Political Crossfire Forums

If you have a kid that is starting college and wants to take a "bullshit" major, is it your duty as a parent to steer him/her away from it? Let's define "bullshit" major as one where he/she is unlikely to find a sustainable paying job with given today's job projection for the next four years. There is a chance that your son or daughter will land a high paying job with this major, but very slim. Let's say the average pay for the current graduate of this major is $30K in the Bay Area. The debt accumulated from going to the school is estimated to be $50K.

Is it your responsibility as a parent to tell your kid to wise up and learn something else instead? Or as a parent should you let them make their own choices?

I would say that there is nothing necessarily wrong with at least warning them that it won't be fruitful. Plenty could say that an Ed major isn't good because teachers don't make sh!t. I had several teachers in elementary/high school that had two jobs to pay their bills, but they taught/teach because they see it as fulfilling.

Not cosigning is a little harsh, don't you think?

Doesn't pretty much everyone have to go to professional school these days in order to have any kind of stability (if that)? You can get a degree in basket weaving but if your LSAT score is good or otherwise off the charts the former doesn't matter except maybe for the top three schools. Really what matters is the undergrad school ranking (obviously) and any scores someone gets for professional school applications (MCAT, LSAT, etc.) I'd say the content of undergrad majors doesn't really matter much other than intellectual experimentation, which is why business schools even tell potential applicants they aren't particularly interested in undergrad business majors. The only thing undergrad major could count for maybe is if you're planning to go to grad school in some sort of specialized field (so Chemistry major applying fresh with no background to Sociology PhD programs would be stuck).

To answer the op then, I wouldn't care if my kids' undergrad majors were seemingly "useless" because I'd expect them to either be entrepreneurs or get some other kind of advanced education beyond college. I would of course say to them they should pick majors they are genuinely interested in because that leads to a) higher GPAs and more importantly b) an organic form of intellectual development which may enable them to see interesting and unexpected connections across fields.