Just reflecting...

[Singuy]

You are assuming that they only reason they move back home is from lack of a good job. That often isn't the case. I've seen many, many examples of grads getting good jobs and still moving back home. The parents demand little of them, don't charge rent, and make the situation so comfortable that the kid never wants to leave. They earn a nice income and get to live high on the hog because their expenses are ultra low.

Another situation, as mentioned, is the kid coming out with sky high student loan debt. Even if making a decent income, having 100K of debt makes it tough for them to support that and their own household. By living at home with no expenses, they can pay down the debt and still be able to save some money to eventually get their own place.

There are lots of reasons grads move home no matter what their major was or how good of a job they get after graduation.

There is a difference between wanting to live at home due to financial responsibility vs forced to live at home because you couldn't afford rent other wise.

I am not assuming everyone who moves back in is due to a lack of a good job. I am assuming a lack of a good job is what cause them to move back home..especially when I wrote "you want them out?"..meaning that they are forced home, not giving the parents any choice.

[Mjenn]

Want them out of the house? Make sure they pick a good major.

I have to disagree with this, perhaps as someone who majored in something that sounds ridiculous but was something I was passionate and interested in. And I have not regretted it more so than I wish that I took more classes in another 'ditzy' subject because in my current situation it would have helped my career even more.

It is important that you are at least interested in what you are studying, genuinely interested. If you are starting a career in something that you are only doing for money it isn't just the 4 years of studying you have to suffer through it is the rest of your working life.

Both my brother and I majored in unlikely subjects and I moved to another country immediately after graduation and he only lived at home for 6 months while he waited for his insurance to kick in for his first job(pre obamacare his personal insurance with preexisting conditions cost more than apartment rent and he couldn't go on my parents then) and then moved out.

There are plenty of English majors working out there as there are chemists and physicists working on Wall Street and in banks, insurance, etc.

[disneysteve]

There are plenty of English majors working out there as there are chemists and physicists working on Wall Street and in banks, insurance, etc.

With rare exception, your major really doesn't matter all that much. It's getting the degree that matters. Even in the professional fields, like medicine, you don't need to be a science major. I had plenty of classmates in medical school who had undergraduate degrees in English, history, mathematics, music, etc. As long as they had enough science credits to meet the admission requirements, they were able to get into med school.

Some careers, like engineering, need a dedicated program. Most careers do not.

[Singuy]

With rare exception, your major really doesn't matter all that much. It's getting the degree that matters. Even in the professional fields, like medicine, you don't need to be a science major. I had plenty of classmates in medical school who had undergraduate degrees in English, history, mathematics, music, etc. As long as they had enough science credits to meet the admission requirements, they were able to get into med school.

Some careers, like engineering, need a dedicated program. Most careers do not.

And yet somehow we have an epidemic of college graduates without good paying jobs and high student loans.....

44% of college grads are in a job that doesn't require a degree

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-06/college-grads-stuck-with-low-wages-as-hiring-in-u-s-heats-up

Yes, there are English degree recipients making 450k/year working on wall street, but even more by ____X working at starbucks serving these wall street giants.

If you are part of the 44% who either ended up wasting hundreds of thousands of your parents money or you are in student loan debt, then you are doing this wrong.

[Singuy]

Just to point out another statistic.

Only 59% of college students graduate with a degree after 4-6 years.

https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=40

20.5 million students attend an American college a year.

Out of 20.5 million students, only 12.1 million ends up with a degree.

Then 44% of them ends up with a job that doesn't even require a degree which means only 6.8 million students out of 20.5 million didn't waste their time and money.

This means about 67% of college attendees(majority since we are pass 50%) waste time and money. If you are going to school for Art History, then you are paying for a college experience and a hobby...kind of like the last vacation I took..an experience.

It is absolutely irresponsible for people on this forum to encourage people to go to college without a second thought on major picking....or to tell people "studying English is fine..my aunt studied English and now she's a millionaire". Do you guys not want people be financial responsible? Having people falling into the 67% category is almost a sure way to be doomed financially...and if they turned out okay..it's still a huge hole to dig out of.

[disneysteve]

And yet somehow we have an epidemic of college graduates without good paying jobs and high student loans......

How much of that is due to choice of majors and how much is due to the state of the job market?

Only 59% of college students graduate with a degree after 4-6 years.

I think there are some problems with just looking at that number out of context. First off, that is only people who graduated from the same school that they started at. We often talk about doing 2 years at community college and then finishing at a 4-year school. Kids who do that wouldn't be counted in this stat. Neither would someone who transferred schools partway through for whatever reason, even if they graduated on time.

Also, the rate is a much higher 88% at schools that actually require some sort of admission application rather than just letting everyone in. That makes sense, obviously, since you're then dealing with a higher caliber of students who are likely more committed to what they're doing.

