How important is a "practical major"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our child wants to major in psychology or anthropology. She is a humanities or social sciences kid.
Is a practical major important?

She doesn't have any interest in business, econ., engineering, hard sciences.

Almost no jobs someone for a Bachelor's degree in Psych or Anthropology. How does she plan to support herself?

In my UMC family, college has always been about enabling a career. That might be law or medicine or STEM -- or something else -- but the degree always was to enable a career where one could support oneself. Do what you think best. We would not pay for our DC to study either of those fields.

It is not your life. College is bs nowadays. The world does not need more lawyers or business majors or CS majors

The world also doesn't need more people who can barely pay the rent and want taxpayers to pay their student loans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[img]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I majored in engineering and have lots of classmates who majored in "impractical" fields who are doing much much better than I am. In fact, several of the smartest tech grads in our class are close to the bottom of the college grad financial totem pole.

It’s somewhat inverted.

Most people coming into practical majors, esp engineering come from lower middle class families. They don’t have connections nor FOB resources to optimize career strategy. Also many of them like are passionate about science or tech which sometimes makes less optimal career choices.

Aren't these the most practical choices?

It’s practical to get a decent paying job out of college, but to make real money you need to take risks, sometimes take out debt to get an MBA or take an unstable job at a startup, etc. but the immediate needs of paying rent and student loans make stable career doing work you find interesting doesn’t optimize for higher pay.

Lower middle class or immigrants often need to stay in perceived secure job and lose out on opportunities they qualify for.

For example, we hire investor relations analysts out of any major from private schools, so we hire for “at ease” with institutional clients, not hiring for “major with strong stem skills”.

So true. For many business roles you have to fit the culture, which you can’t pickup in college.

Also, many jobs are brutal and cut ruthlessly, like IB or even BigLaw, and a LMC grad can’t really gamble that they could be cut abruptly— they have no family or money to fall back on to pay food and rent.

Yes, and immigrants can't easily "fit the culture" to get these jobs. Those jobs usually go to the good ol' boys network of usually white men who can talk but aren't that smart.

Hence the reason why immigrants tend to go into STEM which doesn't require knowing how to schmooze.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[img]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I majored in engineering and have lots of classmates who majored in "impractical" fields who are doing much much better than I am. In fact, several of the smartest tech grads in our class are close to the bottom of the college grad financial totem pole.

It’s somewhat inverted.

Most people coming into practical majors, esp engineering come from lower middle class families. They don’t have connections nor FOB resources to optimize career strategy. Also many of them like are passionate about science or tech which sometimes makes less optimal career choices.

Aren't these the most practical choices?

It’s practical to get a decent paying job out of college, but to make real money you need to take risks, sometimes take out debt to get an MBA or take an unstable job at a startup, etc. but the immediate needs of paying rent and student loans make stable career doing work you find interesting doesn’t optimize for higher pay.

Lower middle class or immigrants often need to stay in perceived secure job and lose out on opportunities they qualify for.

For example, we hire investor relations analysts out of any major from private schools, so we hire for “at ease” with institutional clients, not hiring for “major with strong stem skills”.

So true. For many business roles you have to fit the culture, which you can’t pickup in college.

Also, many jobs are brutal and cut ruthlessly, like IB or even BigLaw, and a LMC grad can’t really gamble that they could be cut abruptly— they have no family or money to fall back on to pay food and rent.

IBs/finance rarely cut people on the same day, it’s often done by “manage out” process that lasts 3-6 month. Because these kids are still connected or smart and you don’t want to piss them off when they are young.

When you are young, living off a 3 month grace period severance is not a big deal, yet a lot of people are just deathly afraid of that scenario to even try.

Yes, only people who can handle with basically an extended internship and know they don’t have to worry if they have any trouble finding a job are the ones at IBs.

3 months to find a new job can definitely be hard — when I was young I definitely didn’t have 3 months worth of rent in cash at a whim, I was busy paying student loans etc. moving back home would mean returning to an economically depressed backwater with no jobs. Definitely a reasonable thing to fear.

