Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not everyone is motivated by money and greed.

This is a really bizarre question to me. A lot of people just want to enjoy their day-to-day life rather than build up a Scrooge McDuck pile of coins to swim in?

Haha, yeah I grew up not worried about money and followed a career I was passionate about. Huge regrets because in this day and age, a modest income consigns you to long commutes, substandard housing, and crummy schools. It’s great if you never plan to marry and have kids; maybe even okay if you marry someone with similar values, but find a DW who is content to live a simple life and doesn’t want kids, that’s a pretty narrow field. And I wanted kids, I just had no idea how expensive they were and neighborhoods with good schools are.

And you can say “move to X” where X is some random place not in a major city, well a) my passion career has no jobs there, I guess I could become a teacher eventually but likely will still be poor there 2) most cheap places, if you want good schools, housing has still gotten really really expensive over the last 10 years, even more so COVID era

OP here. THIS is what we’re worried about. Income inequality is rapidly rising, and we increasingly have no safety net. A philosophy degree is a one-way ticket to downward mobility. I don’t want my kid’s standard of living to decline, so I’m trying (trying being the operative word here) to help him realize that he’s squandering his future. If we lived in, say, Sweden or any place with more social security, I’d be okay with having my kid major in the humanities. But we do not, and I have to help my kid realize that life after graduation won’t be a bed of roses.

Unless he moves to Sweden. One of my cousins did and she loves it.

If he works internships, and works part time jobs during school which give him adult skills other than teaching (or working with kids), and works full time during the summers. he will probably be fine. It's the kids who don't work while they are in school who are more in trouble than humanities majors who work.

How did she get a visa to move to Sweden?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not everyone is motivated by money and greed.

This is a really bizarre question to me. A lot of people just want to enjoy their day-to-day life rather than build up a Scrooge McDuck pile of coins to swim in?

Haha, yeah I grew up not worried about money and followed a career I was passionate about. Huge regrets because in this day and age, a modest income consigns you to long commutes, substandard housing, and crummy schools. It’s great if you never plan to marry and have kids; maybe even okay if you marry someone with similar values, but find a DW who is content to live a simple life and doesn’t want kids, that’s a pretty narrow field. And I wanted kids, I just had no idea how expensive they were and neighborhoods with good schools are.

And you can say “move to X” where X is some random place not in a major city, well a) my passion career has no jobs there, I guess I could become a teacher eventually but likely will still be poor there 2) most cheap places, if you want good schools, housing has still gotten really really expensive over the last 10 years, even more so COVID era

OP here. THIS is what we’re worried about. Income inequality is rapidly rising, and we increasingly have no safety net. A philosophy degree is a one-way ticket to downward mobility. I don’t want my kid’s standard of living to decline, so I’m trying (trying being the operative word here) to help him realize that he’s squandering his future. If we lived in, say, Sweden or any place with more social security, I’d be okay with having my kid major in the humanities. But we do not, and I have to help my kid realize that life after graduation won’t be a bed of roses.

You have to leave philosophy majors out of this. They make more than many stem and business-type majors do.

Sure because people who major in philosophy largely come from connected families and know that major is just for fun. You have to disentangle FOO effects.

Smart, skilled, adaptable, driven people have great careers, regardless of their degree.

Conversely, anyone expecting their college major to be the wellspring of career success is in for a rocky one.

And yes, that goes for all careers, including computer science. In fact, it goes double for that industry, in which I have worked my whole career.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not everyone is motivated by money and greed.

This is a really bizarre question to me. A lot of people just want to enjoy their day-to-day life rather than build up a Scrooge McDuck pile of coins to swim in?

Haha, yeah I grew up not worried about money and followed a career I was passionate about. Huge regrets because in this day and age, a modest income consigns you to long commutes, substandard housing, and crummy schools. It’s great if you never plan to marry and have kids; maybe even okay if you marry someone with similar values, but find a DW who is content to live a simple life and doesn’t want kids, that’s a pretty narrow field. And I wanted kids, I just had no idea how expensive they were and neighborhoods with good schools are.

And you can say “move to X” where X is some random place not in a major city, well a) my passion career has no jobs there, I guess I could become a teacher eventually but likely will still be poor there 2) most cheap places, if you want good schools, housing has still gotten really really expensive over the last 10 years, even more so COVID era

OP here. THIS is what we’re worried about. Income inequality is rapidly rising, and we increasingly have no safety net. A philosophy degree is a one-way ticket to downward mobility. I don’t want my kid’s standard of living to decline, so I’m trying (trying being the operative word here) to help him realize that he’s squandering his future. If we lived in, say, Sweden or any place with more social security, I’d be okay with having my kid major in the humanities. But we do not, and I have to help my kid realize that life after graduation won’t be a bed of roses.

