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It goes with "major in what you love, you'll make money" logic that exists in high school. He wanted to be a fashion designer and luckily his parents had the money to send him to a few high level programs. However now, he is just lucky to have a job and if it weren't for his parents he would be on the streets even with a job...
rich kids have been buying their way into places they couldn't make it otherwise since people started using money
i just don't buy the connection you're making
to me that narrative - that the country is somehow suffering because college students are lackadaisically following their whims - is just something the upper middle class invented and tell themselves. i certainly never saw this teaching at a public college. i think the majority of the population in the US has more pressing things to worry about than their kid getting a loft in tribeca and exploring their artistic tendencies
education is k-12 is more important for churning out employable folks anyway. certainly for non specialized jobs and even for specialized jobs. if you weren't taught math and science well prior to college, you're not going to make a very good chip designer or lab researcher no matter what you choose to major in
One major is useful. The other is useless. The choice is clear as night and day.
I think you already know the answer to your question.
Heh that sums it up nicely. I wouldn't say useless but it will take a lot of work to make the art, "creative" degree work. All too often students have this sort of "movie" mindset in which "Well I just turn in my first screenplay and boom its the next Goodwill Hunting". Go with the solid, PAYING career, pursue the true passion on the side, if it turns out you reach a point where you can live off the true passion then you go for it.
It's mostly because they care about their kids. In some cases, it's because they want their kids to enter a prestigious career so they can brag to their friends, but by and large, the parents who push their kids towards well paying fields do so because they want their kids to be HAPPY.
And it's because they are OLDER and WISER and know that having a stable living is important for getting things that can make us happy. Parents who don't care about their kids could care less what they majored in.
Case in point. I have a friend whose mom pushed him into Pharmacy. He hated it with a passion. He had no interest in it and it's a difficult major. Now, in his mid 30s, he works for CVS (or Walgreens), has made bank for over a decade despite being a party animal and fairly irresponsible for much of that time, and his mom was telling mine he was so glad that his mom pushed, because he never would have finished otherwise. Now, he has a house, nice cars, and a cute wife.
Unfortunately, $ is important in this world.
I so agree with you. For every kid who was able to make a living from following his dreams there are probably hundreds who did not. My friend graduated with an art degree. He ended up suffering in retail for years - and retail can be really tough. Then he took a six month course in computers (this was a few decades ago). He is now semi retired and making a living wage and works one or two half days per week teaching the use of proprietary software to employees of a retail establishment. He now does his artwork at home.
Take care of earning a living first, then your dreams.
The reason why most people's dream jobs pay poorly or require many advanced degrees is that everyone wants them.
If a person expects his parents to help pay for his education then they certainly can have input into the major choice. My father would only help in school if I were to be a teacher or nurse. I left home and managed myself in accounting, marketing, and computers.
I know my daughters high school guidance counselor told her forget the part about doing what you "love"...rather do what you are good at...somewhat cynical view...
^^^ I don't think it's cynical at all. Doing what you're good at is a reasonable adjunct to doing what will earn you a living.
Meanwhile, I can only imagine how many lives have been ruined by this "do what you love, the money will follow" and "follow your dream" claptrap. If what you love is tiddly winks it's going to be tough sledding your entire life.
Even in my own field (architecture) which is relatively practical, we have countless thousands who are chewed up and spat out because it's so demanding and competitive and pays so poorly. The ones who came in because they thought it would be fun do not last.
Having said that, doing what you love is great, but it must be tempered with a dose of reality, which is the point of many in this thread.
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Edit: I mean an adjunct emphasis, not that you can't or shouldn't have both (what you're good at and what earns you a living) in one job. You most certainly should.
I so agree with you. For every kid who was able to make a living from following his dreams there are probably hundreds who did not. My friend graduated with an art degree. He ended up suffering in retail for years - and retail can be really tough. Then he took a six month course in computers (this was a few decades ago). He is now semi retired and making a living wage and works one or two half days per week teaching the use of proprietary software to employees of a retail establishment. He now does his artwork at home.
Take care of earning a living first, then your dreams.
The reason why most people's dream jobs pay poorly or require many advanced degrees is that everyone wants them.
If a person expects his parents to help pay for his education then they certainly can have input into the major choice. My father would only help in school if I were to be a teacher or nurse. I left home and managed myself in accounting, marketing, and computers.
Agreed you often hear about the student who followed his dream and made it , what you don't hear about are the other 100 History majors who also applied for the internship at The museum of natural history, you don't hear about the 100s of other English majors who did not get the internship with Pearson. Again nothing wrong with following your dreams but have the practical stuff done first.
rich kids have been buying their way into places they couldn't make it otherwise since people started using money
i just don't buy the connection you're making
to me that narrative - that the country is somehow suffering because college students are lackadaisically following their whims - is just something the upper middle class invented and tell themselves. i certainly never saw this teaching at a public college. i think the majority of the population in the US has more pressing things to worry about than their kid getting a loft in tribeca and exploring their artistic tendencies
education is k-12 is more important for churning out employable folks anyway. certainly for non specialized jobs and even for specialized jobs. if you weren't taught math and science well prior to college, you're not going to make a very good chip designer or lab researcher no matter what you choose to major in
The issue is as we've seen since 2008, if you don't have a college degree, in some cases you can't get a job as a janitor or McDonald's fry cook. I agree K-12 is important but it is a broken system that we just kick the can down the road rather than get a real solution.
I don't think the follow your dreams suffering is fake, it's real. The issue is instead of saying, work in the factories (like our parents) we are told the world is our oyster to take the pearl from. That means from anything practical (such as the STEMs right now) or English and History degrees. And the evidence for success is merely anecdotal in nature. Look at Dazedude's post above mine for example. We look at the high earners from college or those that get the one out of a million experience rather than the averages.
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