University Degree Choices: Should Your Child Follow His Heart or Follow the Money?

Our children grow up so fast that the question of which degree course they should pursue for a particular career path might become a major discussion at the family table before long. Discussions about a child’s tertiary education are often serious ones as the outcome could shape his future for the rest of his life. By the time they reach upper secondary schooling, our children are expected to show or know their inclinations towards their passion and college major. For instance, are they STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) orientated or are they more inclined towards the Arts subjects? This predisposes them to take up corresponding careers in their future. And therein lies the big question. Should they be taking up degrees that would ensure them food on the table and a roof over their heads after graduation, or should they take up courses according to their hearts’ desire regardless of whether or not they will be in demand in the job market later in life. Parents’ Involvement in Degree Choices and Careers Parents more often than not, play a big role in influencing their children’s career choices and this has been shown in a study which says that the key influencers are the parents’ expectations for their children, the examples and values they set and also the opportunities they provide for their children to learn and develop. All parents want their children to be happy and successful in life at the end of the day, especially through their chosen career path as this has been found to be one of the main factors that would impact their child’s future happiness and success. In the same way, all children want their parents to be happy and proud of them. But in this two-way negotiation, how much should parents step in to influence their child’s career development? Should they steer him in a particular direction so that he fulfils a cultural, familial, parental and investment expectation? After all, it is no secret that tertiary education requires a hefty outlay on the part of the parents. Should they interfere in his study choice so that he goes for a bread-and-butter degree instead of one of his own choosing but which may have less potential for a high-earning career? For example, a career in STEM fields is said to yield limitless opportunities and the highest paying jobs in the market, for now and for the future. STEM degrees will thus ensure that the child will never go hungry in life after he graduates. But what if this is not what the child wants or is interested in? Motherhood talks to two sets of parents and their undergraduate or newly-graduated children to see how they handled this dilemma. Parents 1: Julius Chee operates a music school and his wife Yvonne Lee is a music teacher. They have three children─Eva Pauline Chee (26) who graduated in Advertising & Design from the University of Sunderland, UK in 2019, worked in KL for two years in the advertising industry then moved to Vancouver to do her Master’s Degree program in Digital Media; Julian Chee Yie Jian (23) who graduated in Aerospace Engineering from Wichita State University, Kansas in 2021, and Joel Chee Yie Min (14) who is currently studying in Year 9 in a private school. Q1: As a parent, do you agree that it is better to have your children study for a bread-and-butter degree that has practical value to earning a living than to study purely for interest? Julius and Yvonne and their three children in a family portrait. Julius Chee: I would say─study for a bread and butter degree that has practical value to earning a living. As parents, we need to always go back to the basics of bringing up a child. It’s to have a high level of discipline and responsibility. You can’t let a child decide freely at their age as to what they want to pursue. They do not have enough experience to decide logically. At their age, their basic discipline is to do well and be consistent in their school work while his or her behavioral attitude has to be well guided. As long as they are above average and have a well-balanced school life, they will be able to decide better. Yvonne Lee: Back in my day, I never had the privilege of tertiary education, hence I had no option of choosing my field of study. Once I completed my basic secondary education, it was straight out to looking for a job to sustain myself. In my circumstance, being 18 years old, I was considered 'adult' enough to fend for oneself in the real world. I started working to earn a living at that age. But for my children, it’s a very different era. I must say they live in a privileged time and they got to choose what fields they liked to study and pursue their own ambition. I’m grateful that my two older children were certain in knowing what they wanted to pursue even before finishing their Form Five. They knew their interests and capabilities and had chosen their field of studies that offered good prospects in employment opportunities. Our eldest girl Eva, is very creative. She took up a three year degree course in Advertising and Design from a local college. Based on her results, she managed to get a scholarship and graduated with a Bachelor