<p>When your children are young, the best thing you can do as they grow up is to make it clear that you value a university education, and to foster whatever interests they display. If they want to quit something (sports, art, music), tell them to give it a season first, then they can switch to something else.</p>
<p>Most of us switch careers many times, but those with a strong liberal arts background do so more easily than those trained in one narrow field.</p>
<p>LOL qialah.</p>
<p>Halcyonheather, I wouldn’t go into teaching. With math you can go into many fields. My DD2 was a math major and is now doing modeling and simulation for a company that works with the DoD. You can go into big data analysis (large companies trying to project pricing/demand data), insurance, risk analysis, pretty much anywhere.</p>
<p>@halcyonheather: I have friends who are education majors and have talked to teachers and whatnot. In my state, the salary is low for starters and back in 2008-2011, their jobs were getting cut left and right. It’s really a job that you have to love IMHO. The money-making teachers usually have taught for like 25+ years if you’re talking anything below college level teaching. This is just my state, not sure if all states are this way.</p>
<p>Halcyonheather,</p>
<p>You can do many things with a math major. In my family, three siblings were math majors and one studied physics (yeah, the odd duck). All four went on to four very different careers:
academia (math phd)
Wall Street consulting
city planning
science writing (physic major)</p>
<p>I’m not saying to avoid teaching. That’s also a great choice. A friend originally was in real estate development/consulting but somewhere along the way, he chucked that and went into teaching math in either middle or high school. He doesn’t earn as much but he is so much happier.</p>
<p>Interesting discussion. My thought in suggesting a high-school maths teacher, is that this is a job for which there should always be demand, and where you might have flexibility where you live. From the other responses, it also sounds like there are many other ways to go with a quantitative background.</p>
<p>Health care? I’m not in this field, but I would also think that it will always be in demand. Of course, the MD route sounds secure, but this requires a high level of academic ability and perserverance.</p>
<p>I also get the view that the future is not knowable, so a strong liberal arts background will suit many. This is likely to be reality, but I just wondered what people on this forum (who likely have lots of different perspectives career-wise) might view from their experiences. Because, in some respects, the discussion of colleges is related. For example, if you were thinking of going into science, your college choice may (or may not) be somewhat different than if you are going into theatre. Or gymnastics.</p>
<p>I have older kids, and I wish it were that easy. Mine are spoiled perhap, or just oburate, but they just can’t and won’t do certain jobs, and truth be known, i’ve been down on my knees lighting candles that they just graduate from college, never mind the major. It’s nice to make all of these plans, but when your kids are adults they get their own minds and many will bite off their noses to spite their faces. A lot of other issues that come to play to complicate matters. Mental, emotional, behavioral disorders rear their ugly heads in the young adult years, and sometimes you just pray you get through these years alive, never mind college degree even, and forget career path. If they can get any job, you become thankful For many of us, myself in that group, it’s a very humbling and stomach wrenching, heart breaking ride at times.</p>
<p>Tru dat cpt</p>
<p>Healthcare! Anything in that field will be stable for many years to come!</p>