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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here: of course I care about my son's happiness. How happy do you think he will be when he is unemployed and living with us at age 30 because he can't get a job with his history degree? I am enforcing this because I care about his happiness not just now but in 10-20 years.

As someone said, I was not born in the US, I grew up in the Ukraine. I got really lucky to move to first the uK for my education, and then to DC after I graduated. Through this I realized that you can't always get what you want, sometimes you have to make the harder choice now to improve your life for the future (choosing engineering rather then history). Of course we all want to marry a superstar and not have to work a day in our lives, but for the vast majority of us that will just not happon. [/quote]

NP here.  My friend's dad insisted he would only pay for an engineering degree.  Her sibling flunked out after a year.  Her dad then decided he would not pay for her college at all since the other sibling wasted his money. My friend ended up working full-time to put herself thru school so she missed out on internships, networking, social life, pretty much everything.  Then she stayed with the retail job that put her thru school for years until she could afford grad school.  Even with grad school it was only dumb luck/knowing someone in that field that got her a job in a field with no practical experience and even then she did not start in a permanent position.  It's been a long road and my friend is not necessarily happy.  Her life would have been much different if she had the support of her parents.  The relationship is rocky to say the least.

I'm with the majority of the posters that say to focus on the career aspect, not the major.  What does DS plan to do with history and geography?  Has he shadowed someone in that field?  Does he have plans to complete an internship?  My mom said sometimes you figure out what you want to do by figuring out what you don't what to do. Are there careers he is interested in and he is worried about the math aspect so he won't try to compete?  I would be worried that your DS hasn't done that legwork.  The bottom line with my kids is that they have to support themselves.  I may push to see that they are doing their homework on the career aspect of things if my kids aren't thinking that way. We only cover tuition for 4 years at a state university, and we do not pay for grad school.  Being an adult means you make decisions but you also have to live with the consequences of those decisions.  That would apply for both you and your son.
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