Should students choose useful majors?

Parents Forum
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A well-known saying goes, “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life again,” but an ironic double reading of the same maxim implies that if you spend four years studying basket weaving in school, you will in fact never work a day in your life again… because you’ll be unemployed. Basket weaving is fun, but society also has a need to produce food and feed its citizens. It has a need for people to staff its offices, factories, retail outlets, fire and police stations, hospitals – the list goes on.

It’s time for a paradigm shift. Instead of doing whatever you feel like doing at the moment, choose from the available options in the hope of optimizing future outcomes. My observation has been that those who study topics in school that have no life application end up unhappy and broke when they get out of school.

Examples close to me include my father and my brother (the former earning a master’s degree in “Asian studies”, and the latter receiving a bachelor’s in archaeology and art history). The former ended up in an average paying career that he had no passion for and was not formally trained for. The latter scrapes by as a freelance comic book illustrator, dreaming of somehow earning millions in the stock market or by publishing his own video games.

I admit, his video games are good. But since he has no training in economics or business, he’s unaware of how to grow his business using concepts like economies of scale or by circumventing market saturation and competition.

Another example is a gentleman at my work organization who has a master’s degree in “feminist liberation theology.” He’s undoubtedly a bright guy, but at almost sixty years old and after decades in a line of work unrelated to his degree, he earns less than I do with a BSBA and only one year of experience in the business field.

To conclude, life is, and should be, about happiness. But don’t forget that the ability to feed yourself and put a roof over your head also contributes to happiness. Choose a line of work that suits your abilities, strengths, weaknesses, proclivities, and interests. Sacrifice some current happiness for a lifetime of even more happiness.

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I always think in the context of the US at least, this conversation is necessarily complicated by the fact undergrad degrees are often not terminal degrees.

So I am not aware of a lot of colleges actually offering Basket Weaving as a major, but I am aware of a lot of people who have done all sorts of Humanities, Arts, or Social Sciences (aka HASS) majors that are typically on the list of majors considered insufficiently practical by some, but then they have gone on to get advanced degrees in law, medicine, finance, or so on.

I also think it is complicated by the fact your major does not define your entire college education. Just in the obvious sense you could have many additional credits for electives, possibly minors, possibly even secondary majors, and so on. But also, during that period you may also be doing things like internships and such, and all that may have a significant influence on what is available to you for next steps.

So while I do agree it is important to think practically about how your college experience will fit into your further educational and career plans, I think that question is way too complicated to be reduced to a simple “good major”/“bad major” analysis.

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The comic book guy could take a handful of classes at a CC and have the basic skills he’s lacking. He also needs to leverage his university’s Alumni association/network/career center.
The old guy needs to take a couple Gender Studies refresher courses and some business basics at a CC where his skills will be very useful to work in HR with a subspecialty in 50+ employees.

If you study something you have very little interest in you are unlikely to even finish.

Imho the issue isn’t what you study but what you do with it.

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In theory yes.

I was a history and Broadcast major and after I flamed out in TV, I was qualified for - sales. That was it.

An engineer or accountant - has a well laid path.

So yes, that’s ideal.

Except for one thing - I would have flunked out first semester.

You have to study what interests you.

And there are many many many schools that don’t have - what you’d define - as useful majors - and their students seem to do just fine.

As a parent, I had a lot less trepidation with my engineer than I do my Poli Sci / International Studies major. But guess what - she couldn’t last a week in engineering - and hopefully, it will work out just fine after graduation. But there was no other path for her but this.

The engineer had lots of offers - he was easy.

Good luck.

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Perhaps they should choose a trade. I don’t think AI will be wiring houses or unclogging toilets any time soon.

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The fallacy here is assuming that an undergraduate major needs to prepare a person for a specific job. Some majors do (accounting, for example), but most don’t. And people often follow professional paths that shift in unpredictable ways, as the economy changes. I think it’s the rare 18-year-old who knows what they want to be when they grow up and sticks with it.

People who study this sort of thing talk a lot about “soft skills” – reading, writing, research, analytical skills, and so on. These are valuable skills that could be cultivated in any number of majors and could create the foundation for a flexible and unpredictable career path that so many college grads follow. Many professions require (or benefit from) graduate training – so that would be more specific career preparation that could build upon a range of undergraduate majors. But if you look at lists of national leaders in business, law, politics, etc., you’ll find more of them who came from liberal arts backgrounds than from undergrad business schools.