Another factor which is just touched on in the article is that a 4-year degree isn't as useful as it once was. Many places now want a graduate degree even for entry level positions. That doesn't make the undergrad degree worthless, of course, since you can't go on to earn the graduate degree without first having the undergrad degree.

[Singuy]

Well

"However despite this need, liberal arts majors (who are historically more focused on communications) were shown to be the least likely to land a job, with only 2% of companies actively recruiting those graduates – versus 27% for engineering and computer information systems and 18% for business. "

http://millennialbranding.com/2014/multi-generational-job-search-study-2014/

Last time I checked, we are losing manufacturing jobs due to globalization and automation. There are plenty of high level tech jobs/medical jobs.

Job market in the liberal arts has two things going against them.

1. Employers are not looking for liberal arts recipients.
2. There are too many liberal arts recipients...seriously..half the school of students are getting this degree because it's the study of everything..

[TexasHusker]

I have a degree in English. Pretty worthless.

I have done the following:

Hotel management

Hospital marketing

Managed Care contracting

Physician recruitment

Hospital administration


And now I own few haircut franchises, a vacation property management company, and a few vacation rentals.


Shakespeare, Machiavelli, and Chaucer taught me something !

[disneysteve]

I have a degree in English. Pretty worthless

Not worthless at all because I'm sure that at least a few of those jobs required you to be a college grad. It made no difference what your major was as long as you had a degree, right?

That's a great list that shows how little importance your major is for many fields.

[Singuy]

Not worthless at all because I'm sure that at least a few of those jobs required you to be a college grad. It made no difference what your major was as long as you had a degree, right?

That's a great list that shows how little importance your major is for many fields.

And Bill Gates doesn't even have a degree..his resume crushes yours Texas.

We can cherry pick all day. Truth is, some people are destined to do great things..degree or no degree. Most people can't..especially with a useless degree.

[TexasHusker]

And Bill Gates doesn't even have a degree..his resume crushes yours Texas.

We can cherry pick all day. Truth is, some people are destined to do great things..degree or no degree. Most people can't..especially with a useless degree.

To your point, I was never asked my major, nor my GPA (2.05 I believe).

But yes, the sheepskin was a prerequisite.

[Gailete]

I would have to go through my freshman and senior year yearbooks to get the correct numbers, but when I went to college, by the time I graduated, I was the ONLY female student that had been there 4 years straight! The stats may have twiddled the numbers and made it look like most of the girls became drop outs or Mrs. and so didn't complete college. What really happened to many of them was the took two years in the middle of college to get their nursing diploma and then came back for their fourth year and actually graduated with me. Others such as my roommate, took a year off to work so they could finish college. I would guess that close to 80-90% actually finished but not necessarily within 4 years. I wish I had thought about the nursing route for myself instead of taking four years of college where I got a somewhat useful degree and then having to go back to school in my 30's to become a nurse so I could get away from my ex.

Statistics never tell the whole story because they don't ask the whole story. I don't know how many polls I have come up against that never give any kind of leeway for unusual circumstances. And if I had unusual circumstances, then I am sure others did as well.

I can say this that my 4 years at college were four of the best years of my life. I may not have gotten a job paying out oodles of money but that was my intent in the first place. As I was at a very small college, I became surrounded by people that liked me and appreciated me. I hated to come home. So even though I didn’t come out making money, those four years were very special to me and left me changed forever.

[disneysteve]

Truth is, some people are destined to do great things..degree or no degree. Most people can't..especially with a useless degree.

Thank you. This is my point exactly. It isn't the major that determines your success. What matters is who you are, how you present yourself, how quickly you pick up new skills and apply your abilities to the task at hand, how well you communicate, how well you work with others, how dependable you are, etc.

The biggest complaint I hear from employers I speak to is that they can't find workers who will show up consistently and do the job. They don't care if the person has a degree in business administration or art history. What they care about is that the person comes in on time every day, dressed appropriately, and does their job dependably.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying that major doesn't matter at all. If your aspiration is to be an accountant, you're probably going to have a tough time getting hired with a degree in women's studies and no business training, but there are lots and lots of jobs where the major isn't relevant, only having a degree is.

[Gailete]

The biggest complaint I hear from employers I speak to is that they can't find workers who will show up consistently and do the job. They don't care if the person has a degree in business administration or art history. What they care about is that the person comes in on time every day, dressed appropriately, and does their job dependably.

I have a friend that hired a guy who has a stupendous work ethic when at work. Learns quickly and does his job well. Unfortunately he also has a problem with showing up for work on Mondays AND doesn't bother to call off leaving his boss in a pickle. He did it again this Monday and I haven't heard yet how it was handled. He doesn't have a degree, but as you say, he is doing one of the biggest employer complaints.

[disneysteve]

I just wanted to apologize to Thrift-t because this thread went totally off topic and became all about college, not what happens after college.

Personally, I don't think one's major determines whether or not they move back home. I think there's a lot more to it than that.