Why I deeply dislike your older boyfriend

[DarkLight]

Right.

If they’re familiar beforehand with the but you’re special!/you’re so mature!/you’re not like all the other girls lines, it hopefully won’t turn their heads so much.

These are good to know even if the guy isn’t older.

 

[Xantippe]

I had a professor tell me once about non-profits workers making 6 figures.

Yeah, but way, way, way up the food chain. The rank and file don’t make that.

Faculty positions sometimes pay this.

**Yes. But those jobs are hotly competed for, and in the humanities, it takes a long time to work up to a $100k, even given a tenure track job at a good college. (I know a thing or two about college salaries, as I’ve been a faculty wife the past 14 odd years.) I have heard that science professors and business professors are often more generously compensated than humanities professors. **

The issue with liberal arts and the humanities is that there are not very many faculty openings.

**I’d correct that a bit. There aren’t a lot of good jobs, but there are a lot of so-so or bad jobs.

Interestingly, I know that a number of humanities stars that make around a quarter million a year. But there aren’t a lot of those. **

I think your daughter will be fine if she majors in CS or business and double majors in art, assuming she can pass all of her classes and graduate.

**I think I’d try to pawn her off with just a minor in art and I’d be happy with just a minor in business.

I’m pretty sure she’ll probably wind up doing a double major or having a minor. The possibilities I’ve talked to my husband for her are classics, linguistics, math, engineering (?), computer science, etc. Classics plus math plus a teaching certificate would be very marketable, I think, or math plus art plus a teaching certificate, or really any combination of subjects that are also taught at the high school level. **

If she’s really talented at art, that’s one thing, but I think you may need to have the “not everyone gets into the MLB/NBA” type of talk if she just wants to do art. :yup:

I don’t think she’s really talented at art, but she’s talented enough that some more art training, combined with a “hard” major could produce a lot of synergy. (Sorry for using that word!)

I would never fund just an art major.

I was just listening to Tuesday’s Dave Ramsey show, and a woman just called in with $80k in debt from an unfinished journalism degree 8 years ago. So, one for your files. I think that’s the worst debt for an unfinished degree that I know of. (A strong contender is one of my cousins that bailed on her medical program $64k in debt into it.)

 

[Xantippe]

These are good to know even if the guy isn’t older.

Yeah.

A thing to bear in mind is that “You’re not like all the other girls!” may mean more or less, “You’re not like all the other girls, because they’ve figured me out already, and you haven’t yet.”

 

[Kelfa28]

I don’t think she’s really talented at art, but she’s talented enough that some more art training, combined with a “hard” major could produce a lot of synergy. (Sorry for using that word!)

I would never fund just an art major.

I was just listening to Tuesday’s Dave Ramsey show, and a woman just called in with $80k in debt from an unfinished journalism degree 8 years ago. So, one for your files. I think that’s the worst debt for an unfinished degree that I know of. (A strong contender is one of my cousins that bailed on her medical program $64k in debt into it.)

I just had to comment on this.
I’m glad you wouldn’t fund an art major. I was a BFA major in ballet pedagogy when I was 18. Biggest mistake of my entire life…if there was anything I regret…it’s this.

I bailed on the program about 20K in debt. That was a total bear to pay off and I handicapped myself because no school would take the credits I had earned that first year…unless they were counted as an elective.

If your child is truly gifted in art, music, dance…whatever….there is no reason for them to go to college for it. It’s far cheaper for them to go out into the real world for a few years, work in retail or something and start attending auditions, open mics or art shows to get your name out there.
If you’re discovered and hit it big…that’s awesome. If a few years go by and nothing comes of it…that’s fine but maybe it’s time to rethink that business degree or throw in an application to nursing school.

At 17 I had auditioned around at some local dance companies and between my mom’s and one of my other dance teacher’s connections (both on boards for one or more of these local companies) I had gotten in and could have performed with them. But, I got accepted into my first choice school soon after and wanted the degree and the chance to perform.

I really should have either applied to nursing school or something else in the medical field (something else I was interested in) and gone to rehearsals and performances at night.

