She works at a grocery store now.
I have been drilling into my two young kids the need to have a meaningful degree such as an engineering degree like I have. I'm not sure how it is now for new grads in Electrical Engineering, but when I was just a junior, we were already getting approached by recruiters.
My daughter scored 35 on her ACT, and wants to be a history teacher.
I have no doubt that she will excel at whatever she does, but it seems like a little waste of potential to me. But I want her to be happy.
My youngest son got a job offer 2 weeks before he graduated with his EE degree from NIU last year.
We bring in EE interns every summer along with CE’s and usually wind up hiring the best of the best every year.
Theater arts, ugh. If that’s her main love then that’s great she went to school for it, but tell her she cannot go to school JUST for that because she is getting into an industry where she all but guaranteed to be unemployed for decades or employed where she can barely survive. Actors, performers are a dime a dozen, not even, more like a half a penny for a million. I tell kids today you have to focus on two things: MONEY first and foremost and then second what you love to do because you can’t do the latter without the first unless it’s some industry you love that makes you money. They don’t realize money is freedom that lets you do what you want otherwise most of your time will be enslaved to doing something you don’t want to do and that wastes the most valuable commodity of all: Time. I knew SOOOO many people like that when I lived in New York city who wasted their lives away in that situation. Tell her to do research and research and focus on those skill that are highly in demand and do whatever it takes to master them otherwise she’ll find herself in her 50s still working at that grocery store. Democrats LOVE people like her because they eventually become dependent on the government. But if she goes to school now and gets in demand skills she will be thanking God later on when she gets older.
For parents who can afford it and/or for students who are so inclined—what about the possibility of two degrees—one in a subject that’s of great interest but not with good employment prospects and another in an area that has better prospects for employment—my own choice would (have been) history and Electrical Engineering and I know I don’t have the smarts for EE. I also realize that this could take upwards of six years in school
Your incredibly hurtful microaggressive shaming of non-profitable academic pursuits is indicative of your privileged alignment with the bourgeois capitalist-supressive establishment.
I am glad that I that I escaped the public TV plantation and learned to fix computers back in 1999. I would still be making nothing since I wasn’t a member of the elite liberal circle assuming that I wasn’t laid off.
Granted it took a few years to finally see an actual payoff but a couple years ago, a contract gig in help desk turned into a good full time thing.
Your niece should hang on to that job at the grocery store.
Engineers from a good school (e.g., EEs from U of Illinois) rarely have problems finding very good paying jobs. It’s not a hip or easy degree. You have to study and master courses like calculus. It’s not for everyone.
If your niece is serious about majoring in engineering/STEM, I would recommend that she check out the Society of Women Engineers. It’s a good networking resource, and most universities will have an SWE chapter on campus.
http://societyofwomenengineers.swe.org/
Lately it’s suffered from somewhat from O’Sullivan’s Law (like everything else), but on a whole it’s still a good resource. I recommend that your niece consider joining once she begins her major, if only for the career and networking opportunities if nothing else.