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No I'm not Ruth. If they paid me I'd be a professional student. I loved school.
But it gets mighty expensive to keep taking classes that may not count towards any major
With today's 18 year olds not being ready to figure out what they want to be, taking time off may be a good idea, work whatever job they can, see what happens. It could give them focus on what to pursue. Who knows, maybe the company will pay for them to go to college. DirecTV and Comcast both sent my son for various certifications, so he can do more in the company then the position he has right now. He's very good as a fix it guy for more then just cable. My dad and I are also fix it types, my dad used to specialize in car wiring issues. He was also very good at math which the oldest is too. My dad loved computers which I used to build and fix. He also was a medic which my daughter could go into the medical field.
Not everyone is college material, I'm thankful my son dropped out of computer animation. He liked to draw, he is not the type to do computer art. That $20k was a pretty expensive first year lesson. His two roommates both went 3 or 4 years, I'm glad we're not stuck with that debt. One started to get into the computer animation field after graduation but he could not land a job doing it.
There are many kids taking college who will be screaming they were lied to about going, now they're stuck with $30k of debt that will grow over the next 5 to 20 years into a few hundred thousand dollars.
I'd think more people would have their eyes open about kids starting college straight out of high school with all the student loan issues during COVID. I'd think more people would have seen what a mess we have with student loan debt.
Maybe OP's kid is no where near ready to figure out what he wants to study. It's good that the OP is asking questions. They should know their own kid and whether they should take time off before going.
I know someone who's son wanted a Navy career that not many kids qualify for straight out of high school. He beat out kids to be picked to go to the Navy college, graduated, then enlisted which ended up not working out. Last I spoke to his mother, he was waiting for a medical discharge. Thankfully the Navy won't want to be reimbursed for his college.
I also hope he can turn what he learned into a good career outside of the military. I don't recall what he was specializing in before his health declined.
My kid is approaching college application age. I asked what he might want to major in, he gave pretty shocking answers to me. His top choices are:
1. Anthropology
2. History
3. "Something related to society and culture"
I know all about the debate to let kids choose what they want to study; hopefully we can bypass that. My issue here is, an anthropology degree seems very very useless to me. (and History is a close second)
I asked him why he's interested in anthropology, and he says he's just curious about human behaviors and how humans came about. Is this a good enough reason?! Not quite to me. I wonder if there is something else.
So I want to ask the education experts... What are the most common reasons people may choose to study anthropology?
What a delightful son you have! He hopes to be an educated person, in the true sense of the word. I have a friend who majored in anthropology - but went on afterward into department store merchandising. Another friend was a history major - who went on to work for a major printing company.
Since today's age 18, is yesterday's age 13, it pretty unreasonable to ship a totally inexperienced 'schooled only' kid off to the academic rigor and expectations of career bound, when their mind, dreams & desires are galaxy's away. (and their tangible LIFE / WORK experience and exposure is ZERO).
A gap yr is very beneficial to the undecided, and military is an available option for some (the strong and motivated).
Boys especially, need to gain their confidence by making their own way. Sometimes that way is a detour, sometimes it's a destination. But either way... it's valuable experience, exposure, and a challenge to conquer.
As a PT Prof, I see and tolerate a lot of 'I don't know if I want to be here" They are no help to the course, cohort, deliverable. Don't waste their time and money. Set them free to take flight.
Age 18-22 is such a one-time gift. Don't blow it on camping out in a classroom when you could be soaring, and come back to Earth if / when necessary. Youth can be so amazing... and such a heartbreak.
If I could go back to that age, I would absolutely spend those years in a classroom. I languished for several years before I figured out what I wanted to do, and finally settled into a career by 26. But I wasted those "college years". Didn't get my degree until after I was 30. I'd not do that again.
What a d!ck. What's so special about CPAs? Nothing. I have way more respect for cops than for accountants.
This is hilarious! But maybe we should respect accountants, because some of them have control over our tax returns! Better cozy up, or things may not go do well for you with the IRS. But seriously, one reason we respect cops, is that they face potential death every day. Accountants have it cushy in that regard.
But I think the parents who want their kids to be accountants are thinking, that it's a career offering services that will always be in demand. IOW: steady employment. And the pay's pretty good. Some parents operate from fear that their precious spawn will choose a field with iffy employability, or a field they don't understand, because it's something that developed more recently, as social and scientific innovations created new fields of specialization, and demands for skills that were unheard of in the parents' day.
Some parents live in a bubble they inhabited when going to college and joining the work world in their early adult years. They're not able to trust their college-aged kids to make sound choices oriented toward the future the kids are facing as they enter adulthood.