Now I am playing catch up. Trying to get a degree in a STEM program while a mom and a wife with a mortgage and all the other wonderful trappings of adult hood. At least I don’t have to worry about debt thanks to the US military.
I also tested out of any remedial programs and got a large majority of my core classes done at a local CC and transferred everything to the University with the program I wanted to major in. That has helped me out a lot.

 

[Xantippe]

I just had to comment on this.
I’m glad you wouldn’t fund an art major. I was a BFA major in ballet pedagogy when I was 18. Biggest mistake of my entire life…if there was anything I regret…it’s this.

I bailed on the program about 20K in debt. That was a total bear to pay off and I handicapped myself because no school would take the credits I had earned that first year…unless they were counted as an elective.

If your child is truly gifted in art, music, dance…whatever….there is no reason for them to go to college for it. It’s far cheaper for them to go out into the real world for a few years, work in retail or something and start attending auditions, open mics or art shows to get your name out there.
If you’re discovered and hit it big…that’s awesome. If a few years go by and nothing comes of it…that’s fine but maybe it’s time to rethink that business degree or throw in an application to nursing school.

At 17 I had auditioned around at some local dance companies and between my mom’s and one of my other dance teacher’s connections (both on boards for one or more of these local companies) I had gotten in and could have performed with them. But, I got accepted into my first choice school soon after and wanted the degree and the chance to perform.

I really should have either applied to nursing school or something else in the medical field (something else I was interested in) and gone to rehearsals and performances at night.

Now I am playing catch up. Trying to get a degree in a STEM program while a mom and a wife with a mortgage and all the other wonderful trappings of adult hood. At least I don’t have to worry about debt thanks to the US military.
I also tested out of any remedial programs and got a large majority of my core classes done at a local CC and transferred everything to the University with the program I wanted to major in. That has helped me out a lot.

All’s well that ends well!

Best wishes!

 

[technatrix]

I don’t think she’s really talented at art, but she’s talented enough that some more art training, combined with a “hard” major could produce a lot of synergy. (Sorry for using that word!)

I would never fund just an art major.

Well, I like to plug comp sci for women as much as possible (because I’m tired of the conferences and codefests I go to being mostly full of bro-grammers), but if she’s decent at math, a CS degree with a graphic design heavy art double major or minor can be a hot ticket in the right sectors of the market. One of my friends from college went that route and is a co-owner of a pretty neat little start up now. Graphic design and programming are also both feasible work from home jobs, if that’s what she ends up wanting to do. And, if she likes sort of nerdy guys, the odds are good of meeting a lot of them in a computer field. The goods can be sort of odd, though.

 

[Xantippe]

Well, I like to plug comp sci for women as much as possible (because I’m tired of the conferences and codefests I go to being mostly full of bro-grammers), but if she’s decent at math, a CS degree with a graphic design heavy art double major or minor can be a hot ticket in the right sectors of the market. One of my friends from college went that route and is a co-owner of a pretty neat little start up now. Graphic design and programming are also both feasible work from home jobs, if that’s what she ends up wanting to do. And, if she likes sort of nerdy guys, the odds are good of meeting a lot of them in a computer field. The goods can be sort of odd, though.

Thanks!

 

[SuperLuigi]

Yeah.

A thing to bear in mind is that “You’re not like all the other girls!” may mean more or less, “You’re not like all the other girls, because they’ve figured me out already, and you haven’t yet.”

 

[Sophie_Lawrence]

Honestly, humanities professors at non-profit colleges don’t tell anybody that they’re going to make six figures–at least none that I know of. And I bet the Celtic Studies people are almost certainly not doing that. In any case, you’d need a doctorate to teach (even the community colleges more and more want doctorates rather than MAs–yet another example of credential creep).

The most likely to be shady in their promises of high future earnings are for-profit colleges or for-profit vocational programs. (Believe it or not, there are some horror stories involving culinary arts programs.)

I suspect a lot of artsy majors look a lot better once you tack on a business minor (or something along those lines).

(One of my kids has been saying she wants to study art in college, which is concerning, but it might not be that bad combined with either business, communications or some computer stuff.)

Or she can study art history and education. Teaching art is is a good profession.