Mistakes in Choosing College Majors

John J. Conlon, Dev Patel. 2023. “What Jobs Come to Mind? Stereotypes about Fields of Study.” Working paper, downloaded February 2023.
Check the authors’ websites for the posted paper:
sites.google.c...
dev-patel.com/
One of the most important economic decisions many people make is what to study in college. Yet students have systematically incorrect beliefs about the relationship between majors and careers.
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[@TheJeffDing]

This is channel is super underrated but I'm glad I didn't watch this video before going to college. I'm one of those people who ended up working in a different field (studied film -> am now a data scientist) and I have no regrets about my major. I'd argue that changing your career aspirations after school isn't a mistake, it's an experience that's part of the richness of life. Of course, from a purely financial perspective, this video makes sense.

[@PoliticalEconomy101]

I think she is only 12 and working on her PHD super nerd

[@karthiktadepalli7560]

There's nothing wrong with changing your aspirations after school. There is something wrong with believing false things about what you will likely do with your major. Lots of people might believe that the only outcome for a film major is to become a filmmaker, and not choose to major in film because of that - and they would be wrong, as both the paper and your experience show. I don't see how you're contradicting the paper.

[@jarrah580]

cope

[@TheJeffDing]

@@jarrah580 terminally online response

[@mujtabaalam5907]

Who?@@PoliticalEconomy101

[@jameskirchner]

A large part of the problem is that both students and counselors are aware of only a minuscule portion of the potential careers in the world, most of which you can't directly train for. Interviewing people as to how they got into their careers usually doesn't result in an image of a direct line from college to the career, but something more like a rack of billiard balls whacking each other in all different directions until one or more fall into the pocket. Most people's careers do not result from majoring in something and going for an interview, but from random meetings and opportunities that no one could have predicted. Also, studies usually only look at people's outcomes two years out, but a look at their outcomes 20 years out of college can show some surprises, such as that fine arts majors often end up out-earning architecture majors. They're obviously not earning all that from selling art, but something about a fine arts education can make them prone to building lucrative careers, such as those I know who became real estate barons or even became pediatricians.

[@jameskirchner]

Every high school girl I ask says she plans to major in psychology. Nobody tells them they have to go through the PhD to do anything with it.

[@NO1xANIMExFAN]

same with biology, biochemistry, and many other stem majors, where if you only get a degree at the bachelor's level its worthless

[@localabsurdist6661]

In most countries you don’t need to have a PhD to be a therapist

[@GoggleDumb]

Not true. You can get a master

[@jan_v_ier]

this is actually great. im glad youtube recommended this cause im applying for college rn.

[@Decoy1138]

Oh my God, real people who are not already in academia actually watch these videos! Awesome! :D

[@Decoy1138]

You should read the introduction of Magne Mogstad’s Norway paper on the effect of college and college major choice, though I don’t think they’ve Econimated it yet. And go read Mastering ‘Metrics. Good luck!

[@danny.golcman6846]

same

[@prycedavies4828]

Interesting paper. Though I argue a distinction should be made between careers where there is formal regulation of supply (lawyers and doctors, to a lesser extent nurses) versus careers without this formal regulation ( or at least not nearly to the same extent). In the former case, you can see that student's population beliefs of the conditional probability are significantly lower than their own self beliefs ( 3rd diagram) and, in the case of lawyer/doctors, closer to reality, indicating that these students do seem to overestimate their own chance of success. This probably reflects the fact that career path is clearer- i.e. get into law/med school- allowing them to more accurately assess the population conditional probability (as they have some sense of acceptance rates) and perhaps induces selection of competitive/confident individuals (therefore leading to overestimation). I think this distinction has important policy ramifications too.

[@evanoc]

College should be more than just about job training tho right? Education should be about learning and enriching yourself, not just participating in capitalism

[@Will-wb6xl]

Exactly. Additionally, bringing diverse points of view, experiences and methods of problem solving to an unrelated field can be beneficial towards solving problems in innovative ways. This video frames life as a money maximizing game, which I don't think is as obvious a truth as economists tend to believe. At the same time I recognize the risk of majoring in something with low job availability and low paying alternatives since people have to eat. The dilemma is a reflection of how capitalism assigns value and the power of capitalism to uphold those values.

[@imaginezzz2922]

Until it becomes time to put food on the table

[@wvereijssen9449]

😁

[@knasiotis1]

this paper is a literal cope, you could instead make higher education less riskier by making education free instead of making complex analysis to inform students if there is any hope they become what they dream

[@Decoy1138]

I don't think that would eliminate the risk because they'd still be losing a lot of money by not majoring in something more lucrative because of bad information.

[@Sergitor_17]

lowering the prices does not reduce at all the risk of an unsuccesfull career, it probably encourages people to take worst desicions since the return they need from education to cover the cost is lower. History, art, dance... Many people dont even try them bcz they are barely worth in terms of salary/university price, if they were free we would have more people studying for this type of careers, wich would even make it harder for them to be succesfull

[@knasiotis1]

@@Sergitor_17 You can only have a successful career in STEM. The goal of higher education shouldn't just be a successful career.

[@Sergitor_17]

@@knasiotis1Not true and not the topic. The goal of higjer education is to educate, but since its costly, people tend to only study things that have high returns

[@knasiotis1]

@@Sergitor_17you say the same thing as me