Why would non-one percent families let their kids major in the humanities?

[Anonymous]

OP says No judgement, just wondering. 😝

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
DH and I are doctors and scientists, definitely not in the 1%, and our teen son is passionate about history. He does LATIN as well, and if his school offered ancient Greek, he'd do that too!

What do you want us to do? Force him into STEM?

Yes. My immigrant parents forced me to do CS when my true passion is creative writing. Very grateful for that (although I resented it at the time), as I now have enough money and free time to do writing as a hobby. My undergrad friends who tried to be professional writers are miserable.

I had a similar upbringing, except I’m still miserable in my high paying job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t pay 50K a year for my kid to major in humanities and I would discourage them doing it too, but by the time my kid picks a major they’re an adult. I’m not going to micromanage their decisions, especially a big one like that that they will have to live with, not me.

18 year olds aren’t adults. The prefrontal cortex doesn’t fully develop until 25.

I don’t define adult as “somebody with a fully developed prefrontal cortex,” but still, most 18 year olds who have chosen a major change course at some point.

But the main thing is that it is their life! They have to live with the consequences of picking the major that they do, not me. So I am not going to interfere. (I am white and raised in the United States though, so I know that my decisions on this are colored by that background).

NP. It sure as hell isn’t their life if I’m the one paying for their college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some people just don’t care about prestige and doesn't function well when focused on social mobility. I was a humanity major knowing I could be driving a taxi at the end. Not everyone’s cut out to be a doctor, a lawyer, or an engineer. This world also needs social misfits, taxi drivers, line cooks, and janitors.

Noble jobs, but I wouldn’t want my kid being part of the 50% of Americans who have trouble finding enough money for a $600 emergency.

PP humanities major here. I sent my kid to an ivy. I don’t have to worry about her being part of the 50%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some people just don’t care about prestige and doesn't function well when focused on social mobility. I was a humanity major knowing I could be driving a taxi at the end. Not everyone’s cut out to be a doctor, a lawyer, or an engineer. This world also needs social misfits, taxi drivers, line cooks, and janitors.

Noble jobs, but I wouldn’t want my kid being part of the 50% of Americans who have trouble finding enough money for a $600 emergency.

DP. Nor does anyone else, which is part of why I advocate for universal basic income. Nobody should have trouble finding enough money for a $600 emergency.

But again, non-wealthy people allowing their kids to go into substantial debt for a humanities degree is not why we have the problem of people not having enough for an emergency. In fact letting only the children of the top 1% get humanities degrees sounds like a good way to promote inequality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some people just don’t care about prestige and doesn't function well when focused on social mobility. I was a humanity major knowing I could be driving a taxi at the end. Not everyone’s cut out to be a doctor, a lawyer, or an engineer. This world also needs social misfits, taxi drivers, line cooks, and janitors.

Noble jobs, but I wouldn’t want my kid being part of the 50% of Americans who have trouble finding enough money for a $600 emergency.

PP humanities major here. I sent my kid to an ivy. I don’t have to worry about her being part of the 50%.

No one who goes to 99% of colleges will have to worry about that either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t pay 50K a year for my kid to major in humanities and I would discourage them doing it too, but by the time my kid picks a major they’re an adult. I’m not going to micromanage their decisions, especially a big one like that that they will have to live with, not me.

18 year olds aren’t adults. The prefrontal cortex doesn’t fully develop until 25.

I don’t define adult as “somebody with a fully developed prefrontal cortex,” but still, most 18 year olds who have chosen a major change course at some point.

But the main thing is that it is their life! They have to live with the consequences of picking the major that they do, not me. So I am not going to interfere. (I am white and raised in the United States though, so I know that my decisions on this are colored by that background).

NP. It sure as hell isn’t their life if I’m the one paying for their college.

No it is still their life! Just because you are paying for college doesn’t mean they don’t have to deal with the later consequences of their major. I don’t want to be in a position where my kid resents me for making them go into computer science (which I swear doesn’t pay much more than humanities majors get).

If you don’t want to pay 200K for your kid to get a humanities degree, you’re smart, but I don’t think you should pay 200K for a stem degree either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Easy reason: Because parents don't pick majors, their adult children do.

Reason in my family: The humanities are critical, and enhance your ability to succeed. DH and I both have jobs that are basically translating STEM concepts into policy and persuasive documents. STEM in the absence of humanities (includes history, communication, ethics, cultural studies, etc) is often useless or harmful.

+1

~Philosophy major making a good living

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some people just don’t care about prestige and doesn't function well when focused on social mobility. I was a humanity major knowing I could be driving a taxi at the end. Not everyone’s cut out to be a doctor, a lawyer, or an engineer. This world also needs social misfits, taxi drivers, line cooks, and janitors.