My kid is approaching college application age. I asked what he might want to major in, he gave pretty shocking answers to me. His top choices are:
1. Anthropology
2. History
3. "Something related to society and culture"
I know all about the debate to let kids choose what they want to study; hopefully we can bypass that. My issue here is, an anthropology degree seems very very useless to me. (and History is a close second)
I asked him why he's interested in anthropology, and he says he's just curious about human behaviors and how humans came about.
Is this a good enough reason?! Not quite to me. I wonder if there is something else.
So I want to ask the education experts... What are the most common reasons people may choose to study anthropology?
My answer: Because they want to delay working at Starbucks for 4 years.
What could you use it for? Well, consider this scenario: You are escaping from a hostile country and come across a mass burial ground. What information must you gather so even if you don't live to tell, the information gets out so the "Allies" know and deliver sanctions or other such actions against the country?
What could you use it for? Well, consider this scenario: You are escaping from a hostile country and come across a mass burial ground. What information must you gather so even if you don't live to tell, the information gets out so the "Allies" know and deliver sanctions or other such actions against the country?
If I'm in an evasion and escape situation, I'm focused on getting me out alive, not gathering evidence for a war crimes trial years later.
If I'm in an evasion and escape situation, I'm focused on getting me out alive, not gathering evidence for a war crimes trial years later.
No loyalty for your organization or for that matter, your country.......why did they bother to hire you in the first place?
Now, this is part of this topic because if one is in it only for their own skin with no dedication to the organization, then one better have a dynamite degree with top marks.............if they are going to bother to hire one at all.
Even if we aren't talking spy......and that would be 99% of the time, what level of dedication does one have to be out there in the field, process the information properly, and come back so their superiors know as if they actually have been there........or that the case doesn't fail when they are digging up the remains of a kidnapped child?
If one isn't coming back with the information they need, then what are they paying one for?
Now, for our OP, one thing one might want to consider in anthropology are the skills on the side to be able to get out there, get on site, like a scuba certification, foreign languages, maybe a pilot's licence. To the FL.....one of the cases I was taught in was them trying to identify the bones of someone. They had a possible but when they got the dental records, in Spanish, the diagram had the rear molars crossed out.....and their skull had a full set of teeth.
Since they did not have an interpreter, the records were misread for they were juvi records and the crosses were of full molars not yet erupted.
In forensics, the better one can read the records.....and it is a lot of record reading....the more worth they are.
Last edited by TamaraSavannah; 11-02-2023 at 06:12 AM..
The study of anthropology involves statistical analysis and chemistry (carbon dating and all sorts of materials knowledge). It may sound like a “fluff” degrees, but it's not.
Recently, I met a former pre-med professor. He uses his chemistry knowledge to restore art. He's pulling down big bucks - bigger than he made as a professor. Life is funny.
LOL. Anthropology is routinely listed as among the easiest college degrees to obtain, and often the #1 easiest. Bonehead chemistry is required for a lot of degrees in college. That is meaningless for how hard overall a degree is to obtain.
Anthropology is most definitely one of the easiest degrees to get for lazy students to skate through college. It is also one of the least marketable. You reap what you sow.
His second choice of History is pretty easy as well. It is obvious that the son doesn't want to work hard in college. There is a strong possibility the son does not want to go to college at all and is just doing it to please Dad, and so is picking anything to get it over and done with, but I can't read his mind. Maybe he is one of the few people who really is rivetted by Anthropology. I don't know. If he was, he would be committed to it, not considering other things too.
He reads like he is just trying to get through college with a certainty of graduating with a more easily obtained major.
Last edited by Igor Blevin; 11-02-2023 at 05:57 AM..
I don't agree that engineering takes you out of the rat race at all.
There's better jobs if you want to just do well in school and have a relatively chill job. For example, audiologist.
Engineering is not a true restricting degree, it's a very hierarchical career, and it's competitive. Many people who have a primary focus of making money will enter engineering (as evidenced here), so I'm competing against those people.
Nursing is a better example but a physically difficult job
I didn't call engineering the only example or the best example. I was simply comparing a HARD major that is marketable and translates into a ready job, with the easy major of Anthropology, whch is very difficult to translate into a ready job.
In a different post, I was making a distinction between a marketable degree like engineering and one like say, art. An art degree is useless. Everything with art is about the skill of the artist. Your portfolio is way more important than the degree you are issued from college. Meanwhile, that engineering degree implies that you have learned a known set of difficult mathematical skills in college and that you can apply those skills in the workplace. You don't usually have to show your mastery of calculus in your job interview, the way an artist has to show his past work portfolio.
Yes, engineering consultants have to hustle for work. Some engineers are hired by the contract and have to hustle for a new contract after each one expires. By and large, most engineers do not have to be particular go-getters to obtain and retain employment, unlike many of your unmarketable careers.
Your post merely fine-tunes my point. It doesn't negate it.
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" They are no help to the course, cohort, deliverable. Don't waste their time and money. Set them free to take flight. 
