Reply to Why would non-one percent families let their kids major in the humanities?

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[quote=Anonymous]Humanities major here. Wound up going to law school. I am comfortable financially and my kid's college will be paid for. My parents were not rich at all and I financed law school with loans. You can definitely find a well-paying job and a rewarding career in the humanities.

Outside of engineering and the hard sciences, or people who want to go to med school, it doesn't really matter what you major in to a large degree. I would personally encourage my child to avoid a major that is too narrow unless they had a really clear plan for post-grad (like don't major in Arabic or Dance or Film Studies unless you pretty much know what you are going to do after school and how you will apply that degree). But any broad humanities major is pretty versatile (History, English, Psychology, Sociology, Government or Political Science, Philosophy, etc.). Add a minor in something a bit more specialized or technical (a language minor is great) and you will be pretty marketable after school. You won't make a ton of money no matter where you go at first, and that's normal and should be expected. The goal should be paying off any money you borrowed and beginning to establish yourself professionally. It's okay to start at the bottom. Also zero shame in living with mom and dad or in a group house or a crummy apartment in your 20s -- that is what your 20s are for. Figure out how to earn a paycheck, then build from there.

These people who obsessively demand their kids need to major in STEM and are fixated on certain jobs and earnings targets before their kid goes to college are often deluded. If the kid isn't self-motivated in those fields, they will struggle to get decent grades and many will struggle to finish school. My undergrad was full of engineering majors with demanding parents who were barely able to function. I sat on the student ethics committee for a semester and all the cheating cases we got were from the engineering school. I felt really bad for those kids. They clearly didn't have the interest or aptitude, they were taking these highly technical classes with strict requirements, and they couldn't keep their head above water. I have no idea why you would push your kid into that. Not everyone can be an engineer or a doctor. We actually do need other kinds of people.[/quote]

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