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As I know from experience, as soon as you graduate with a generalist degree like Mathematics (as opposed to a vocational-specific degree like Electrical Engineering or Nursing) and no internship experience or marketable skills, you become one of the many overeducated, underskilled, hapless young adults who has to spend time desperately looking for a job and then years of "catchup" to try and get back on track with his peers who knew what they wanted to do and started good careers at age 22.
You can do a lot of things with a math degree and you can certainly get internship in many fields with it too. Doesn't sound like the major was the problem, more that you somehow didn't get an internship (no knock on you since it's not that easy to get one).
You have 1.5 years to figure out your major, plenty of time. Not too many 17-18 year olds are going to know what they want to do career-wise and there's nothing wrong with that.
I went to college without knowing what I wanted to do, and I didn't magically figure it out during college. I I went to college without knowing what I wanted to do, and I didn't magically figure it out during college. I think college was a waste of time for me.
My younger brother is in the same boat I was in. He's halfway through college in the same major (Mathematics) and not sure what he wants to do. I've told him to drop out of college and return after he figures it out, because right now, while he's in college, he has lots of opportunities if he knows what he wants to do (internships, connections, career counseling, etc.), and those opportunities will be cut off once he graduates. My parents are of course advising him to "just finish your undergraduate degree and then you can get a job or go to grad school." Bad advice. As I know from experience, as soon as you graduate with a generalist degree like Mathematics (as opposed to a vocational-specific degree like Electrical Engineering or Nursing) and no internship experience or marketable skills, you become one of the many overeducated, underskilled, hapless young adults who has to spend time desperately looking for a job and then years of "catchup" to try and get back on track with his peers who knew what they wanted to do and started good careers at age 22.
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Originally Posted by Plain Yogurt
You can do a lot of things with a math degree and you can certainly get internship in many fields with it too. Doesn't sound like the major was the problem, more that you somehow didn't get an internship (no knock on you since it's not that easy to get one).
You have 1.5 years to figure out your major, plenty of time. Not too many 17-18 year olds are going to know what they want to do career-wise and there's nothing wrong with that.
I think it's bad advice to tell someone to drop out of college in the circumstance you describe. I disagree that there's not much your bro can do with a math degree (see below), but if you think that, what do you think he could do w/o a degree?
I know anecdotes are just that, but my future son-in-law graduated with a math degree and found a job doing engineering work. Then he went back to school two years later for a master's in engineering. There are people who work with my husband in a telecommunications firm with math degrees; they do engineering type work as well.
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Originally Posted by MAniacTHW
The first two years of college is mostly for "general ed" courses anyways. What difference does it make?
Contrary to popular opinion on this board, students do start taking courses in their majors and/or prereqs for such courses freshman year. Now sometimes those courses will qualify for gen ed courses should one change one's major.
There's a girl in my biology class who is a Psychology major and graduating. I told her that I studying speech pathology, and she says, "Oh, wow! At least you'll have a job. I just majored in Psychology because it's the only subject I'm good at besides Women's Studies. I figured Psychology was a better choice."
Some of us don't know exactly what we wanted to do, but have a general idea. Some of us know what we WOULDN'T want to major in, like science or engineering or whatever, and that narrows it a lot. A lot of majors have the same prereqs. Here at my school if you can decide between a BS or a BA that will help a lot.
The problem with just getting gen eds done is if you end up deciding on a major that has a "pre-major". This sucks a ton. You have to finish all of the pre-reqs, and then apply, and there's no guarantee for the major! Sometimes they require things that have to be done in sequence so it'll hold you back. And if you don't get accepted the first time... Well...
The pre-major I think is becoming a lot more common. At my university the "pre-majors" are mainly for the most popular majors, like all of the business majors. My major has it too, despite being a smaller major.
Also, most kids who don't ever go to college right after high school never do get to go. Getting out of the educational system for a while will make you not want to come back... That's why I forced myself to go to a university right after high school instead of missing a semester or two or whatever.
I think it's bad advice to tell someone to drop out of college in the circumstance you describe.
I'm not telling him to drop out of college permanently, but to at least take a break, work a little, have some time to think about what he wants to do and then start school once he's figured out his career goals and how education fits into a plan for achieving them.
I'm not telling him to drop out of college permanently, but to at least take a break, work a little, have some time to think about what he wants to do and then start school once he's figured out his career goals and how education fits into a plan for achieving them.
