Bullshit College Degrees

Most of them.

Mostly liberal arts degrees

Gaining knowledge is never a mistake.

Knowledge can enrich one's life and even one's soul.

And liberal arts degrees often provide both.

And being exposed to ideas and areas of great thought is never a mistake.

The mistake is not being exposed to any of the above.

Well said, R3,

R3 I agree that one should never stop learning but for real world employment and careers, most liberal arts degrees are next to useless. I have seen many graduate with such a degree but have such a horrible time finding employment with it.

Which gym memberships leave you the most out of shape?

Which religion sits you farthest from God for the most amount of money?

Life is not all about employment, or making money, or buying things.

When you hit mid-life crisis (or any tragedy for that matter) and are feeling down and low and in need of spiritual sustenace, are you more likely to reach out to your college management science/physics/biochem textbooks, or one of the great plays by Shakespeare or the collected poetry of Wallace Stevens/T.S.Eliot/insert the names of your favourite poets?

Neither, R7. We reach for the Prozac.

R6 has yet to grasp the difference between "which" and "what."

The Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies.

And yes, having worked HR staffing, I have seen this on resumes.

Library Science

R7: well that too, but I prefer Zoloft.

But sometimes pills just ain't enough to get you through those long dark wintry nights...

As the hero said in that old K. Heigl TV movie:

[quote]NOTHING is a "waste of time" if it adds to the person you become.

Any humanities or social science degree unless you have a super high GPA that can lead to law school or other offers.

On their own the degrees are useless.

I get the idea OP and r14 majored in air conditioner repair.

R11, as a happily employed librarian, I disagree.

[quote]Gaining knowledge is never a mistake.

What's that got to do with the OP's question.

[quote]Knowledge can enrich one's life and even one's soul.

Again, nothing to do with the question.

[quote]And liberal arts degrees often provide both.

That's funny.

[quote]And being exposed to ideas and areas of great thought is never a mistake.

That's a facile truism.

[quote]The mistake is not being exposed to any of the above.

All of which you can be exposed to ANYWHERE in the world. Yes, ANYWHERE.

I work at a state university and have determined the majors that attract the... let's say least knowledgeable students:

*Communications

*Urban Education

*Criminal Justice

*Business Administration

*Psychology

*and Interdisciplinary Studies.

I have two undergraduate degrees.

I resent my Bachelor of Science because I felt I had to get a degree that was "practical."

I love my Bachelor of Arts and wished upper education required more people to study humanities, languages, the Arts, etc. It helps me in my job more than the so called practical degree, which tend to get outdated as soon as they're earned.

My dual major in English lit and psychology was more valuable, life-skills-wise, than it may have seemed at the time. Including the sometimes-painful lessons of time management and project management, or failure thereof.

But then, I graduated in the 80s with $8K in student debt and a decent job offer. A totally different time, there was no pressure to power up your resume or take unpaid internships as a way in. I'd feel differently as a young person today, if saddled with $100K in post-diploma debt and dismal job prospects.

Philosophy

French ______

Creative Writing

History, lit, et al can have practical applications in the "real world," but many employers do not see it that way. I studied both, and can claim strong writing and research skills. I've parlayed my education into a technical writing background, but it wasn't easy to break into the field. Still, when it comes to turning complex manuals into something readable, I find employers desire my skills over those of many engineers. Do I study Shakespeare as part of my job? No. Am I thankful for the rigorous term essays I had to produce in college? Yes!

This is one of the great problems faced by liberal arts programs: how to make their graduates employable, and how to maintain the essence of liberal arts education. Some of my professors expressed disdain for those who used their lit degrees for non-academic purposes. They don't always seem to realize that the world can only support so many professors and professional scholars.

I have two degrees--A BLS in Interdisciplinary Studies and a MS in Public Relations.

Both of them were a total waste of money. Thankfully, I didn't pay for either degree. They were paid for by employers. I had to be pursing a degree in order for them to pay for classes and when I got the degree in Interdisciplinary Studies, I had no idea what I wanted to do but was also under pressure from my parents to go to college and get a degree.

