We have encouraged all our kids to study what they wanted in college. D decided to do a BFA in ballet (at a top college for ballet but not a dedicated arts school) and has spent the last three years since graduation in an unpaid second company position. So that has required a lot of money, which fortunately came from her leftover 529 funds as she got a full ride merit scholarship for college. She’s now stopped dancing after failing to get a paid full company position, as it just wasn’t sustainable any more (she was the last of the ~35 girls in her freshman class to still be dancing with a company, everyone else had already given up).
However, in the last two months since that decision was made, she has been able to find jobs very quickly even in this challenging economy. She got a fill-in job at the climbing gym within a week, has had multiple interviews every week since then, turned down one job already and has now accepted an admin position in an arts organization that she’s really excited by.
What I think has made the difference is not her dance skills or any of the other classes she took in college, but her academic record (including the scholarship which was for <1% of students at her state flagship, and is easily recognized by employers as she’s moved back to her college town), obvious willingness to work hard (3.9+ GPA with a BFA plus an Honors BS completed in four years) and just having an interesting profile as a professional ballerina.
Clearly she got pulled from the pile of resumes very frequently, she had at least 10 interviews from her first 30 applications, and for the job she’s now accepted, the company reached out proactively to her when it came up, after she’d previously interviewed with them for a temporary part-time position.
My takeaway from her experience is that firstly you need to be able to support your kid if they are going to pursue their dream after college, so don’t spend all your money on the most expensive college. And secondly, think about what their resume will look like afterwards: what on there will make you stand out to potential employers?