You do realize that often people do not go back when they do that?
I went to college without knowing what I wanted to do, and I didn't magically figure it out during college. I I went to college without knowing what I wanted to do, and I didn't magically figure it out during college. I think college was a waste of time for me.
My younger brother is in the same boat I was in. He's halfway through college in the same major (Mathematics) and not sure what he wants to do. I've told him to drop out of college and return after he figures it out, because right now, while he's in college, he has lots of opportunities if he knows what he wants to do (internships, connections, career counseling, etc.), and those opportunities will be cut off once he graduates. My parents are of course advising him to "just finish your undergraduate degree and then you can get a job or go to grad school." Bad advice. As I know from experience, as soon as you graduate with a generalist degree like Mathematics (as opposed to a vocational-specific degree like Electrical Engineering or Nursing) and no internship experience or marketable skills, you become one of the many overeducated, underskilled, hapless young adults who has to spend time desperately looking for a job and then years of "catchup" to try and get back on track with his peers who knew what they wanted to do and started good careers at age 22.
You aren't serious are you? Math is a very versatile degree and VERY in demand in tech companies. A friend of mine's son just got 3 internship offers in the past week, Math major, all paying about $7000/month plus housing and expenses--he is a junior in college right now. He's on the high side of intern pay because he's pretty brilliant but even a more "average" math major can expect housing and a substantial stipend for internships over the summer. Your brother REALLY needs to get hopping on this as most deadlines for applications have passed but there are still some out there. Who cares if he doesn't know exactly what he wants, that is what internships are about. He still has plenty of time to get that experience.
Our son is a freshman math major and is waiting on several internship opportunities for which he applied. I have another friend who's daughter is also a freshman--undeclared major but probably will go math or engineering or maybe computer science. She landed an internship for the summer, $15,000+ housing and travel expenses.....your brother just needs to get some apps out there.
the problem I've found with this is all the extra coursework you have to take when you make the change. You really have to choose your major early to have any kind of smooth progression through college, god forbid you change schools, then you have even more classes to take since they don't usually transfer too well. It's a frekkin' nightmare. Anything to keep kids in school as long as possible to suck as much money out of them as possible.
When you go to college, you don't know what you are going to learn. I went to college because I love to learn, not just as part of a plan. If you go to college with a definite plan and you end up following it, good, but imo that doesn't have to be the expectation.
If college was as expensive 30 years ago as it is now, I might have changed my attitude just a little, but a love of learning was the biggest reason for me and fitting it to any particular job wasn't my goal. I was going to figure that out later. Nothing wrong with that!
A friend of mine's son just got 3 internship offers in the past week, Math major, all paying about $7000/month plus housing and expenses--he is a junior in college right now.
What internship is that? I've never heard of an internship paying the equivalent of $84k/yr. Also, is he majoring exclusively in pure Math or is he double-majoring in Math and CS?
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Math is a very versatile degree and VERY in demand in tech companies.
Is that something you read in the Wall Street Journal or something you've personally observed? Because neither I nor any of my Math major friends (besides the ones who were double-majoring in Math and CS) were getting pursued by tech companies.
You aren't serious are you? Math is a very versatile degree and VERY in demand in tech companies. A friend of mine's son just got 3 internship offers in the past week, Math major, all paying about $7000/month plus housing and expenses--he is a junior in college right now. He's on the high side of intern pay because he's pretty brilliant but even a more "average" math major can expect housing and a substantial stipend for internships over the summer. Your brother REALLY needs to get hopping on this as most deadlines for applications have passed but there are still some out there. Who cares if he doesn't know exactly what he wants, that is what internships are about. He still has plenty of time to get that experience.
Our son is a freshman math major and is waiting on several internship opportunities for which he applied. I have another friend who's daughter is also a freshman--undeclared major but probably will go math or engineering or maybe computer science. She landed an internship for the summer, $15,000+ housing and travel expenses.....your brother just needs to get some apps out there.
I can guarantee you he didn't get an offer of $7,000/month for an internship just because he's "brilliant". I bet he's done independent work outside of school, participated in competitions, and maybe even has a publication. And I'm certain he didn't spend the majority of his time in college "figuring out what he wants to do."
If you have nothing on your resume other than a degree, you're definitely not even going to get an interview at a company paying that amount. Employers want to see accomplishments and demonstrated long term interest in the field. Not just some person who went to college because they decided that they want to start making more money.
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