I'm all for learning and have continued to go to school all of my adult life. I went back for another degree in my late 40s, again paid for by work, and have been studying web technology. I wanted the piece of paper to back up what I had learned in hopes of making myself more marketable.

I just dropped a Tech Writing class for this semester when I learned that the I was going to spend the term learning how to write emails, resumes and memos. Total waste of time for me even though I'm sure the 19 year olds in the class would find it useful.

College is way to expensive for what it is. We should be looking at developing programs that teach real skills that prepare people for real jobs.

My BFA in Art History. What was I thinking?

[quote] just dropped a Tech Writing class for this semester when I learned that the I was going to spend the term learning how to write emails, resumes and memos.

Wow. I hope that was from a "for-profit" school...

[quote]Library Science

Really think so? I got my MLS in '93 and have been constantly employed for the last 20 years in public, corporate and law firm libraries. Now, my brother's journalism degree on the other hand, sadly, doesn't seem to be opening any doors to him any more.

The girl running the register at Dollar Tree told me she had a degree in marketing from the University of Phoenix. Well worth taking on that loan to get a job no one wants.

MLS is useful as a requirement for jobs, but I'd say it's a bullshit degree in terms of actually imparting much in the way of necessary skills. As I understand it, the requirement of a final paper is pass/fail and has absolutely NOTHING whatsoever to do with librarian work at all -- you could write one on the history of sitcoms if you felt like it?

My little brother is working on a degree in linguistics. Is there any market for that, or is he going 6 figures into debt to wear a paper hat and a name tag?

r25, the class is at a local community college, not one of the for profit ones.

I'm getting very close to just dropping the whole thing because I haven't learned anything useful and being able to put the degree on my resume isn't going to open any doors when so much of the type of work is being sent overseas.

I've been trying to figure out if there would be something more useful to study since I was accepted into a Federal job retraining program last summer when my job was sent overseas. I can have the feds pay for me to go back to school and get another degree, but it has to be in a field where there are job prospects and at an approved school.

r29 if he has a genuine passion for it and is loving the process, it is not a waste of money. Linguistics also teaches about patterns, which enable people to see things at a higher level of abstraction. This will serve him well.

People make the mistake of thinking a certain BA or BS commands a guaranteed salary. That's trade school, not university.

R29, with a real scientific discipline such as linguistics, a "market" for the knowledge is beside the point. It's a valid course of study in its own right.

Anything containing the word "Literature" or "Studies."

[quote]As I understand it, the requirement of a final paper is pass/fail and has absolutely NOTHING whatsoever to do with librarian work at all -- you could write one on the history of sitcoms if you felt like it?

WTF are you even talking about, R38? Most MLIS programs require you to take a comprehensive examination (comps) in your final semester. If you pass this exam AND your coursework, you'll get the degree.

And this "NOTHING whatsoever to do with librarian work at all"? I don't know how you came up with that one. You must be confusing the MLIS with the WGS program.

I have a relative who went to college for philosophy. Let's just say nobody was jumping at the change to hire him.

Ah, I see. This thread de-legitimizes Women's History & Studies, as well as African American History & Studies.

I'm so sick of the far right and their asshole extremism.

[quote]I have a relative who went to college for philosophy. Let's just say nobody was jumping at the change to hire him.

So is that how we're to understand the premise of this thread, "bullshit college degrees"? I understood it was about disciplines themselves that aren't real courses of study.

[quote]Most of them.

I agree. Unless your degree is specialized in something (nursing, programming, law, etc), then you may as well not waste your time or money until you know what you want to do for a career. These "general" degrees are useless.

[quote]MLS is useful as a requirement for jobs, but I'd say it's a bullshit degree in terms of actually imparting much in the way of necessary skills. As I understand it, the requirement of a final paper is pass/fail and has absolutely NOTHING whatsoever to do with librarian work at all -- you could write one on the history of sitcoms if you felt like it?

Not true. My cousin has her MLS from Kent State and had to write a thesis just like everyone else.

She graduated in 2000 and is currently the director of a public library system making six figures.

Before that she was an instructional librarian at a public university and was making 50K.

What do you do with a B.A. in English?

R28, all the programs are different. I didn't write a thesis at all, but the classes I took were all relevant to the work I currently do.