+1 I got laid off after one year after grad. It took me 3mo to find something. And those 3 mo. were awful. I slept on the floor at my sister's house in her office, and cleaned her house in exchange for rent. I moved to a city that had more jobs and went back to school for a more marketable degree. Luckily, my other sibling lived in that city, so I stayed with them. I started making six figures after four years.

Having family support really helped, but if I didn't have that family support, I don't know what I would've done.

My kids are fortunate that we are UMC, and I have told them that we will always be there for them if they crashed, but that they really need to major in something that can help them find a good paying job. We have no family money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[img]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I majored in engineering and have lots of classmates who majored in "impractical" fields who are doing much much better than I am. In fact, several of the smartest tech grads in our class are close to the bottom of the college grad financial totem pole.

It’s somewhat inverted.

Most people coming into practical majors, esp engineering come from lower middle class families. They don’t have connections nor FOB resources to optimize career strategy. Also many of them like are passionate about science or tech which sometimes makes less optimal career choices.

Aren't these the most practical choices?

It’s practical to get a decent paying job out of college, but to make real money you need to take risks, sometimes take out debt to get an MBA or take an unstable job at a startup, etc. but the immediate needs of paying rent and student loans make stable career doing work you find interesting doesn’t optimize for higher pay.

Lower middle class or immigrants often need to stay in perceived secure job and lose out on opportunities they qualify for.

For example, we hire investor relations analysts out of any major from private schools, so we hire for “at ease” with institutional clients, not hiring for “major with strong stem skills”.

So true. For many business roles you have to fit the culture, which you can’t pickup in college.

Also, many jobs are brutal and cut ruthlessly, like IB or even BigLaw, and a LMC grad can’t really gamble that they could be cut abruptly— they have no family or money to fall back on to pay food and rent.

IBs/finance rarely cut people on the same day, it’s often done by “manage out” process that lasts 3-6 month. Because these kids are still connected or smart and you don’t want to piss them off when they are young.

When you are young, living off a 3 month grace period severance is not a big deal, yet a lot of people are just deathly afraid of that scenario to even try.

Yes, only people who can handle with basically an extended internship and know they don’t have to worry if they have any trouble finding a job are the ones at IBs.

3 months to find a new job can definitely be hard — when I was young I definitely didn’t have 3 months worth of rent in cash at a whim, I was busy paying student loans etc. moving back home would mean returning to an economically depressed backwater with no jobs. Definitely a reasonable thing to fear.

+1 I got laid off after one year after grad. It took me 3mo to find something. And those 3 mo. were awful. I slept on the floor at my sister's house in her office, and cleaned her house in exchange for rent. I moved to a city that had more jobs and went back to school for a more marketable degree. Luckily, my other sibling lived in that city, so I stayed with them. I started making six figures after four years.

Having family support really helped, but if I didn't have that family support, I don't know what I would've done.

My kids are fortunate that we are UMC, and I have told them that we will always be there for them if they crashed, but that they really need to major in something that can help them find a good paying job. We have no family money.

Mindset also matters. When I saved up 40k working I was still afraid to find a better paying job because “I might get fired if I don’t do well”.

Finance wise it’s understandably a constraint and very sensible too.

But the mindset is the one that comes with greater costs, little decision to err on safety instead of opportunity compounds over time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[img]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I majored in engineering and have lots of classmates who majored in "impractical" fields who are doing much much better than I am. In fact, several of the smartest tech grads in our class are close to the bottom of the college grad financial totem pole.

It’s somewhat inverted.

Most people coming into practical majors, esp engineering come from lower middle class families. They don’t have connections nor FOB resources to optimize career strategy. Also many of them like are passionate about science or tech which sometimes makes less optimal career choices.

Aren't these the most practical choices?

It’s practical to get a decent paying job out of college, but to make real money you need to take risks, sometimes take out debt to get an MBA or take an unstable job at a startup, etc. but the immediate needs of paying rent and student loans make stable career doing work you find interesting doesn’t optimize for higher pay.

