What's the "best" major/career path?

[Anonymous]

I would not recommend this to your daughter but want to tell my story since it took a while but I have relatively low stress. I was originally a math major and got a masters in education. I had a few jobs out of college and eventually went into teaching. 23 years later I work about 9 months a year and make about 113k since I don’t take on anything extra or work in the summer. I don’t bring work home anymore and am in a good district with low stress. My hours are 8-3. If I wanted to, I could tutor as much as I want for over $100 per hour.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With AI around the corner, a high degree of abstraction is a good bet. You can't beat the SCAMP majors (Statistics, Computer science, Applied math, Math, and Physics).

Exactly backwards logic there.

ChatGPT is better at writing essays than any proof assistant is at pure mathematics. As usual wordcels discount and don't grasp the creativity and art involved in
high level quantitative scholarship.

Nope, math major myself. The first workers picked off will be in tech.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I recommend CS or if thats too hard IS/IT. don't specialize in a data science, databases, software etc, because that can all change and may go away w/ ai, have a foundation technology/math degree and maybe some management if you are looking to go that route.

DS and I attended an admitted students day at UMD last Friday. Listening to a panel of CS students, NONE of them followed a "track" (AI, cyber, data science, etc). ALL of them were "general". I was surprised, but it makes sense. None of them wanted to be constrained.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With AI around the corner, a high degree of abstraction is a good bet. You can't beat the SCAMP majors (Statistics, Computer science, Applied math, Math, and Physics).

Exactly backwards logic there.

I was thinking the same. I think any major that focused on critical thinking and analysis will be useful (I was going to add focus on writing but maybe chat gpt/AI will replace that, too …). Long live the liberal arts degree!

Physics and math are liberal arts degrees, friendo.

So is CS lol
These are best in developing critical thinking and analytical skills.

[Anonymous]

Whatever makes you happy and can pay the bills. Or some combination of the two.

[Anonymous]

I don't think your kid has to decide that right now, though it's never to early to brainstorm ideas - teaching, accounting or other business, economics, writing for technical papers etc.

[Anonymous]

Choose a major that she’s actually good at and turn that into a career.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With AI around the corner, a high degree of abstraction is a good bet. You can't beat the SCAMP majors (Statistics, Computer science, Applied math, Math, and Physics).

Except AI will totally disrupt many of those.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Data Science
Finance
(Business) Analytics
Engineering (Chemical, Aerospace, Elect., Computer, etc.)
CS and related.

Finance/Business related field is little more school sensitive

Data science and analytics are huge. Aerospace too.

[Anonymous]

DH and I both have majors very high on the "worst college majors for employability" list that's been circulating lately. We both have great six-figure jobs. It's not just about the major.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am 50 years old (for the context). I was always good at math, so 30+ years ago when I was making my choices, everyone urged me to go into CS.

One very wise woman who was in CS and was in her 40s at the time steered me a different way. She told me that the key to a good life work-wise is to pick a job with relatively high barriers to entry and, especially for a woman, where your age adds to your value. Basically something where you can't mint a bunch of qualified people in a couple of years, and where what you knew 10 years ago is beneficial to your work. CS is failing spectacularly on both counts.

I became an actuary. This will not work for your daughter since she doesn't want additional study, but I seriously urge her to consider what my mentor said.

What is your day to day life like as an actuary? Do you work long hours? Do you work alone? Do you need good people skills? How much stress to you have? How much do you earn?

There is a wide variety of work environments for actuaries. The answer to all of your questions is, basically, it depends. Long hours, working alone, people skills, stress are all choices that you can make, and different people choose differently.

As far as $$$, get your answers here https://www.dwsimpson.com/about/salary-survey/.

Or this: https://www.beanactuary.org/how-do-i-get-started/is-this-the-career-for-you/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is early in her high school career but we recently had a discussion around majors/career paths and I am looking for input. What are some of the best major/career paths that balance income with quality of life?

Daughter wants to obviously make good money but doesn't want to do 8-10 years of schooling. She's good at math so we've talked about CS, finance, engineering, accounting (which of course are super competitive) but what career paths are traditionally high-earning but still have a "good" quality of life component to it. I know it's subjective but we define good income as mid $100s within 5-7 years or so of graduation and quality of life as work/life balance, job security, satisfaction, low stress, etc. What career paths have you talked to your kids about that balance the two?

Whatever suits the student’s interests and plays to their strengths.

[Anonymous]

My son majored in Applied Computational Mathematics and Statistics. He got an amazing summer internship and job offer while he was early in his senior year. He was decent at math...not a whiz. My daughter, who is better at math, might explore this path as well, but she has time to figure it out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is early in her high school career but we recently had a discussion around majors/career paths and I am looking for input. What are some of the best major/career paths that balance income with quality of life?

Daughter wants to obviously make good money but doesn't want to do 8-10 years of schooling. She's good at math so we've talked about CS, finance, engineering, accounting (which of course are super competitive) but what career paths are traditionally high-earning but still have a "good" quality of life component to it. I know it's subjective but we define good income as mid $100s within 5-7 years or so of graduation and quality of life as work/life balance, job security, satisfaction, low stress, etc. What career paths have you talked to your kids about that balance the two?

Based on your definition of "a good income", consider plumbing or becoming a bus driver in a major city.

That is a good income.

[Anonymous]

I applaud your DD for thinking about this, but honestly she has a lot of time to figure this out and her interests could change a lot over the rest of her HS experience. Sure talk about different careers, but I'd keep it lighthearted and wouldn't suggest focusing on anything intently quite yet. And "good in math" can change as she progresses in high school math.