of Advertising and Design degree from the University of Sunderland (a twining program). Soon after, she got employed by the advertising firm McCann Erickson before moving on to Dentsu Malaysia. After two years in the advertising field, she decided to further her studies again. She’s now working part time and pursuing her Master’s degree in Digital Media in Vancouver, Canada. Meanwhile, our second child, Yie Jian had also been very sure of his chosen field from young. He had always been interested in the science of how things are created, how to solve problems and in reinventing something new. After his Form Five, he went on to do an American degree transfer program (ADTP) at Methodist College KL for two years before continuing on in the US. He entered Wichita State University in Kansas, USA in the fall of 2018 with a partial scholarship and graduated with a degree in Aerospace Engineering late last year. He is exploring job opportunities in the US. In short, we are grateful that they both studied courses that are practical and yet are their own interest. Q2: Do you agree that when it comes to holding degrees, having a string of them may not feed a hungry stomach? What is your opinion about having 'obsolete degrees'? Proud parents Julius and Yvonne with their daughter Eva Pauline Chee at her graduation in 2019. Julius Chee: If your child has no discipline and is wild, what job can they do well regardless of the degree they may hold? Strings of degrees mean they have gone through hard and heart work and with their good character—there can never be hunger. This child can survive. Yvonne Lee: In reality, everyone has to pay bills and only if you have very rich parents to fund your living indefinitely, can you have the liberty of pursuing courses that may not bring you an income. It is absolutely up to individual choice as well. There is no right or wrong to it. Q3: As parents, how did you advice your children? Or perhaps you did not advice at all but let your children choose by themselves? Their son Julian Chee Yie Jian graduating in December 2021. Julius Chee: We would advice them from time to time and nurture their education and hobby at the same time. We are a close-knit unit. It would be rather foolish to completely let them decide what they want to do when they have little experience in life. Advising is the job of being parents. Yvonne Lee: When they were young, we did the normal things most parents did like expose them to music lessons, sports, creative art classes, with the hope to stimulate their intellectual skill and creativity. By letting them explore a wide range of interests, we hoped the children would get more ideas about their opportunities out there and what interests them. I think it’s good to let them explore their interests and their abilities from young. I believe too my husband was instrumental in shaping our son’s interest in engineering by introducing him to LEGO toys, taking him to watch many air shows (he was very interested in airplanes from young). Basically, we nurtured all three of them, including our youngest, Joel, to ideas which we hoped can propel them to choose what could be their future. Q4: What led you to this decision of steering or not steering your children? Still in school and not yet old enough to decide on his career path, Joel Chee (14) has shown great potential in music, among other interests. Julius Chee: The parents’ role is to guide, nurture and lead to a point where they become wise enough to decide for themselves. We have to support them when they do well, and even if they fail, we lift them up. Yvonne Lee: Being Asian parents, and if we look at our own parents, we are people who usually choose practicality over passion. Of course, we do give the children the liberty to choose what they like to study, but we also explain to them whether the options are realistic or not to provide for their stomachs in future, or if the career has good work-life balance when they have a family of their own in the future. Then again, in this fast changing world, what may be practical now, can also be obsolete in the future. The best way is to also encourage them to be versatile and learn to move along with the fast-paced changes. Picking the Brain of the Real Rocket Man Son Julian Chee (23) graduated in Aerospace Engineering in Dec 2021. Still in the US looking for an engineering job, he has a keen interest in creating his own rockets and has level 3 Rocket Certifications. He is remotely mentoring (from the US) the Malaysian team from USM (Universiti Sains Malaysia) to compete in the Spaceport America Cup 2022, the world’s largest intercollegiate rocket engineering conference and competition, in June this year. It will be Malaysia’s debut at the competition. We always talk of rocket science as being the benchmark for technical difficulty. Here is a newspaper report of real rocket scientist Julian Chee Yie Jian and the team from USM who will be representing Malaysia in a rocket competition in the USA soon. Qi: Why did you choose Aerospace Engineering? Yie Jian: I chose aerospace engineering because of my lifelong interest in the highly technical and artistic aspects of aviation and spacecraft. It is also a