Accounting. Now that's a useless degree.

TV/VCR Repair

I would say 80% of what is offered is totally worthless. Unless you're a computer geek, engineer, or a medical student there is nothing of value. I had my degrees in social sciences laminated and they are permanently hanging on my bathroom wall, right above the toilet seat. My degrees and two cents cannot even pay for a ride on the New York City subway system.

Perhaps your very apparent severe lack of knowledge has something to do with the state of your life, R44.

I had a very good life as a successful caterer in the SF Bay Area. I specialize in southern Italian cuisine.

R46 = Mama Celeste

Too many people are starting to think of colleges and universities as glorified vocational training schools.

This is a shame.

R23, "BLS in Interdisciplinary Studies" sounds like a big pile of poo. OMG, how dull.

The most useless degrees have to be the ones you get from Univ of Phoenix and other online degree mills. They don't turn anyone away. If you can pay, you're in. They end up defrauding taxpayers because we underwrite most of the student debt.

Completely worthless. The commercials where they sell the idea of this alumni network in high places is a lie. Any resume I see with a univ of phoenix degree gets rejected.

Better to go to a community college.

Fashion and Merchandising. Please tell me how this will get you anywhere past a sales associate in a retail clothing store.

Anything not pertaining to medicine, engineering, or computers. A liberal arts degree is pretty much what a HS diploma used to be. Law degrees are useless to most graduates, so a liberal arts degree doesn't even help you there. Law schools have been turning out too many graduates for years. MBAs are a dime a dozen since the last depression (oops, we're still calling it a recession, aren't we?). Of course, this is if you're talking about most people. If you're exceptional, truly - not just your mother thinks you are a special snowflake, then none of the above applies. This is also assuming you're being purely pragmatic. If you're not looking at income but your heart's desire has always been to study dead languages (again, but you are just an average joe) then more power to you but good luck supporting yourself. Most everyday schlubs would get more bang for the buck with an associate's degree in radiology and med tech job than with a liberal arts bachelors. But in the U.S. at least not having at least a Bachelors is something to be ashamed of at this point. You have to be honest with yourself about what you want out of life and how much of a special snowflake you REALLY think you are... then based on that you have to decide whether you have the stomach to try for something you might enjoy more and fail because there aren't enough opportunities or if you'd rather play it safe with a profession that is in demand but that you might either be ambivalent about or end up really hating. Here in the U.S. the rude awakening is just beginning. With pressure from new tech and from other countries/globalization the job market is just going to get tighter and tighter. Your parents and grandparents will have no sympathy, because frankly most of them can't understand why it's gotten so much harder for younger people these days.

[quote]Most everyday schlubs would get more bang for the buck with an associate's degree in radiology and med tech job than with a liberal arts bachelors.

Not true. Those radiology and medical tech jobs are becoming just as useless now because so many people took the advice to get those types of degrees/certifications that the market has become oversaturated. Just do a Google search on all the people who have gotten those degrees and say they can't find a job.

R17 must've had an extra helping of cuntiness this morning.

I went to Gozanga University outside of Spokane. All degrees from their are not only worthless but hysterical on a resume.

B.S degree from Trump University

I collected a lot of semi-useless degrees. I have a BA and MA in Anthropology. I went back for a MS in Urban Planning and Public Policy. I completed all the coursework for a PhD in Urban Planning, but burnt out writing the dissertation. The degrees themselves are useless. No one has ever wanted to talk about Malanowski or Weiner's work. I can discuss the cultural significance of circumcision until I bore people to death. I can write and review historic preservation guidelines should I be so inclined. I earn a great living as a data miner. My particular field is computational linguistics. I never took programming or linguistics in school. I learned by the seat of my pants, and read more journal articles than most full professors. I was told years ago that a degree was a union card. After you have it, you are judged on how you present yourself and in the quality of your work.

[quote] TV/VCR Repair —Sally Struthers

What about Business Management and Accounting?

[Quote]All degrees from their are not only worthless but hysterical on a resume.

ABSOLUTELY!

[quote] I can discuss the cultural significance of circumcision until I bore people to death.

Because you won't stop shrieking "mutilated"?

R50 has, and uses, his brain.

