Reply to Why don’t college students understand that they’re supposed to preserve optionality?

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[quote=Anonymous]I’m an alumni mentor for an Ivy, and one thing I see that frequently confuses me is that students are not focused on using their four years of college (and also their early 20s post-grad!) to PRESERVE OPTIONS. That’s the name of the game in your college years and your twenties.

I always advise students to major in STEM, since it’s way easier for a STEM graduate to go into classically liberal arts fields (law, media, politics, etc) than the other way around. I highly recommend that most college students at elite schools work in management consulting or investment banking post-grad, as those are the two fields that PRESERVE THE MOST OPTIONS for someone in their late 20s or 30s. A former management consultant (especially with Ivy pedigree) or Morgan Stanley investment banker can always decide to pivot at 28 to politics, media, the arts, the business side of tech, non-profit work, etc. — but it’s much harder to do the reverse.

But it seems like many students are averse to the idea of keeping their options open. Even at elite colleges, and especially so at state flagships — I see way too many bright kids in my wealthy MoCo neighborhood major in useless crap like marketing or psychology at elite colleges or at excellent flagships like UMD.

Do these kids not get it? Why don’t they understand the importance of optionality? [/quote]

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