You have to leave philosophy majors out of this. They make more than many stem and business-type majors do.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not everyone is motivated by money and greed.

This is a really bizarre question to me. A lot of people just want to enjoy their day-to-day life rather than build up a Scrooge McDuck pile of coins to swim in?

Haha, yeah I grew up not worried about money and followed a career I was passionate about. Huge regrets because in this day and age, a modest income consigns you to long commutes, substandard housing, and crummy schools. It’s great if you never plan to marry and have kids; maybe even okay if you marry someone with similar values, but find a DW who is content to live a simple life and doesn’t want kids, that’s a pretty narrow field. And I wanted kids, I just had no idea how expensive they were and neighborhoods with good schools are.

And you can say “move to X” where X is some random place not in a major city, well a) my passion career has no jobs there, I guess I could become a teacher eventually but likely will still be poor there 2) most cheap places, if you want good schools, housing has still gotten really really expensive over the last 10 years, even more so COVID era

OP here. THIS is what we’re worried about. Income inequality is rapidly rising, and we increasingly have no safety net. A philosophy degree is a one-way ticket to downward mobility. I don’t want my kid’s standard of living to decline, so I’m trying (trying being the operative word here) to help him realize that he’s squandering his future. If we lived in, say, Sweden or any place with more social security, I’d be okay with having my kid major in the humanities. But we do not, and I have to help my kid realize that life after graduation won’t be a bed of roses.

Unless he moves to Sweden. One of my cousins did and she loves it.

If he works internships, and works part time jobs during school which give him adult skills other than teaching (or working with kids), and works full time during the summers. he will probably be fine. It's the kids who don't work while they are in school who are more in trouble than humanities majors who work.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not everyone is motivated by money and greed.

This is a really bizarre question to me. A lot of people just want to enjoy their day-to-day life rather than build up a Scrooge McDuck pile of coins to swim in?

Haha, yeah I grew up not worried about money and followed a career I was passionate about. Huge regrets because in this day and age, a modest income consigns you to long commutes, substandard housing, and crummy schools. It’s great if you never plan to marry and have kids; maybe even okay if you marry someone with similar values, but find a DW who is content to live a simple life and doesn’t want kids, that’s a pretty narrow field. And I wanted kids, I just had no idea how expensive they were and neighborhoods with good schools are.

And you can say “move to X” where X is some random place not in a major city, well a) my passion career has no jobs there, I guess I could become a teacher eventually but likely will still be poor there 2) most cheap places, if you want good schools, housing has still gotten really really expensive over the last 10 years, even more so COVID era

OP here. THIS is what we’re worried about. Income inequality is rapidly rising, and we increasingly have no safety net. A philosophy degree is a one-way ticket to downward mobility. I don’t want my kid’s standard of living to decline, so I’m trying (trying being the operative word here) to help him realize that he’s squandering his future. If we lived in, say, Sweden or any place with more social security, I’d be okay with having my kid major in the humanities. But we do not, and I have to help my kid realize that life after graduation won’t be a bed of roses.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not everyone is motivated by money and greed.

This is a really bizarre question to me. A lot of people just want to enjoy their day-to-day life rather than build up a Scrooge McDuck pile of coins to swim in?

Haha, yeah I grew up not worried about money and followed a career I was passionate about. Huge regrets because in this day and age, a modest income consigns you to long commutes, substandard housing, and crummy schools. It’s great if you never plan to marry and have kids; maybe even okay if you marry someone with similar values, but find a DW who is content to live a simple life and doesn’t want kids, that’s a pretty narrow field. And I wanted kids, I just had no idea how expensive they were and neighborhoods with good schools are.

And you can say “move to X” where X is some random place not in a major city, well a) my passion career has no jobs there, I guess I could become a teacher eventually but likely will still be poor there 2) most cheap places, if you want good schools, housing has still gotten really really expensive over the last 10 years, even more so COVID era

So I don’t want to not validate what you’re saying, because it’s true, but for most careers, stem or not, this is going to be your reality. Yes the average salary for stem majors is significantly higher than non-stem majors but it’s still only what, 85K? And that includes engineering majors that all pull in 100K average and let’s face it, we can’t all be engineering majors. (And if we did the salary of engineers would decrease significantly).

Over time yes you’re looking at substantially more money, but in most areas with great schools, you need a heck of a lot more than 85K a year to live there.

The fact is that all the problems you mention are major societal issues. Nobody should have to send their kids to a crappy school. Nobody should have to forgo parenthood because kids are too expensive. We have a massive GDP and the fact that our country hasn’t been able to solve this issues is absurd.

