Have you guys ever had a friend or family decide they wanted to take a course that you know has absolutely no chance at getting them a decent job and is an absolute waste of money just because it's their interest? Did you support them or try you best to persuade them to take another, more useful program?
Not everybody cares about money....but you shouldn't be oblivious to the fact that you need it to survive.
Happiness is achieved by doing what you want, not by doing what someone else wants. If I were that person, i would want your support. If you thought i was a dumbass for it, I would say, "**** off!". no offense.
Then He/She will just move to Europe. If they love it why would you want to shatter a dream like that? In Europe there isn't this system where people need to make the most money in order to be seen as a success in their lives.
College degree's in most subject areas are becoming worthless so it doesn't matter that much. The only ones that are still useful are the trade ones: accounting, engineering, etc... If he was going to do a humanities degree program anyway, its really moot if its European studies or not. Best advice would be to help him figure out what types of job's he could want later and help him attempt to get practical work experience in those fields while still in college.
As an undergraduate degree, European Studies is hardly useless. In all probability, it will be a course of study that both encourages critical thinking and develops stronger writing skills. Of course, that depends on the quality of the program and the degree to which your friend applies him/herself. Undergraduate degrees also do not in any way determine which doors will be opened or closed... they may make certain entry-level jobs more easily attainable though. My current job - marketing analytics for an energy company - has absolutely no bearing on my undergraduate and graduate coursework in Chinese history... and I would consider myself successful.
A lot of people are in jobs where their degree doesn't really help them , but in some professions that particular degree is extremely important in being successful job. I guess it depends on the degree and the profession . For Ex: In order to be a Doctor , European studies wouldn't help much . But in many various business fields , i have seen friends do things that the degree doesn't matter as much as they initially thought.
You should all look at this. <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ERbvKrH-GC4?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ERbvKrH-GC4?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
Your premise is flawed; all majors have an avenue towards paying, rewarding jobs if the person has and sticks to the right plan. Furthermore, the best time in your life to follow your passion is in college, before you have family, bills or soul-crushing fear of failure. The best thing you could is research this major or career goal on your own; at Vault.com or the Bureau of Labor Statistics website, and then use your powers of harassment and personal judgement to make sure he makes the necessary social and financial sacrifices, works and studies in the right region of the country, reads the right types of books and trade publications, builds the correct type of professional network, and is willing to look at multiple, more attainable or better paying positions in the field.
Agree with everyone saying the degree doesn't really matter that much anymore. The only exception is if you end up going 50K into debt to obtain said degree. If I was going to take student loans to get a degree, I would have to be 100% positive that the degree would get me a certain type of job that I couldn't get without it (accounting, engineering, etc.)
Last I checked, most college students aren't engineering, finance, or accounting majors. Your friend is getting a liberal arts degree. He'll be like everybody else with just a BA. There's nothing wrong with it. Will he have regrets later on? Probably. But it won't ruin his life.
TEACHING is a more than honest trade, sir. The rewards are ENDLESS. Support the friend no matter what! I kid. In all seriousness, is this about a course or an entire degree program? MOREY doesn't evaluate a player based on only one game, he looks at their entire stats. I am in the "support the person no matter what they choose." Who knows, maybe they're just trying to choose something just to choose, and will realize that you may have been right in steering him into something else. If he does fail, please don't say "I told you so" to him. If this is his first choice, keep in mind that most college peeps will change their majors at least once in their lifetime. I changed mine twice... as soon as I heard that it would take me a long time to become a gynecologist.
