[DeltAlum]

A couple of points from a parent.

Our son who is a senior in high school (National Merit Semi-Finalist and VP of his student body) wants to major in Musical Theatre and Psychology. Neither of those are straight shots to financial success unless you're one of the very few who make it big. You've discussed the PhD thing, and there are 58,000 out of work actors in New York City.

I would feel much better if he majored in Business or Engineering or something. He was perfect in math on both the ACT and SAT. He has a 33 ACT Composite and a 1530 SAT. He has a 3.9 unweighted GPA and a 4.25 weighted GPA. He can pretty much get accepted anywhere for pretty much anything.

However, he will major in whatever he wants to. We won't force him. Let him follow his dream -- at least to begin with. Maybe he will be one of the fortunate few. Who knows?

However.

In talking to admissions officers at his "short list" schools, all said the same thing which was a little bit of a shock to me -- at least from a numbers standpoint. Depending on the school, anywhere from 40 to 60% of students will change their major before they graduate. Many go to a different school within the same college (within the university), and quite a few change universities.

In fact, our oldest daughter did just that -- changed majors and universities between her sophomore and junior years. She still managed to graduate in four years Magna Cum Laude -- but most don't and that can become a financial problem for some parents.

Maybe sanity prevails at age 20 or something. Stay tuned.