Not to mention – your major isn’t the only thing you do in college. There are double-majors, minors, certificate programs, concentrations. There are also opportunities for internships and experiential/service learning. And alumni networks. Any of those could be a launching pad for a career, in addition to the major. Part of the trick to doing college well is learning how to use the resources available to you.

I’m a history professor. Our majors get jobs. They become teachers (the obvious choice, because we do happen to have a large teacher ed program), educational administrators, archivists and librarians, museum workers, and professionals in policy, nonprofit work, and community organizing – and they also follow more unpredictable paths in business and consulting. One even became a chef. Some enter the gig economy and figure it out later. Some are late bloomers. Those who go to grad school typically pursue degrees in law, history, museum studies, public health, poli sci, public policy, and library science, though we’ve had a few go off in different directions. We are not an elite college. Most of our students are local, and they are typically not wealthy.

Will they make as much as an engineer or computer science? I doubt it. But they didn’t want to follow those professions anyway. If they’d been forced to be accounting majors, they would have dropped out.

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My kids were expected to have practical majors, due to loans, so far, so good. My CPA doesn’t mind her job, because it provides her a good salary and the flexibility to pursue her passion, music, at least 20 hours a week. My finance major enjoys his job in valuations. My 23 year old wanted to be a PT since 14, she’s almost done with her DPT and has loved everything about it (and could never work a desk job, she a people person). My 21 year old finance major loves actuary science, loves math, enjoys preparing for standardized tests, prettiest geek in the room. I think it’s great if students don’t have to base their education on a future career, but some need the added insurance of a future income, I think not having to do that is a privilege that not all have (my sister and I were English majors, no loans needed for undergrad or grad school). I think with the current expense, more students might have to figure it out ahead of time.

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It’s a good idea to mix in some practical classes with what you love.

But to counter the OP’s observation with personal experience – everyone I knew who was spoke Chinese who graduated in the early to mid 80s was extremely employable, as in many offers to choose from. That cohort included Asian Studies, Art History, Poli Sci, History, and International Relations majors. There was only one thing employers were clamoring for as China began to open up, and that was proficiency in Mandarin. I have observed amongst my friends’ kids that Arabic speakers seem to have similar opportunities now.

There are degrees that are clearly preprofessional, but it doesn’t mean that someone who studies something else will never have a profession.

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S24 is majoring in Aerospace Engineering. We don’t have to worry his future career if he sticks with it. He had made up his mind of studying Engineering since a young kid after we took him to tour MIT during family vacation.

But our eighth grader D29 has no idea what she wants to study in college. She is still young, but her high school has different path/academy such as CS, ENG, BIOMED. We would like her to choose one, if possible, like her brother.

To answer OP question, I would say 'Yes". Not everybody needs to take CS and ENG. At least some major would open door to jobs with decent salary. I would not push my kids to study majors they have no interest. But I would try to develop their interest when they were younger. Hope this help.

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Such an interesting discussion. And I suppose it comes down to what is the definition of “useful.”

We are a musical family. I was raised in a family that strongly felt music was something you could do as an extracurricular, but it was never a consideration as an education or career path. I played throughout college and continue to perform to this day in various orchestras, but ended up with a health care profession and love my work as well as the stability and flexibility it affords.

My husband switched to a music degree partway through college because it was all he could see himself doing. It took him about 10 years to complete is BA because he would drop out and go on the road with a different band whenever the opportunity arose. He would give most parents fits, but he paid for his own education. Did he lose out on income and opportunities for financial stability during those 10 years? Probably. Did he have fabulous opportunities and experiences on the road? Absolutely. When he was ready to “settle down” and buy a home and start a family, he switched to teaching and completed his credential and masters degrees. He always called teaching his “day gig”, but again was happy with his choices.

Fast forward 25 years and 3 kids later. We had a decent but not huge amount of money to contribute for each college education and each kid knew that they would need to support themselves once they graduated. Our third is an amazing musician. When he was considering music performance, I remember him asking my input. He absolutely could not picture himself doing anything else. I told him to of course pursue music and that the world needs musicians like him. He secured a full merit scholarship at a great conservatory. Of course there is no guarantee of success and security in his profession. But some like my son have the combination of gifts/traits which make it possible. In no particular order: talent, the ability to self promote and seek out opportunities, absolute joy in the daily hours of practice, the ability to live on a tight budget and enjoy it, and a comfort level with the uncertainty of the profession. When I see him and his fellow conservatory classmates, not only how they perform but how they view their art as a way to touch the world, I know that this is the right decision for him. However, I would also say that if the pursuit of his dream involved coming out of school with debt we may have guided him in a safer direction.