Lower middle class or immigrants often need to stay in perceived secure job and lose out on opportunities they qualify for.

For example, we hire investor relations analysts out of any major from private schools, so we hire for “at ease” with institutional clients, not hiring for “major with strong stem skills”.

So true. For many business roles you have to fit the culture, which you can’t pickup in college.

Also, many jobs are brutal and cut ruthlessly, like IB or even BigLaw, and a LMC grad can’t really gamble that they could be cut abruptly— they have no family or money to fall back on to pay food and rent.

IBs/finance rarely cut people on the same day, it’s often done by “manage out” process that lasts 3-6 month. Because these kids are still connected or smart and you don’t want to piss them off when they are young.

When you are young, living off a 3 month grace period severance is not a big deal, yet a lot of people are just deathly afraid of that scenario to even try.

Yes, only people who can handle with basically an extended internship and know they don’t have to worry if they have any trouble finding a job are the ones at IBs.

3 months to find a new job can definitely be hard — when I was young I definitely didn’t have 3 months worth of rent in cash at a whim, I was busy paying student loans etc. moving back home would mean returning to an economically depressed backwater with no jobs. Definitely a reasonable thing to fear.

+1 I got laid off after one year after grad. It took me 3mo to find something. And those 3 mo. were awful. I slept on the floor at my sister's house in her office, and cleaned her house in exchange for rent. I moved to a city that had more jobs and went back to school for a more marketable degree. Luckily, my other sibling lived in that city, so I stayed with them. I started making six figures after four years.

Having family support really helped, but if I didn't have that family support, I don't know what I would've done.

My kids are fortunate that we are UMC, and I have told them that we will always be there for them if they crashed, but that they really need to major in something that can help them find a good paying job. We have no family money.

Mindset also matters. When I saved up 40k working I was still afraid to find a better paying job because “I might get fired if I don’t do well”.

Finance wise it’s understandably a constraint and very sensible too.

But the mindset is the one that comes with greater costs, little decision to err on safety instead of opportunity compounds over time.

Indeed. I am risk averse. I didn't want the possibility of ending up couch surfing. If you don't have a good safety net, it's harder to be riskier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[img]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I majored in engineering and have lots of classmates who majored in "impractical" fields who are doing much much better than I am. In fact, several of the smartest tech grads in our class are close to the bottom of the college grad financial totem pole.

It’s somewhat inverted.

Most people coming into practical majors, esp engineering come from lower middle class families. They don’t have connections nor FOB resources to optimize career strategy. Also many of them like are passionate about science or tech which sometimes makes less optimal career choices.

Aren't these the most practical choices?

It’s practical to get a decent paying job out of college, but to make real money you need to take risks, sometimes take out debt to get an MBA or take an unstable job at a startup, etc. but the immediate needs of paying rent and student loans make stable career doing work you find interesting doesn’t optimize for higher pay.

Lower middle class or immigrants often need to stay in perceived secure job and lose out on opportunities they qualify for.

For example, we hire investor relations analysts out of any major from private schools, so we hire for “at ease” with institutional clients, not hiring for “major with strong stem skills”.

So true. For many business roles you have to fit the culture, which you can’t pickup in college.

Also, many jobs are brutal and cut ruthlessly, like IB or even BigLaw, and a LMC grad can’t really gamble that they could be cut abruptly— they have no family or money to fall back on to pay food and rent.

IBs/finance rarely cut people on the same day, it’s often done by “manage out” process that lasts 3-6 month. Because these kids are still connected or smart and you don’t want to piss them off when they are young.

When you are young, living off a 3 month grace period severance is not a big deal, yet a lot of people are just deathly afraid of that scenario to even try.

Yes, only people who can handle with basically an extended internship and know they don’t have to worry if they have any trouble finding a job are the ones at IBs.