R51, well, some of us can get into Harvard Law with such a degree!

4 year BS degree in Petroleum Engineering. Start, upon graduation, at $110,000.

Go to a state school, Tex or Louisiana. Pay about $30,000 for ALL 4 YEARS. Best investment you can make.

*That includes Room and Board.^^^

[quote]Mostly liberal arts degrees

ALL MBAs

No degree is useless. What is stupid is to not get an internship while in college so you can either be hired by that company or have something to put on your resume as experience.

R57, What degree would I need to become a data miner? Is there future in that? I feel hopeless about the future.

Sociology

MBAs are like bushels of wheat or corn. They are commodites unless you go to Harvard or Wharton or some other top notch place.

Love R57 and he can do anything..and do it well!

Worked for years as a technical writer, a field I was clueless about until someone suggested that I become one. No degree, no training, just an ability to write and a detail-oriented brain. My colleagues were lawyers, chemists, bio-chemists, sociology and English majors who couldn't find work in their chosen field.

yeah, art degrees are pretty useless, a friend of mine was teaching art in public school but recently moved to Korea to teach english.

WHET MBAs?

R67 - don't believe the hype that some universities will have you believe about the "value" of their data mining or data analyst degrees. Any standard BA/BS will do. You need to be a quantitative thinker. You need to be a self starter and look for solutions outside the box. If you expect neatly defined business processes, than this isn't the career for you. If you don't enjoy learning new techniques or software often, this isn't the career for you.

You need to master SQL and Python/Pandas. RegEx is also very important. You probably should learn R, however for big data, you are in the world of both SAS or Hadoop/Hive/Spark. MondoDB is also becoming more important especially when tied with visualization such as SlamData. Most of what I mentioned is open source, and there are free Coursera and EdX courses on these topics. A subscription to Lynda.com will help you immensely with well structured classes in SLQ, Python, and Excel PowerPivot. Lynda might cost a total of $400 a year, but it really is worth the money.

Start with ETL tools. I can't praise Alteryx enough. That software does so much. See if you can beg an evaluation copy for 3 months from them, and learn it. Then go to a headhunter to find an entry level data job with Alteryx to gain experience.

Gender / Ethnic Studies. The job market is very limited.

Law school, r14? Welcome back from your coma.

African American History & Studies? Honestly. Can't you just read a few SJW books or subscribe to a magazine while you prepare for a job in engineering?

My plumber has an advanced degree in Zoology. Couldn't find work, became a plumber.

R67 - that should be entry level job using Alteyx.

R67, you have to be under 21 for that job.

I do not agree that Accounting is a worthless degree. I have yet to see an Accounting major go begging for a job. My sister is an accountant who pulls down more than I do and I am an attorney. If you have a degree in Accounting and you cannot get a job it is due to you either not trying or because you are a shitty accountant.

Is the accounting degree hard to earn?

often not the degree necessarily but how far one should or should not go...

a bachelor's in psychology -- might as well line a birdcage with the diploma if you stop there. But a Ph.D. in psychology can do quite well if they can keep going to university for an additional 4 years.

nursing -- just go get a 9-month adult ed. nursing certificate and hit the work force; don't even need a college degree. Going for the longer, college diploma nursing degrees, most usually an R.N., doesn't guarantee you'll do any better than the one with the certificate.

Accounting is harder than Anthropology R82 but at least you'll likely have a job when you get the degree. Government entities hire a lot of accountants, including the FBI.

[quote]nursing -- just go get a 9-month adult ed. nursing certificate and hit the work force; don't even need a college degree. Going for the longer, college diploma nursing degrees, most usually an R.N., doesn't guarantee you'll do any better than the one with the certificate.

BULL. SHIT. Those certificate nursing degrees are obsolete in many major cities. Everyone wants a BSN these days.

R84 - that is true. I think a BA in Accounting plus the CPA is really useful in getting a job. The IRS used to require agents (those with guns and law enforcement commissions) to have a degree in Accounting. Not sure if that is still the case.

Philosophy owns this thread

r74

What you say isn't really wrong but it's not the whole story. If you need a database managed correctly you NEED someone with a degree. You can get by with what r-74 said, no doubt, but you'll get substandard work without a degreed person who knows what s/he is doing.