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As a parent, I have viewed my job as trying to prepare my kids to have fulfilling lives. Most adults work the majority of their waking hours (with side forays onto CC?). Complete success in work aspect of life involves doing something 1) that you wake up in the morning wanting to do, 2) for which the world treats you well as you define being treated well, and 3) at which you are good. Criterion 1 involves enjoying the work and getting a sense of challenge from it. Criterion 2 involves sufficient income, freedom, time, good peers, etc. – however you define being treated well. Criterion 3 is almost a corollary – you probably won’t enjoy the work or get well-treated if you are not good at it.

That’s where you want to end up. A new grad does not get those opportunities up front. You have to a) figure it out as you go along; and b) pay your dues (I think I probably worked 60 to 90 hours a week as a young professor and then on Wall Street before I was able to achieve all three.

Guidance to my kids was to study what they wanted to but to end up with one practical skill or aspect of training in college. As my kids are in their early 30s, I can say that a) it is gratifying to have helped them to paths that seem to work for them; and b) I can’t seem to say the same for some of their peers in school.

ShawSon was excited about behavioral economics. As a dyslexic kid, I encouraged him to take a math course every semester – I knew he was extremely good at it – and he was an accidental math major. He co-founded a tech company in his senior year and was CEO for a year but realized it was becoming a software services company doing enterprise sales (which did not play to his or his co-founders’ strengths) instead of a company selling a specific set of tools. So, he brought in a more experienced leader and applied to grad school. His math helped him get into a premier grad school for a Masters in Computational and Mathematical Engineering and an MBA – I encouraged him to apply for those degrees and suggested when he was choosing that the best program for him, even though it was on the other side of the country. He started and got venture funding for a niche fintech company before he finished his graduate degrees. He recruited the best leader in his B-school class to be CEO. They have been working very, very hard but are achieving 30% quarter on quarter growth. ShawD was only interested in practical subjects – in HS, the only two subjects she liked were human biology and statistics. She applied to college and we thought she would study biology and go to med school. She transferred after the first semester and got admitted to an accelerated BSN/MSN program (all her idea) and at age 23 became a Family Nurse Practitioner. She loves primary care. At age 30 she became the medical director of a primary care clinic and the next year of a second clinic. She’s also studying at night for a certificate in psychiatric-mental health nursing certification, which she thinks she will use either part-time or full-time when she has kids. It will also enable her to make more money than primary care (which she says people burn out of). And, she says that in her current practice, she prescribes psychiatric drugs in a significant percentage of her patients already. In both cases, a practical major (math is practical if you are really smart and nursing is vocational) was a good first step. Even the nursing degree could have led into other directions. ShawD did some of her clinical rotations at one of the country’s premier teaching hospitals. Several doctors she worked with came up to her and said something like, “You are really smart. Do you know that you could apply to med school with a nursing undergraduate degree? I would be happy to help you.” But, she wanted to start working and likes the niche of an NP.

I think the primary purpose of an undergraduate degree is to learn how to think well in different ways. The economy is changing and jobs that exist today will not exist in 5 years. Some have already gone away. Having the intellectual training and dexterity to pick up new skills and directions will be valuable. But, to get your first job, it really helps to have studied something practical as part of the mix.

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The work I do did not exist when I was in college. I had a major and three minors in areas that people liked to joke qualified me only to wait tables. And it is true: I’ve never had a job that required all of my degree, but I use the skills every day.

This English major makes twice what her spouse with a practical degree earns. I work in CS, and have truly brilliant people working under me, including programmers with degrees in Classics and Opera Performance (and yes, people with PhDs in things like AI).

I believe no learning is ever wasted. The world changes so fast that the abilities to learn and teach and communicate matter. Study complex things at a high level. The rest works itself out.

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I’ve posted this before.