3 months to find a new job can definitely be hard — when I was young I definitely didn’t have 3 months worth of rent in cash at a whim, I was busy paying student loans etc. moving back home would mean returning to an economically depressed backwater with no jobs. Definitely a reasonable thing to fear.

+1 I got laid off after one year after grad. It took me 3mo to find something. And those 3 mo. were awful. I slept on the floor at my sister's house in her office, and cleaned her house in exchange for rent. I moved to a city that had more jobs and went back to school for a more marketable degree. Luckily, my other sibling lived in that city, so I stayed with them. I started making six figures after four years.

Having family support really helped, but if I didn't have that family support, I don't know what I would've done.

My kids are fortunate that we are UMC, and I have told them that we will always be there for them if they crashed, but that they really need to major in something that can help them find a good paying job. We have no family money.

Mindset also matters. When I saved up 40k working I was still afraid to find a better paying job because “I might get fired if I don’t do well”.

Finance wise it’s understandably a constraint and very sensible too.

But the mindset is the one that comes with greater costs, little decision to err on safety instead of opportunity compounds over time.

Finding a better paying job is pretty par for the course. But pivoting to IB or other pipeline careers like consulting, you are already too old. You aren’t going to law or business school for $40k.

[Anonymous]

[twitter]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The major is often different from the career you end up pursuing. What's important is to choose something that's in their wheelhouse, otherwise they're not going to last 4 years and it's your money down the drain.

That being said, you can advise them to tweak their choices to protect themselves. My son loves history and military strategy. He chose an International Affairs major, with a concentratino in security policy, and at my request, is doing a Bachelors of Science version that includes a ton of data science courses. Because the data science will come in useful for analysis positions in his field, or for switching to a different career.

Smart to suggest adding in the Data Science. It will open doors to many other areas as well. That is what OP DD needs to do. Start to figure out what she actually wants to do. Because like you said a IA major is more practical than just a history major. and your son gave it focus with the security concentration and data science (BS is almost always better than BA, it's more rigorous)

+1 smart kid. Smart parents

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our child wants to major in psychology or anthropology. She is a humanities or social sciences kid.
Is a practical major important?

She doesn't have any interest in business, econ., engineering, hard sciences.

I know anthropology, psychology, IR majors who are working for media, space and AI companies and doing really well. I also know Biomedical Engineering, accounting and chemistry majors who are trying to survive.

Bottom line: It all depends on students, college's career counseling and luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[img]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I majored in engineering and have lots of classmates who majored in "impractical" fields who are doing much much better than I am. In fact, several of the smartest tech grads in our class are close to the bottom of the college grad financial totem pole.

It’s somewhat inverted.

Most people coming into practical majors, esp engineering come from lower middle class families. They don’t have connections nor FOB resources to optimize career strategy. Also many of them like are passionate about science or tech which sometimes makes less optimal career choices.

Aren't these the most practical choices?

It’s practical to get a decent paying job out of college, but to make real money you need to take risks, sometimes take out debt to get an MBA or take an unstable job at a startup, etc. but the immediate needs of paying rent and student loans make stable career doing work you find interesting doesn’t optimize for higher pay.

Lower middle class or immigrants often need to stay in perceived secure job and lose out on opportunities they qualify for.

For example, we hire investor relations analysts out of any major from private schools, so we hire for “at ease” with institutional clients, not hiring for “major with strong stem skills”.

So true. For many business roles you have to fit the culture, which you can’t pickup in college.

Also, many jobs are brutal and cut ruthlessly, like IB or even BigLaw, and a LMC grad can’t really gamble that they could be cut abruptly— they have no family or money to fall back on to pay food and rent.

Yes, and immigrants can't easily "fit the culture" to get these jobs. Those jobs usually go to the good ol' boys network of usually white men who can talk but aren't that smart.

Hence the reason why immigrants tend to go into STEM which doesn't require knowing how to schmooze.

This^.

[Anonymous]

I'd be ok with a psychology major if my kid had a specific use in mind for the degree. For example, psychology is a huge part of doing user research, which is a practical application for the degree.