Reply to Philosophy Rated As One of the Top Majors to Avoid

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[quote=Anonymous][quote]I was going to say the same but my info is 30 years old. The easiest major to get into Harvard Law was Religious Studies because they had only one applicant. Then maybe philosophy. But I would not advise anyone to go to law school today. So I'm aiming my kids towards engineering/ computer science/tech fields/robotics where there are jobs (and yes they still have to study philosophy, history, language and all that other stuff in order to get the B.A.

I don't understand this idea of aiming your child toward a particular major. At what point do you let them run their own lives?

+10000

What if your children have an aptitude for something else completely outside engineering & tech? What if their strengths lie in verbal skills, in writing or speaking, and they would make good grant writers, or do well at an advertising agency, or would have a fulfilling career being excellent teacher who makes a huge difference in kids' lives? Maybe they have an entrepreneurial spirit and would do well starting up their own business. Don't box your children in.

We have tens of thousands of children who were urged to study what really interested them and today they have a college degree, a mountain load of debt and can't find a job that pays them enough to maintain a half-way decent standard of living.

PP, you are doing the right thing in steering your children into fields of study where there will be a demand for their skills down the line. They will thank you for it down the line.[/quote]

Eh, I have seen many kids pushed into things like engineering, tech, various science fields, computer science, and pre-med.  Honestly, if you don't excel in those fields, you are worse off than excelling in a liberal arts field in many cases.  Engineering courses are graded on a tough curve, and a lot of firms won't hire anyone with less than a 3.5.  So you have to be in the top 10% of your class to get a great entry level job (and this is after a hazing process of weeding out non-serious kids freshman year).  One of my good friends studied aerospace engineering (one of the majors with the highest entry level wages) and got a 3.2 or 3.3 at a top 10 engineering program.  It took him well over a year of constant applying to find a job at a consulting firm that is related to his background, but not at all doing design work that he was trained to do.  Places like google, facebook, and apple can be great places to work, but don't let the high wages, no suits, free food, etc. fool you--it is every bit as cutthroat and demanding as being a big law associate.  Those kids put in long hours and hustle--silicon valley is not a place for life balance.  And you have to be the cream of the crop to get those jobs.  Pre-med, if you don't have the grades and MCAT score, you're not getting into med school.  These can be great paths for kids who have the aptitude and interest, but I also see a lot of people working in crappy IT jobs that will never break 50K, jobs that are outsourced to China, and companies decrying a STEM shortage when what they really mean is they want top talent.

What I see across fields in law, finance, business, and tech is that the job market across the board is becoming more and more win or take all with a few talented people on the top raking in tons of money and everyone else with a college degree hovering around 30-60K wages.  Which certainly beats minimum wage, or being unemployed, so hey.  Sadly, it even helps with being a secretary, in sales, in retail, or getting a job at a trendy cafe to have a college degree these days.  The issue is not one of marketable skills, it appears to be one of very little space in the demographic that DCUMers want their kids to end up in.[/quote]

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