Noble jobs, but I wouldn’t want my kid being part of the 50% of Americans who have trouble finding enough money for a $600 emergency.

PP humanities major here. I sent my kid to an ivy. I don’t have to worry about her being part of the 50%.

No one who goes to 99% of colleges will have to worry about that either.

2 million students graduate from U.S. colleges every year. I assure you - that's a worry from a great many of them. Too many idiots getting too many degrees period.

You either have a useless degree or you have a useful degree but you're in the bottom percentage of your class. Either way - - you're screwed.

[Anonymous]

My undergraduate degree and PhD in the humanities led to a tenured professorship and 6 figure income. I'm not wealthy by DCUM standards but perfectly comfortable. And that's all I want for my kids. If they are strong in STEM and would like to pursue a more lucrative career, great if that makes them happy, but I'd like them to be happy above all else.

Btw probably 2/3 of undergraduates I've worked with do not go on in my specific field. But with excellent critical thinking and writing skills, they can go on to do just about anything they wish. In the past few years my students have gone on to law school, med school, grad school in other fields, into finance, global health policy etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t pay 50K a year for my kid to major in humanities and I would discourage them doing it too, but by the time my kid picks a major they’re an adult. I’m not going to micromanage their decisions, especially a big one like that that they will have to live with, not me.

18 year olds aren’t adults. The prefrontal cortex doesn’t fully develop until 25.

I don’t define adult as “somebody with a fully developed prefrontal cortex,” but still, most 18 year olds who have chosen a major change course at some point.

But the main thing is that it is their life! They have to live with the consequences of picking the major that they do, not me. So I am not going to interfere. (I am white and raised in the United States though, so I know that my decisions on this are colored by that background).

NP. It sure as hell isn’t their life if I’m the one paying for their college.

I don't use money as a control mechanism, but you do you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some people just don’t care about prestige and doesn't function well when focused on social mobility. I was a humanity major knowing I could be driving a taxi at the end. Not everyone’s cut out to be a doctor, a lawyer, or an engineer. This world also needs social misfits, taxi drivers, line cooks, and janitors.

Noble jobs, but I wouldn’t want my kid being part of the 50% of Americans who have trouble finding enough money for a $600 emergency.

PP humanities major here. I sent my kid to an ivy. I don’t have to worry about her being part of the 50%.

No one who goes to 99% of colleges will have to worry about that either.

2 million students graduate from U.S. colleges every year. I assure you - that's a worry from a great many of them. Too many idiots getting too many degrees period.

You either have a useless degree or you have a useful degree but you're in the bottom percentage of your class. Either way - - you're screwed.

Haha that’s literally 0.6% of the US population. College grads kill it over non-college grads on average without even controlling for school prestige.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My BIL majored in history and now works in IT. Most people who go to college graduate with a liberal arts major.

But if he did CS he’d be better at his job and earn more money.

You don’t know what his job is. My SIL was a history major and she works for Google: She makes more than me, an engineer who works in IT consulting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
DH and I are doctors and scientists, definitely not in the 1%, and our teen son is passionate about history. He does LATIN as well, and if his school offered ancient Greek, he'd do that too!

What do you want us to do? Force him into STEM?

Yes. My immigrant parents forced me to do CS when my true passion is creative writing. Very grateful for that (although I resented it at the time), as I now have enough money and free time to do writing as a hobby. My undergrad friends who tried to be professional writers are miserable.

PP you replied to. My husband is an immigrant who was forced into medical school by his parents. He found his passion out of the practice sphere and into research, which pays a lot less and wasn't what his parents had in mind. But hey, he's worked on cancer, heart disease, ADHD...

NO, we would never do that to our children. Instead, we talk about how to translate passions into careers, and what money can buy and it cannot buy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some people just don’t care about prestige and doesn't function well when focused on social mobility. I was a humanity major knowing I could be driving a taxi at the end. Not everyone’s cut out to be a doctor, a lawyer, or an engineer. This world also needs social misfits, taxi drivers, line cooks, and janitors.

Noble jobs, but I wouldn’t want my kid being part of the 50% of Americans who have trouble finding enough money for a $600 emergency.

PP humanities major here. I sent my kid to an ivy. I don’t have to worry about her being part of the 50%.

No one who goes to 99% of colleges will have to worry about that either.

+1

My kids are smart, capable, and motivated, and their parents are highly educated and from the ~3-4%. The likelihood of them being part of the 50% is extremely low. Indeed, the older one graduated with a humanities degree several years ago and is making six figures.

We are all good here.