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Re: Big news! 

By: nacl01 in 6TH POPE | Recommend this post (2)
Sun, 28 Feb 21 12:34 AM | 36 view(s)
Boardmark this board | 6th Edition Pope Board 		Msg. 13314 of 60008
(This msg. is a reply to 13312 by Decomposed)
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Wonderful story about your son. Sounds like he is heading for a great career.

My daughter is also quite talented in both art and music. I told her that they were excellent HOBBIES but, if I was paying for college she would major in something that would give her a better chance of earning a living. (She had a flute teacher who played occasionally with the local community orchestra, but had to work as unskilled labor at a nursing home to make ends meet.)

She graduated in 2019 with BS degrees in Electrical Engineering and Math. Being talented, she made several friends in the art department. She is talking about asking a few of them to do works for her. She understands my reasoning, now.

nacl

At graduation she had at least two schools recruiting her for grad school, but she had had enough of school - ‘at least for now’.

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The above is a reply to the following message:
Re: Big news!
By: Decomposed in 6TH POPE
Sat, 27 Feb 21 11:33 PM 		Msg. 13312 of 60008

micro:

Re: “where he wants to further his knowledge and future career path”Virginia has a program called "Gov School" that it awards to top high school students. It provides an all-expenses-paid month at a Virginia college, with intense study of a single discipline, with 40 or 50 similarly focused students. It is, more or less, a boot camp for talented kids. Dozens of topics are available: Art, Engineering, Math, Journalism, Computers, Piano, Wind instruments, Stringed Instruments, etc.) and you must earn your slot. Only a few students in the state are chosen for each field.

In 2016, Joey auditioned for the Gov School choir program and was selected. He went to Radford University in June of that year and had the time of his life.

When it was over, as we drove him home, he cautiously broached the subject of being a music major. He knew that I considered being a music major to be a waste of money, but he made his case. I told him that as expensive as college is, it has to be viewed from the business perspective. If the lifetime income benefit a student derives doesn't at least offset the $200,000 approximate cost of college, parents should not be expected to bankroll it. I told him that he was welcome to apply for a student loan from the government and get himself a music degree that way. He was also welcome to be a double major, with one practical major that would land him a good job and the other being for fun or personal enrichment. He didn't like that suggestion. He said that music majors generally have to attend college for 5 years, and that if he was going to be a double major while trying to graduate in 4 years, he probably wouldn't be able to focus on music the way he'd want. Toward the end of the discussion, he asked me how much of a music major I would be willing to cover. I told him $2,000. LOL, that ended that discussion and he sulked - but only for a little while.

A few weeks later, I told him that if he could honestly tell me that he was passionate about a career in music - that, for instance, his dream was to write Broadway musicals... then I WOULD pay for him to get a music degree. I believe in my son. If what he wants more than anything is to be a musician or composer, I think he could be a successful one. As we all know, successful musicians can make serious money. But I wouldn't pay for his degree if his plan is to graduate and become a music teacher. By then, Joey had already moved on. He told me that he didn't have that sort of passion for music - that, in fact, he would not be satisfied with music as his life. He described it as something he'd like to do, but not the only thing. I suggested that he get his college degree in something that will pay the bills while seeing if there IS a field he's passionate for, then go back to school once he's making a lot of money. "Study music THEN, if it's still what you want," I told him.

Obviously, Joey saw the light. His college emphases, and where we thought his major might be, flowed from music to choir to Japanese to linguistics to math (originally number theory, but now logic) to cognitive science to computer science (practical) to system's architecture (theory). I think he qualifies as a polymath, a person who is very good in many fields while perhaps not being the very best at any of them. That's okay. Because they think differently, polymaths are frequently the ones who make the world changing discoveries.

While this post began with my telling you of an argument Joey and I had, I do like it that of all the things he could have majored in, he settled on two that combine well and probably make him employable... assuming he ever gets out of school and starts looking for a job, anyway. That's a huge improvement over where he was five years ago, asking if I'd be okay with him going to college to study an art. When I think of all the brilliant and talented kids he's known who did just that, it makes me want to cringe. It also makes me feel so fortunate to have a son with a good head on his shoulders.

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