Arguing with DS over major

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband majored in history - and now he's an archivist working not far from the UMD campus in College Park. Several friends with the same major are now teachers at various levels - high school, college, etc.

Here's a thought for you, OP: if your son pursues a career he has no passion for, it's pretty likely future employers will see that lack of passion and choose another candidate.

OP doesn't care if her son is happy with his life/ future career, who needs passion when you can feel dead inside starting at such an early age? I saw break 'em while they are young... like to color- too bad cause children who play with blocks are far more likely to be able to support their families in retirement...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband majored in history - and now he's an archivist working not far from the UMD campus in College Park. Several friends with the same major are now teachers at various levels - high school, college, etc.

Here's a thought for you, OP: if your son pursues a career he has no passion for, it's pretty likely future employers will see that lack of passion and choose another candidate.

The OP hasn't really articulated what the son would like to do. She has just talked about his major choices. We could offer better advice if she had said, "My son wants to major in history/geography because he intends to ......" and then that would be helpful for us to then say well, yes that makes sense or no perhaps he needs to hedge his bets.

[Anonymous]

In this economic climate, the days of doing 'hobby' majors r over!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In this economic climate, the days of doing 'hobby' majors r over!

Exactly. That's why Liberal Arts is the way to go. Technology is changing too fast to know what skills will be needed in 10 years. LeRning how to think will benefit you forever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In this economic climate, the days of doing 'hobby' majors r over!

Exactly. That's why Liberal Arts is the way to go. Technology is changing too fast to know what skills will be needed in 10 years. LeRning how to think will benefit you forever.

CS majors are less about programming than they are about logic and algo design, which is timeless. CS usually is in the 'college' part of universities as it is closely related to applied math.

that's why virtually every LAC has a CS department.

I don't think its a case of 'hobby majors' are over....it is more of the case of in this economic climate, you need to have a plan earlier in the game so you can execute early in terms of coursework, grades, research and internships.

[Anonymous]

I understand where you are coming from OP. I paid my own way through school so for me it needed to lead to a career. I didn't have the luxury of 4 years to just explore my interests, have a good time and then figure out later what I would do for a career. That only works for those who are being financially supported well into adulthood and don't have to take on any adult responsibilities.

I chose a career (nursing) that had many paths and was practical. Was it a dream career - no. But I have come to love what I do. There are so many opportunities in nursing that I never hit any dead ends. I now have a PhD and teach nursing. Lots of my students are second career students (many in their late 20s), having first done a degree in something of interest but less practical. They returned for a career that was professionally oriented.

Does your son have a particular career in mind that a degree in history / geography will lead to? If he does and has a plan that is different than just doing history / geography for the fun of it then later figuring out what he should do as a career.

It is your money you have worked for. I am not one that believes that children are entitled to a free ride through college and so I think you really need to sit with your son and hash this out more. Perhaps having him pay of part of his education will help him see the importance of choosing something that will lead to a career. Many people who do history / geography degrees don't end up working as historians or geographers so what would he like to do career wise?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In this economic climate, the days of doing 'hobby' majors r over!

Exactly. That's why Liberal Arts is the way to go. Technology is changing too fast to know what skills will be needed in 10 years. LeRning how to think will benefit you forever.

There is no such thing as "learning how to think". In order to think well, you need to background knowledge. You can only have background knowledge in so many things.

[Anonymous]

I come across so many people in my field who don't know how to write or present a logical argument. If your DS can learn that - through any major - then it will do him well.

[Anonymous]

I have 3 history majors in my family who ALL went on to become successful lawyers. Some people are passionate about history, nothing wrong with it!

[Anonymous]

DH majored in history and is a senior partner at a law firm.
OP, your attitude makes me sad. You have no idea what you are doing to your DS. Frankly, a young man who won;t stand up for the right to be himself won;t succeed at anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Frankly, I bet most people on DCUM were liberal arts majors. This board seems populated with upper income people earning multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars, rather than computer programmers, nurses, accountants, and lab technicians toiling for $50k to $75k per year.

Yep. I was a Philosophy major, make $300k as a lawyer.

[Anonymous]

You are stupid OP. My husband has a history degree and I might as hell have one (I have a political science degree) and we both pull six figure incomes. Go eff yourself.

[Anonymous]

I think the problem is when history, government and other liber arts majors think they can just go to law school to become successful. People, listen up: the world just doesn't need that many lawyers!

[Anonymous]

All of the history majors now making bank as lawyers are really not helping their case that the major is useful. If you need to cough up $200K more after the undergrad degree to have even a shot at a high-paying job, then the OP is entirely correct that it's not a good return on the tuition investment. It only works for people who are just killing time until law school and need something that'll give them a high GPA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the problem is when history, government and other liber arts majors think they can just go to law school to become successful. People, listen up: the world just doesn't need that many lawyers!

yeah as i said, people that are commenting need to be in their 20's or early 30's as their experiences are more relevant.

I could also say, yeah no problem, just make sure you get super high lsats, get into top 6 law school, make law review, join biglaw, survive the gauntlet to make partner.

considering the legal market and the future many in the industry are saying about it and also how hard it is to nail all these events down to get to the end result, it is prudent to hedge your bets no?