What would you tell your kid if they wanted to major in medieval history??

Let a person enjoy his life wrote:

I say let them make their own choices and live with the results. I majored in Geology because I enjoyed it. My dad disagreed, because he saw low job prospects, but I have had a great career and will retire early. My best friend's daughter was an art history major. She probably makes more than I do, and met and married a person who is also well established in a great career- because he found her enchanting. I know a person who majored in French. She makes a huge income, translating for a corporation who does business with France.

Who knows? At least they followed their heart and enjoyed college. The rest of their lives might be less rewarding intellectually, but also might not be. In my opinion, it's worth the risk!

How does an art history major make big scratch?????

Also, the French major got lucky BIG TIME.

The top financial firms concentrate their hiring on liberal arts college majors from elite colleges, because they are interested in smart, conscientious, hard-working people who know how to approach diverse problems they have never encountered.

jjjjj wrote:

The top financial firms concentrate their hiring on liberal arts college majors from elite colleges, because they are interested in smart, conscientious, hard-working people who know how to approach diverse problems they have never encountered.

No they don't. They want people with Finance, Engineering and STEM degrees.

jjjjj wrote:

The top financial firms concentrate their hiring on liberal arts college majors from elite colleges, because they are interested in smart, conscientious, hard-working people who know how to approach diverse problems they have never encountered.

having rich connected daddies don't hurt neither

MarcusM wrote:

This is nuts?

Nope. I'd enlist in the program too.

My father was a classics major with a specialization in Greek and Latin languages. I can assure you that his degree did not hold him back in life- quite the opposite, really.

You dishona! You dishona our entire famry!

If your dad is well connected like mine you can major in whatever you want. I got a part time college job as a personal assistant (secretary, wink wink) for an executive of a major corporation thanks to my dad. All uphill after that.

The world needs ditch diggers too, Danny.

College is an investment. Dropping hundreds of thousands of dollars on a medieval history degree is a poor investment. If he wants to pursue his intellectual interests and study medieval history in order to become a teacher or a librarian or whatever, more power to him; just be sure do it at state school.

MarcusM wrote:

This is nuts?

It worked out well for Carly Florina.

naumburger Meister wrote:

MarcusM wrote:

This is nuts?

It worked out well for Carly Florina.

Kate Middleton studied art history and has been pretty successful.

My concentration was Medieval and Renaissance History. Also took every course under the sun, from Shakespeare to finite cellular automata and "space, time, and motion"; as a result, my transcript resembled a drunken shotgun pattern.

I loved it, but learned little and understood less. (No twenty year old understands history.) I've never used my major in my career --who cares? -- and have no regrets; I've been able to make a decent living. The purpose of the liberal arts is to train your mind for a lifelong education. Mine's still ongoing, and I re-read those old books to this day.

My grandfather, who as a farmer and carpenter, was among the most practical men you could ever meet, had only a high school education. However, he read deeply every night ala Harry Truman, and believed very strongly that the purpose of college was leisure (cf. Joseph Pieper). Four years devoted to study; the rest of your life is given over to work.

If it was my son, I would tell him to go have sex instead.

If it was my daughter, I would tell her to go ahead and major in it.

TAA wrote:

naumburger Meister wrote:

It worked out well for Carly Florina.

Kate Middleton studied art history and has been pretty successful.

A liberal Arts education has a lot of benefits. However, if your kid is stuck on that particular major, it will be tough to find a job. If they have a passion for teaching, then great. I would opt for a State School however. Save some money for a good Grad school or maybe even Law School.

Jah No Partial wrote:

Major doesn't matter if you go to a top school. Liberal arts get consulting jobs, finance, anything.

I work for a top 20 MBA program and this is the truth. A liberal arts undergrad + an MBA = great for recruiting. Even as a straight undergrad degree, at a good college with solid recruiters, the ops in business/well compensated corporate roles abound for liberal arts students. The "medieval history" part is less important than the writing/analysis/research/dealing with unstructured data. Those are transferable skills from the liberal arts that recruiters value. Even working with our undergraduate business majors, consultants will talk to pretty much any major if they can demonstrate critical thinking skills. Some quant folks who are brilliant and have great GMATS can't progress in interview rounds b/c they want to flip to the back of the case for the data set to analyze and don't spend a lot of time thinking how to find that data... the orig problem solving zone is where a lot of high paying jobs are going.

That said, I have a friend from undergrad (20+ yrs ago) who got the same degree in Medieval history, then got her PhD in it, and is now a professor in same.

So, there is a career path there, but obviously tenured professorships are rare and you're at mercy of the university openings on any given year.

End of day, undergrad majors matter very little if you plan to go on to grad school.

what school, what plan wrote:

I work for a top 20 MBA program and this is the truth. A liberal arts undergrad + an MBA = great for recruiting.

You work for an MBA program, promoting MBA programs as a good choice. They are not. The people who need an MBA need it for letters to justify their father gifting them an officer's position in the family business, or therabouts.

MBAs are dead ends unless your path is set. Period.

I would tell him we joust at dawn.