Of course this isn’t helpful to your situation and that sucks.

Anonymous wrote:Not everyone is motivated by money and greed.

This is a really bizarre question to me. A lot of people just want to enjoy their day-to-day life rather than build up a Scrooge McDuck pile of coins to swim in?

Haha, yeah I grew up not worried about money and followed a career I was passionate about. Huge regrets because in this day and age, a modest income consigns you to long commutes, substandard housing, and crummy schools. It’s great if you never plan to marry and have kids; maybe even okay if you marry someone with similar values, but find a DW who is content to live a simple life and doesn’t want kids, that’s a pretty narrow field. And I wanted kids, I just had no idea how expensive they were and neighborhoods with good schools are.

And you can say “move to X” where X is some random place not in a major city, well a) my passion career has no jobs there, I guess I could become a teacher eventually but likely will still be poor there 2) most cheap places, if you want good schools, housing has still gotten really really expensive over the last 10 years, even more so COVID era

Anonymous wrote:Not everyone is motivated by money and greed.

This is a really bizarre question to me. A lot of people just want to enjoy their day-to-day life rather than build up a Scrooge McDuck pile of coins to swim in?

Same.

Until I came to DC, I never knew people who only wanted money. I grew up in a ‘work to play’ kind of place, and even the UC folks mostly lived modestly and cared more about spending their money than securing generational wealth.

Majored in English and now in medicine. What you major in doesn’t matter

Not everyone is motivated by money and greed.

This is a really bizarre question to me. A lot of people just want to enjoy their day-to-day life rather than build up a Scrooge McDuck pile of coins to swim in?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Guess what? Not everyone wants to be rich or have a lot of money. In fact, some religions teach you to be poor.

I would recommend against any kid taking a ton of debt in college, but I completely agree with this.

DCUM sometimes can't comprehend that not everyone strives for a large house in Bethesda with a maxed out 401K.

I was friends, mostly, with humanities majors in college. Newsflash: few are "wealthy." All are fine. Some have DCUM-approved jobs. One was an art major and now lives essentially off the land in Hawaii, happier than I've ever seen her.

And this is a privilege only adults from wealthy families can afford.

Wrong.

Signed, someone who knows people from middle class families who chose middle class careers like working in non-profits.

Ehhhh, NPO work is dominated by trust fund babies.

I'm the person with the Hawaii friend. Her parents are first gen immigrants who worked as a manicurist and a security guard. She got good aid at a LAC and graduated with a middling amount of debt. Certainly not a trust fund kid. She's poor. And is fine being poor. Her life gives her what she needs.

I work for a nonprofit and have a very different life from hers; I wouldn't be happy in a similar situation, but: not everyone has the same goals and preferences! Which was my point.

Also to the person who says the NPO work is dominated by trust fund babies... maybe, but that's not the experience I've had at all. Not even a little. To my knowledge none of my coworkers come from wealth. Some of our interns, sure. But not staff.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Guess what? Not everyone wants to be rich or have a lot of money. In fact, some religions teach you to be poor.

I would recommend against any kid taking a ton of debt in college, but I completely agree with this.

DCUM sometimes can't comprehend that not everyone strives for a large house in Bethesda with a maxed out 401K.

I was friends, mostly, with humanities majors in college. Newsflash: few are "wealthy." All are fine. Some have DCUM-approved jobs. One was an art major and now lives essentially off the land in Hawaii, happier than I've ever seen her.

Yes I think a lot of commenters here railing against liberal arts degrees assume that you’re going to an expensive college (and perhaps that a parent will foot the bill), and that the kids are just clueless about how they will get a job.

That is, indeed, a terrible scenario for somebody who isn’t rich. So a wise parent who isn’t rich will advise against that. But for somebody who is content with a five figure salary, who is moving forward with a clear understanding of the job market, and who isn’t going into substantial debt and knows how compound interest works, a liberal arts degree is great for somebody who hates STEM.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mom of a recent college grad here. The differences in opportunities for students who major in CS/Stats/Data Science/Applied Math and subjects like English/History/Poli Sci/Biology (without grades good enough for med school) are astounding. All of you posters extolling the benefits of the liberal arts are delusional. Income inequality is at an all time high, and a useless major is a one-way ticket to falling out of the middle class barring law school or finance.

Good luck to everyone. You’ll all be in for a surprised when your kids are living in your basement in their 20s.

I know plenty of CS who struggle to find work, but English degrees are in high demand. In many communities, people can't write a sentence well. Who is going to write the copy for the data science project?

HAHAHAHAAHHAAHHA

Anonymous wrote:Many of you clearly never grew up among social justice Catholics or with professor / teacher parents.

I am a teacher. I will highly discourage my kids from becoming one.