Of course 99% of the companies I've worked with have shit databases and think that is fine. So you can get by. But if you OWN a business and want competence you will get a degreed person.

Accounting is not the field it was. More and more you'll find yourself outsourced to India or replaced by machines.

I work in clubs/hotels and every single hotel/club that I know of now, has clerks do all the accounting and once or twice a month a CPA comes in and checks over the work. And to be fair, it works perfectly. You don't need accountants anymore. You can easily get by outsourcing and hiring people to come in a few times a month.

I can produce month end reports, budgets and tax returns and have never had the CPA who oversaw my work fix anything, because it's that easy provided it's set up correctly and done timely.

Of course being a CPA can be handy but you'll find yourself most likely doing contract work and thus working for yourself. Not bad if you can manage to get the gigs to live. Also tax accountants are a huge field but you have to mingle it in with law, because tax accountants have to keep up with everything.

If you are looking at nursing as a long term career get a BSN. It's required for most government positions, supervisor positions. Also consider becoming a Nurse Practitioner--wish I had done that years ago.

I was taught that college teaches you how to teach yourself. If you can gather, evaluate, and make a decision based upon information at hand, your education was not bullshit.

As far as learning goes, I'd say the following majors are bullshit:

Accounting - it simply requires lots of spreadsheet homework to grasp. Without CPA credentials, you're an overpriced bookkeeper.

Finance - I earned it whilst stoned because it only has two concepts (present and future value of money).

Least bullshit topics that I've had to self-teach:

English and Rhetoric - I, a slightly retarded somewhat funny looking pocketgay, have had to correct so many basic letters of understanding and memos for professionals it's not even funny.

Political Science - my knowledge of history has this huge gap where the Korean War starts and Viet Nam ends because no instructors were willing to touch such hot-button topics.

Geography - if it's not in a cross-word puzzle, I have no clue what it is or where it's located. Pathetic.

what a stupid thread! Get educated, don't be a slacker dummy! further than that, go fuck yourself!

[quote]WHET MBAs?

If you can't get into a top ranking program an MBA will probably be a waste of money.

Comparative Literature: Do you want to supersize that order?

My son is interested in Political Science...any input on what career is feasible for Poli Sci? Thanks

[quote]My son is interested in Political Science...any input on what career is feasible for Poli Sci? Thanks

Starbucks barista.

Comp Lit at the graduate level requires you to know quite a few foreign languages, and knowledge of foreign languages will always stand one in good stead.

I hope not R96, but thanks for writing.

[quote]Too many people are starting to think of colleges and universities as glorified vocational training schools. This is a shame.

No it's not. College is more expensive than ever. It is foolish to not think about your career prospects while you are in college and try to plan ahead and maximize your success.

The whole idea of just learning for the sake of learning is a sweet sentiment, but utterly foolish advice in reality.

r89, I know of two successful accountants in rural small towns. The form or employers that hire them are staffed with older people who do things in slightly old fashioned ways. If one doesn't mind living in the country, one's accounting job is unlikely to be snatched away to India or wherever. Such a thought would never occur to anyone there.

But, the outsourcing craze is moving though cities like a virus. My own job was and is immune, but these drastic penny pinching efforts affect employee morale in all departments.

My sister is an accountant and does the books so fast that she works for two employers in the weekday. No Faceboook fucking around for her.

Just smoke copious amounts of po t... R7

I have a relative who did Acctg degree undergrad, got a job in one of the Big Four, got the CPA & has been twice promoted since. She's making $100K-plus & is only 26.

Poli Sci & Philosophy are good majors only if you want to go to law school.

Any ethnic or gender studies degrees are worthless in the job market.

Religious or art, language/literature majors. Unemployable, short of becoming clergy, teachers, or social workers at non profits. Low pay, too.

Online schools...worthless degrees, no matter the major.

Yes, all knowledge is valuable, but do you need to spend 4 yrs & $200K to get it, in alot of fields? No.

