How do you prevent your weak-minded child from majoring in something easy?

[Anonymous]

I already went through this with my oldest who's currently underemployed because she chose to major in what she was 'good at'. She discovered she was 'good at' sociology because she got A's in sociology classes and struggled in the classes that required real studying and effort.

How do I prevent my youngest from making the same dumb / lazy mistake next year?

[Anonymous]

Require them to double major. Or have a major and then minor in the "easy" subject.

For example: they can major in chemistry, accounting, English, computer science or a health field and they can minor in sociology, psychology, art history, or communications.

"Hard" majors from college to college can vary though. I've worked at universities where the business majors were "easy" overall, and the basic majors liked English, history, math, etc.. were much harder.

[Anonymous]

My oldest initially wanted to major in philosophy. Then religion. I was getting concerned, but didn't say anything. He changed his major about five more times before finally ending up with a double major Political Science and English. He is 26 and working on a Masters. He had no trouble at all finding a job.

[Anonymous]

Raise them not to be weak-minded. Problem solved.

[Anonymous]

Maybe consider trade school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I already went through this with my oldest who's currently underemployed because she chose to major in what she was 'good at'. She discovered she was 'good at' sociology because she got A's in sociology classes and struggled in the classes that required real studying and effort.

How do I prevent my youngest from making the same dumb / lazy mistake next year?

is this another case of 'smart parents' 'dumb kids'?

see teen forum for that thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My oldest initially wanted to major in philosophy. Then religion. I was getting concerned, but didn't say anything. He changed his major about five more times before finally ending up with a double major Political Science and English. He is 26 and working on a Masters. He had no trouble at all finding a job.

where did he go to undergrad?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I already went through this with my oldest who's currently underemployed because she chose to major in what she was 'good at'. She discovered she was 'good at' sociology because she got A's in sociology classes and struggled in the classes that required real studying and effort.

How do I prevent my youngest from making the same dumb / lazy mistake next year?

is your oldest hot? then she's fine. she'll nab a provider.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My oldest initially wanted to major in philosophy. Then religion. I was getting concerned, but didn't say anything. He changed his major about five more times before finally ending up with a double major Political Science and English. He is 26 and working on a Masters. He had no trouble at all finding a job.

where did he go to undergrad?

Florida

[Anonymous]

By the time your child is going to college, it's too late for these kinds of lessons. Were you the kind of parent who rewarded a child for grades? If so, then what they learned is that the grade is important, not the effort or the interest in the material.

[Anonymous]

For your children's sake, drop the criticism and be supportive. Sure, maybe she's unemployed because she majored in sociology, but she also might be unemployed because a lot of recent grads are unemployed -- it's a terrible job market for them. Here is a recent study showing that: https://www.cgsnet.org/ckfinder/userfiles/files/Unemployment_Final_update1.pdf

It shows for instance that yes recent humanities grads have a 9.4% unemployment rate, but even computer and math majors have an 8.2% unemployment rate. It sucks for everyone right now. And the lowest unemployment rate among recent grads isn't engineering or accounting or whatever -- it's teaching.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Raise them not to be weak-minded. Problem solved.

+1000

[Anonymous]

Insufficent jobs in the flooded labor market today.

Stop blaming yourself and everydoby.

[Anonymous]

It does not matter one whit what your child majors in. She/he can get a job in business just as easily with a major in sociology, as long as she knows how to write well and presents herself maturely and professionally.

[Anonymous]

Take a business seminar from Harvard over the summer

BA sociology Ohio State
Harvard Business School leadership Program

Pretty good resume .