melting pot of other technical disciplines such as computer science, mechanical, electrical, materials engineering, and more. The knowledge of coming up with an idea and design using math and science, and turning it into one of the safest modes of transportation today is also extremely appealing. “Finding work is important. Something must pay the bills. But I tell people not to focus too much on this. After all, no groundbreaking industry was founded by people who only cared about working somewhere, but rather by people who focused on creating something that wasn’t there to begin with.” ~ Julian Chee Yie Jian Qii: What is the field of work open for such degree holders? Yie Jian: Within each of these fields, work is needed in design, analysis and testing of structures, propulsion, aerodynamics, control systems, flight computers, heat management and more. The multi-disciplinary aspect also equips aerospace engineers to work in plenty of other industries that lie beyond aerospace. After all, an undergraduate degree is just a brief overview of the mentioned topics. Technologically superior countries such as North America, Russia, Europe, and a handful of Asian countries like China, Japan and South Korea have plenty of aerospace jobs in design (making new stuff). In Malaysia, design work is fairly limited and most jobs in aerospace are technician jobs in the maintenance, repair and overhaul sector. Finding work is important. Something must pay the bills. But I tell people not to focus too much on this. After all, no groundbreaking industry was founded by people who only cared about working somewhere, but rather by people who focused on creating something that wasn’t there to begin with. Qiii: Tell us about your interest in rockets. I hear you have three rocket certifications. What is the future you see in rocket science? Yie Jian: My goal in the US is to learn what I can’t in Malaysia. In the US, there’s a large community of people who love to design, build and launch model rockets, often called amateur rocket engineers. These rockets are sized anywhere from 1ft to 10ft tall and can reach anywhere from a few hundred feet to tens of thousands of feet high. In context, high performance rockets can fly higher than the cruising altitude of a commercial jet, and faster than the speed of sound. These rockets are launched using solid fuel and come back down with parachutes. Before one can launch a big rocket, one must demonstrate successful launching and recovering a small rocket. That is where the three certifications are necessary. Each has an increasing level of technical difficulty and proficiency. There has only been a handful of such rockets built that have reached space. Model rocketry is a great avenue for students to put their design, analysis and craftsmanship skills to the test. There are plenty of competitions sponsored by aerospace companies for college students, many of whom end up working directly for these companies. I am currently mentoring the first Malaysian university to participate in the world’s largest collegiate rocket engineering competition in New Mexico, USA. These students hope to spur more interest in rocketry for future students so that they may have local options to pursue their own STEM rocket projects. Hopefully, it could lead to the first Malaysian-made rocket crossing the boundary of space. Better yet, into orbit around the planet. Parents 2: Mohammad Syed Basri Baskaran is a CEO of a large company while wife, Nur Adelina Leong works as a sales manager. They have two children─Mohammad Syed Izhharuddin (21) who is studying for his MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine-Bachelor of Surgery) and Nur I’zzah (18) who is studying for her Cambridge A-levels. Mohammad Syed Basri Baskaran and his family Q1: As a parent, do you agree that it is better to have your children study for a bread-and-butter degree that has practical value to earning a living than to study purely for interest? Mohammad Syed Basri Baskaran: Earning a lot of money is important but we should let our kids decide what they want to do. Us parents can only share our experiences with them and not hide them from reality. Q2: Do you agree that when it comes to holding degrees, having a string of them may not feed a hungry stomach? What is your opinion about having 'obsolete degrees'? Mohammad Syed Basri Baskaran: Having degrees is good but having a TOP degree is way better. Q3: As parents, how did you advice your children? Or perhaps you did not advice at all but let your children choose by themselves? (Far Right) Nur I’zzah hopes to study in the UK after her A-levels while Izhharuddin wants to graduate with his medical degree so that he can begin to help those with health challenges. Mohammad Syed Basri Baskaran: We let them choose their own paths and we give them our advice. They want to do their own thing, then they have to prove themselves to us. Q4: What led you to this decision of steering or not steering your children? Mohammad Syed Basri Baskaran: Trust. I trust them. For more true life stories on parenting and the real deal on bringing up children, stay tuned to Motherhood Story!

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