I take issue with those who say an MBA is worthless unless you go to a top school. Business acumen and a basic understanding of finance can be used in any field. Supply chain and marketing round out a worthwhile degree in my opinion. I went to a state school for mine at the height of the recession and without my MBA I would have been tossed on my tush long ago. I was lucky to have my employer pay for it. Any degree is useful if you use it and gain knowledge from it. I also have a BA in political science for a liberal arts school in New England and find that more valuable than my MBA in the breadth of knowledge it provided.

[quote]I was lucky to have my employer pay for it

Do you seriously not understand how this doesn't apply to you? Any degree is great if you don't have to pay it obviously!

Look at what this poster said [quote]will probably be a waste of money.

It is when you are going into debt for the degree where you really need to assess its value.

About online colleges:

Back in the 90's a guy in my medium sized city used to post online for orgies at motel rooms in town and along the shore. People would express an interest and show up--you know the rest.

One time a guy showed up early like me. It turns out he was a "professor" at a well known online college and unfortunately for him the orgy was planned during his "office hours" where he had to be next to his laptop to answer any questions coming in from his students.

Well, you can imagine, can't you? Everytime his laptop made the "ding-a-ling" sound, he had to extricate himself from the orgy (pull the dick out of his ass or stop fucking ass), and go over to his laptop to read and answer the student's question---then he would rejoin the orgy.

This happened so often that eventually no one wanted to play with him because they were never sure if he'd have to pull out or stop having sex and it ruined it for them.

Just so you know. Your Phoenix University professor might actually have a dick up his ass while he answers your online questions.

I know a few MBAs on my fb friend list, I check their linked in and they are doing marketing shit jobs. Jobs you don't need MBAs for 10 years ago.

My career was "Like a Bawss," OP.

If I was the host I would have asked him to leave, r106, way to ruin the vibe!

And yeah online degrees are a joke. They are just for profit enterprises looking to make some easy money off of you.

This is why Bernie "Socialist" Sanders proposal to give everyone a bachelor's is laughable. What are all those English, History, "studies" majors going to do for a job? These worthless degrees will not make them more employable as there aren't jobs out there for them. How many of them will really have the ambition to get an engineering degree or some other useful degree that really is employable? I have a BS & MS degree in elevtrical engineering and I had to bust my ass in a very difficult program. It was worth it though.

R110, why do you label a Humanities degree as worthless?

R111, in 2016, yes. A Humanities degree is worth the paper it is printed on.

I wish I took Art History. I'm in my 50s, and it's not too late. I may yet do so.

I love reading Art History.

College should be about learning the skills to learn for a lifetime, not job training.

bump

College is not free r115, it is quite expensive, most students are taking out loans to attend that they will have to pay back. You have to be able to get a return on your investment.

No, R115. That would be Miss Porter's Finishing School.

Any social science that is anti-science. Like Gender Studies, as well as African American Studies.

You should see these morons and the wacky conspiratorial bullshit they come up with. Know that dumb guy or gal in your family who likes to think they're super duper smart and they ramble on about bad ideas in the most pathetic way but you smile and nod because the alternative is bursting their zeppelin-sized balloons? That's what Gender Studies and African American Studies peope are like.

If you believe college should be all about job training, then I say the apprentice system should be brought back.

Most of college is waste of time if you think the paramount reason for a college education is to get a job.

The apprentice system handled this quite effectively and at a younger age.

Save the money and become an apprentice!

You could be heart surgeon in a year of apprenticed to a good one. Ditto an attorney. Ditto a computer analyst. Etc., etc., etc.

[quote]You could be heart surgeon in a year of apprenticed to a good one

Oh, DEAR!

You do apprentice to become a surgeon dear. It is called residency where new medical school graduates study the craft under more senior attending physicians. It takes FIVE YEARS of training until you are a fully qualified surgeon. Then for heart surgery it takes an additional 2-3 of fellowship training specializing in the heart. Medicine is tough, even after med school it is not something you can master in a year.

Sorry for the little rant, but just saying.

Anyway, college is great, learning is great. Improve your critical thinking, take some interesting electives, live it up and find out who you really are...but also keep your eye on the prize. Realize that you need to get a job after this.

R121, but what if you also studied during the weekends and on holidays, wouldn't that shorten it up a lot?

All you need is someone to stand over you and tell you where and how to cut.

