A Major Decision

It seems that lately my personal life has been dominated by questions about “next year,” “next phase of life,” “what do you plan to do after….”  Actually, not so much my life, but my kids. All 3 are in the last year of their respective schools right now.

My youngest finishes elementary school in a few weeks and that will mark the end of a 13 year run with having a child at that school. He is off to middle school, where my middle  guy is wrapping up an interesting 3 year tenure before moving on to the high school where my daughter just finished her last final exam. She’s off to college next year. Wow, has time just flown by!

With all 3 kids changing schools, there are a lot of questions from friends, parents of other kids, etc. about what next year looks like and I find myself asking her friends about their plans also.  And, I just chaperoned a post-prom event (actually got to be a blackjack dealer in the casino room which was a blast!) and once we set up the event, the parents huddled around the coffee machine to talk about what all the kids are doing post-high school graduation. It’s funny; we talked about how little payback there is for going to a high-priced school unless there is a definite career path based on the major.

“Why get an anthropology degree from an Ivy League school?”  That was an exact quote from one of the other blackjack dealers/parents at post-prom.  As parents who are working in a challenging economy, we’d like to see our kids graduate and have at least a reasonable shot at getting a job.  Right after the conversation about the anthropology degree, I read this article about not letting your kids choose 5 majors.

  1. Architecture
  2. Fine Arts
  3. Philosophy/Religious Studies
  4. Anthropology/Archaeology
  5. Film, Video, Photographic Arts

Why not?  There is no “market value” to those degrees.  Yep, the world needs anthropologists but if you spend $160,000 ($40k/yr for 4 years) on that degree and finance it with student loans, your child will start their life with the equivalent of a monthly mortgage payment without the home.

Learning for the sake of learning has a place; learning about an area of great interest has a place; learning for the sake of developing a career is becoming increasingly more important as this economy continues to present challenges. The good news in the article is that it didn’t just say “don’t do THIS” but offered up some thoughts on majors that have some market value.  These 5 majors have some value in the workplace right now:

  1. Accounting
  2. Elementary Education
  3. Finance
  4. Business Administration & Management
  5. Health Care Administration

For my daughter, who is going to be an elementary education major, this is good news. Because of the choice of major, the cost of her education is going to be manageable (a smaller state college rather than a pricey private university) and she will have fairly good employment prospects upon graduation. I feel good about her future.

As a parent, I would have supported her had she chosen anthropology but would have tried to steer her toward that as a minor or dual major with an “employer friendly” major.  I’ve talked to too many recent college grads who wish that their parents would’ve had a “here’s the real deal” conversation with them about post-college employment and the ability to pay off student loans.  If you’ve got a child or relative or friend with a student who is considering college in the next several years, send this article to them or talk to them about it.  Starting off their post-college life without a job and with massive student loan balances isn’t the surest path toward financial security.   You might just put them on a better path.

 

 

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