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How do I convince my parents to let me study philosophy next year in college?

Hi all, 

I don't know if this is the right place to ask this question, but I'm at a complete loss, and I would like to hear your input. 

I'm 17 years old high school senior. Next year I'll be going to college and I have been set since I was 14 to study philosophy later. The reason is my fascination for the subject, and how much it's changed me since I was in middle school.

The only problem is that my parents want me to study to become an engineer. They said that they're the ones who pay for my tuition, so they have a right to say what I get to study. My father says it's a compromise: I get to go to college, but he gets to say what I do. I said that he cannot control my life and tell me what to study, he says that in this case just pay for college yourself. 

But I really don't want to study engineering. While I find it interesting, my heart is not in it. I really want to study philosophy, and have been reading on my own on philosophical topics since I was 13. I feel extremely frustrated about the whole ordeal. 

My father says that studying philosophy is useless, as there is no real life application. He says that I am trying to escape the real world, and hide in childish fantasies. He says that once I'm an adult, I will thank him for choosing engineering as it will secure me a job (he didn't say this in a condescending tone, but in a rather supportive one, before you get super angry against my father). I tried explaining to him what philosophy does, and how it isn't *useless*, but he says that these things don't matter at all. He kept arguing that I should focus on things that matter, like taxes, accounting, coding, etc. 

I agree with him that these things are primordial to live, but there is more to life than just practical things. To give you a picture of my father, he's the kind of man that thinks everything that isn't popular is "pretentious", his idea of the good life is barbecueing, beer and watching sports on TV with his friends from high school. He's a really hard working man, and for that I respect him a lot. He's sacrificed a lot for me and my sister so that we could go to college. But he doesn't want me to study philosophy, and to be honest I don't know what to say, because I am 60% sure that if I study philosophy, I'll have a really difficult life. 

I've actually considered moving to Germany or France, where the tuition is really low so that I can get to study what I want without crippling student debt. 

I'm really at a loss. I'm sure some of you on this subreddit have had the same problems. How do I convince my parents of the utility of philosophy, my passion for the subject, and that there isn't only practical things in life?

Much love, F.
gpt
Offer a compromise. You can say you'll get a philosophy minor and a practical major. If he doesn't want to pay for that, then offer to take out loans for the additional minor credits. Since you need gen eds anyways, the only additional credits you'd need is a small handful. If we're only talking about undergrad anyways, then if you're dedicated to self study you can easily learn as much as you could with a major with only a minor.