real peach OP. So incredibly proud of yourself and intolerant of others. If that’s what you learned in your engineering, pre med, pre law or business education, you can count me glad I was a liberal arts major.

[Anonymous]

You should change your title to It doesn’t matter where you go to college, it matters what you do after you graduate.

Most people take a long time to figure out what they want to do and change their mind over the years. Sometimes it’s in the same field. Often it’s not. Usually we grow up a lot in our 20s and 30s.

I know someone who majored in classics and 30 years later has a successful business of his own. He ended up going into sales and eventually opening his own company but that didn’t happen until years later and after trying many jobs.

[Anonymous]

^and FYI, adding to my post, we live in one of the sought after Vienna homes (according to your post). My husband and I didn’t have a clue what we were doing in college and we went to no name schools according to your standards. You sound like a snob.

[Anonymous]

And we were both liberal arts majors!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Forgot a few more:

Neighbor’s kid went to Harvard and majored in Philosophy. Yikes! He graduated a few years ago and moved to the PNW to be an “environmental educator” (whatever the hell that is) because he couldn’t get a real job post-grad.

But sometimes state school kids drop the ball. A friend’s DD is super smart. Turned down 3 Ivies for UMD on Banneker (donut family). She is majoring in Classics and English, and my friend told me that she wants to be an academic in the humanities. I told her that her DD should be prepared to not be able to find a job — the market for professors in the humanities is awful. And the kid wouldn’t even take my suggestion to at least minor in CS or Data Analytics (or anything useful!).

Why are you offering unsolicited advice to all of these people??? Let them live their own lives. These kids will be fine. They may flail around and try a few things for a few years, and invariably check back in with them at 40 and they are going to be living in Bethesda or Vienna with normal UMC jobs.

OP here. You are wrong. There’s a thread in the job forum called “Squandered elite education.” It’s full of Ivy alumns who *can’t* afford Bethesda or Vienna or the quality of life that they envisioned for themselves because they made the wrong moves in college. Useless majors, no internships, etc doesn’t get you to Bethesda or Vienna. Spending your 20s in tech, finance, med school, or law school does.

Food for thought, the world is full of people that are book smart AND incompetent. Perhaps the problem is not their major, t is just an easy thing to blame for their lack of success. There is a real need to educate students on how to find a job path with a variety of. majors. But the real skill is being competent and having initiative. I have an undergraduate art degree. I am an attorney now, but only because when I found law it made sense to me and I am good at it. I am successful because the law degree put me in a position where I could learn and take initiative. I am fairly certain if I had just gotten a job at a company, almost any company, I would have worked my way up the path to a career because I am extremely competent at figuring out and doing whatever needs to be done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Sorry, but I've personally witnessed job candidates have doors open at the sight of the Ivy name on their resume. In multiple different fields.

The brand value is real, and wishing it weren't so doesn't change reality.

+1, places where comparative lit majors land on their feet. Generic state school is where these majors are worthlesss.

Median Social Studies major at Harvard makes $52k/year. Not exactly “landing on their feet”

Probably teaches at a private and relies on family money to supplement income.

[Anonymous]

I can’t explain the obsession with “prestige “ either, or the obsession with using salary as the only measure of success. I genuinely enjoyed my IVY education. It gave me a much bigger world to play in, and was definitely a factor in my admission to a very small PhD program straight out of undergrad. Obviously YMMV, as well as your values.