My oldest child will be starting school in the fall. I’m not sure where as she is going to go yet. She’s applied to three schools and has been accepted to all three. I’m not surprised. She’s a smart kid who works hard and it shows. She has a monster GPA and she isn’t afraid to use it to get what she wants. I’m proud of her.
She is currently taking and Advanced Placement class in Statistics. I’m extremely proud of her just for qualifying for the class and having the wisdom to register for it. I’ll leave aside the fact that her father has been encouraging her to take stats since basically forever, and instead focus on the fact that she made the right choice and is learning something that she will benefit from for the rest of her life.
Some people will act confused when hearing that an understanding of statistics matters so, if you’re one of those people, let me help you out a bit. Knowledge is never a bad thing to have.
We’ll start with the fact that correlation does not imply causation. So, when a liberal tells you that disparate outcomes in criminal cases are because of race, they’re not necessarily right. There are other correlations as well and race isn’t the only thing at play here. In fact, Federal Bureau of Prisons statistics show that there are more white people incarcerated in the US than all other races combined. Race may or may not be the cause. You can’t prove it either way. The same goes with atmospheric carbon and global warming. It works this way with a million other things as well. Any time some liberal tells you that statistics prove whatever crap they’re spouting, feel free to laugh at them. That’s how this works.
It’s not just that, either. The media routinely alters graphs. Detailing all of the ways this works would take an article a lot long than they one I’m writing. If you’re really interested check out the link. That’s why I put it there. Suffice it to say that graphs are easily altered to mean just about whatever you want them to mean. In short, it takes a real skill to look at a graph and decipher what it actually means. Statistics teaches this skill.
But that’s hardly the only type of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math training that will benefit your kid in life. Check out this list of highest paying majors for the first five years out of school:
1.Computer engineering $80K
2.Chemical engineering $79K
3.Computer science $78K
4.Aerospace engineering $74K
5.Electrical engineering $72K
6.Industrial engineering $71K
7.Mechanical engineering $70K
8.General engineering $68K
9.Miscellaneous engineering $68K
10.Finance $66K
11.Civil engineering $65K
Economics $65K
Business analytics $65K
Mathematics $65K (four way tie)
15.Construction services $64K
Pharmacy $64K (two way tie)
So all sixteen are actual STEM fields. Everyone of them involve one type of technology or another. Bottom line, if your kid doesn’t do well in math and science their odds of cashing out are much lower. I’m happy to say that my daughter has chosen pre-med as her major. Maybe she can help the old man out. My degree is in history.
According to Axios, nineteen percent of STEM workers and forty three percent of engineers and scientists with doctoral degrees in the US are foreign born. I have nothing against those people. I’ve been treated by several doctors from India who have all made me well and my brother in law is an immigrant and Electrical Engineer with a degree from the University of Michigan Dearborn. But if our science and tech companies are importing help from overseas, it’s because they can’t find it here. This equals opportunity for people with the right kind of training.
I’ve heard a lot of people talking about the value of “following their passion” but passions doesn’t seem to pay. Per CNBC, “For workers with a bachelor’s degree, education was the lowest-earning field of study, followed by psychology and social work, and the arts.” I’m not suggesting that people shouldn’t be able to pursue those majors, and Lord knows we need teachers if we’re going to get students educated in STEM or anything else, but people need to be aware that going into the wrong field is going to cost them money every year for the rest of their life. Ask the guy who writes this column, makes 31k a year, and has a BA in History from an accredited university.
Pursuing your passion may make a person feel good, but it’s a dumb choice, unless they have a passion for STEM. Elon Musk is an extreme example of this. His love for things like computer programming and engineering have made him a billionaire. Life is good when you’re the guy who founded PayPal, Tesla and Space-X. He didn’t do that with a degree in social justice, he did it with a degree in STEM, and probably some help from some business and finance majors at some point.
Does your kid have a passion to save lives? Do you know what saves lives? Engineering and vaccines. Engineers, doctors, nurses and pharmacists save millions of lives every single year. That’s no exaggeration. So if you have a kid that wants to make a difference it might make sense to arm yourself with facts and help them discover that, not only will that STEM degree make them more money, it’ll make a huge difference, too. I don’t have a problem with kids who want to impact people in a meaningful way. It’s just that they can save more lives and make more money with STEM than they can any other way, at least on average.
Of course, pursuing their passion would make your kid happy, right? According to job site Linkedin, “STEM jobs - jobs in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics - are some of the happiest jobs around. In fact, 10 of the top 12 happiest jobs are STEM-adjacent!” They list a whole bunch of reasons for why that’s true. From my point of view though, what’s important is that they people who have these jobs love them.
So basically, what I’m telling you is this: If you want your kid to be able to tell the truth from a lie, teach them statistics. If you want your kid to make money encourage them to get a STEM job. If your kid wants to make a difference in peoples lives, have them get a STEM job. If you want your kid to love their job, encourage them to work in STEM. If you want a kid to spend a bunch of money on a college education and end up broke, have them “follow their passion” if their passion isn’t in STEM.
*SIGH*
I should have stuck with that Chemistry major. I qualified for the honors program.