DD was an engineering major (double major biology) in undergrad. She will never work one day in her life in engineering. She loved the coursework but decided she never wanted to work in the field. And yes, she knew plenty about the engineering field. Her dad is a career engineer. She has found a different career that she finds much more satisfying…so she is fine.

DS was a music performance major in both undergrad and grad school. He has continually been working in the music field since he graduated from his masters program. Yes, he cobbles together a number of music related jobs, but he is happy being a freelancer and doing what he loves (and does well).

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I’ve worked in the finance industry for decades. There are a lot of people like me who majored in finance or economics, but I also know people who majored in things like history, politics, IR, Chinese with a minor in gender studies, anthropology, philosophy, physics and chemistry. (Those are off the top of my head, if I thought a bit longer I’m sure I could think of more.) So some “useful” majors that ended up doing something completely different (the chemistry major manages fixed income funds for example), and others that no doubt OP would think are not useful but they ended up being analysts, PMs or traders anyway. As someone above said, it’s not so much what you major in but what you do with it.

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I think the issue with the subject line here and @Shelby_Balik alluded to it - a presumption that something pre professional is useful and maybe a liberal art isn’t.

Clearly that’s not true. Many top schools have no ‘useful’ majors or few (math, Econ) in that sense.

What is the student beyond school to better themselves ? Clubs, internships, etc.

I had lunch with a friend yesterday. His niece (that he’s the parent for) is graduating from a regional state school next month. Hired by Oracle. $85k and a $25k sign on. I couldn’t believe it. My engineer son got $5k. They will train her on software implementation for NetSuite. Her major is a social science.

She’s had two internships. Applied on LinkedIn.

Experience begets experience. Those kids who step up will have better outcomes I believe, regardless of major.

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Part of the reason plumbers get paid well is that not everyone wants to work with sewers and such, in addition to it being a skilled job requiring significant education beyond high school. Electricians need to be careful around high voltages, and not everyone has the attention to detail needed. (So don’t complain about the plumber or electrician bill.)

The same used to be true for garbage collectors, before automated garbage trucks reduced the number of garbage collectors needed and reduced the need to contact the garbage. Plumbing and electrician work are not so easy to automate.

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One of my kids was a biology major, which for the most part is a stepping stone to a graduate/medical degree. Most on CC say it is a low paying major- and it could be.

Her first job out of college paid well, had excellent benefits, and paid for a required masters.

Her second job also paid very well and they offered to pay for an MPH at their affiliated university if she stayed. That was her backup
plan for her current career path.

She is back in school, but that was always her plan.

Her college friends with sociology and political science degrees are employed and supporting themselves in careers that they enjoy. Some continued their education.

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Well. Basket weavers is South East Asia would probably do very well lol.

So knowing your local is important but will actually add more tomorrow since going out now. My daughters path will be good here explaining doing what you love BUT learning how to pivot and apply it.

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I feel you need a happy medium. My parents told me to get a degree in whatever I liked as long as I felt I could support myself without help when I graduated. I loved teaching but ended up doing electrical engineering with a biomedical specialization. Sr year I picked up a major in mathematics and then got an MBA. I work in aerospace operations and love it. Hated my first job as a traditional EE in oil and gas! My husband was chemistry undergrad, realized he liked chemE better so got a masters in that with petroleumE specialization. Worked a few years and went to law school. Where you start isn’t where you end up. Son started in animal science but ended up with a BS in agricultural veterinary science. Got his DVM and is now specializing in radiology. Daughter couldn’t handle college. Has 6 credits. She works at a day care as a single mom with 2 kids. She never has been able to find what she can stick with. Majors aren’t the key, it is what you do with them and how hard you look outside your major’s box.

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I have a PhD in Slavic and now work in environmental conservation. I couldn’t be happier. I have no regrets about doing my PhD - I loved the subject and I loved learning and studying and taking classes (I didn’t love my dissertation by the end, although it did make a significant contribution to its field because it is work that had never been done comprehensively before, and basically made me one of the world’s foremost experts in a particular niche subject). It was great. I also love my current job - I am always learning new things, I get to travel to cool places on occasion, I am very fairly paid for what I do and get annual raises along with ample praise, and I feel like I am contributing to positive change in the world. And while I don’t use the specific knowledge of my degree, I constantly use the general skills I developed: critical thinking, data analysis, research and writing skills, and just the honed ability to learn. I have been trained to learn and I can take that skill anywhere to any field.

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