[quote] R120: If you believe college should be all about job training, then I say the apprentice system should be brought back.

They already have, years ago. In broadcasting and journalism and other fields, it's called being an unpaid intern, and it's abusive. College grads do work for free for a year or more, hoping to make an impression, then are cut loose, usually.

In other fields, like Engineering, you often spend much of your third year of college at some company, doing the work that should be done by a new college grad.

Usually it's unpaid. They are supposed to not do work that a regular employee can/should/customarily does, but it's abused, of course.

What about "Law"? Has that become over achieved?

My brother has a law degree and I think he uses it in his very impressive job in management, but I often read about people getting law degrees, incurring the expense, and then not finding a job that can use the degree. My sibling and her husband are going to pressure their son into getting a law degree and I wonder if it's worth it.

r42 Tell the CPAs making well over six figures a year that dummy.

Similar to an MBA r125, it matters how good of a law school you can get into whether it is worth it to go.

Almost no undergraduate degrees lead directly to a professional position these days--and that includes business and most health-related fields (though there are some, like a BS. in Nursing, and similar ones that do). These days, if you want a job in a specific profession you need to follow the undergraduate degree either with some time as an intern or a low-paying entry-level job to get the experience or, in other fields, need to go right on to whatever graduate degree is considered professional education--such as an MBA, MLS, or JD. Teachers who only have undergrad degrees are frequently required to get a Masters within five years to receive permanent certification.

Bottom line: major in something that interests you, and then be prepared to hit the streets with everyone else once you graduate.

I know someone, R12, who majored in English and then went on to work in China before getting her master's at Georgetown. She is getting unsolicited job offers right and left, some from the financial sector, and she hasn't even graduated yet.

Your statement is kind of ignorant. People who study the humanities are by and large very bright. They can be trained by an employer.

r125 don't let him go to Thomas Jefferson Law School

This thread is so depressing.

I am a Psych major, not by choice. I originally majored in Biology and planned to be pre-med or a PA. Depression fucked my grades up 2 years straight. I majored in Psych because it was the next best thing. I hardly read a thing, and I get all A's on all the exams. I can tell I am smarter than most of the professors (that are just out of school and hardly older than I am) most of the time. This thread is making me get the blues again. I have no fucking idea on what to do after I get that B.A.. Oh, my snobbish parents have no idea I flunked. They think Psych is genuinely my passion. It isn't. I feel like the ball has already dropped for me to go back to STEM.

Many people with STEM degrees are unemployed.

A BS in Architecture (or, worse, a B.Env.D.) is pretty worthless. You have to get a B.Arch. to practice -- and, even then, most firms look for the M.Arch. After graduating, you wind up doing a 3-year internship before taking the registration exam. And then you make $50k/year if you are lucky.

all I know is that ignorance last and lasts, if you are ignorant, you're a mess of your life and others'

[quote]I know someone, [R12], who majored in English and then went on to work in China before getting her master's at Georgetown. She is getting unsolicited job offers right and left, some from the financial sector, and she hasn't even graduated yet.

Why all the job offers?

r136 Her father is probably on the board of directors of a major corporation. This scenario doesn't happen in a vacuum.

Accounting... They outsource it to Inja now.

Law.

Which ones AREN'T useless?

R125 show them this

Here is a list of "unusual" college majors. Cannabis cultivation interests me.

R106,- -gag--and what a gross keyboard he has. I hope no one else ever uses his laptop!

Why you are bumping these old thread r139?

I am a lawyer, and I do a lot of resume screening. There are a lot of unemployed JDs out there, so I wouldn't advise going into debt to become one. But if you really want to be a lawyer, DO NOT, I repeat, absolutely do not, become a political science major. I'd say 80 percent of our applicants have that major, and unless they have something interesting on their resume, they go straight into the slush pile.

Yes, I agree college is worthwhile in itself, but you've got to feed yourself after. And art history? You've got to be kidding. I know someone who has an art history degree from NYU and she's on food stamps.

Getting back to the law. This is a hidebound profession where pedigree really does matter. You can be practicing 50 years, and people will always want to know where you went to law school. So if you can't get into a good one, don't go at all. I work for the federal government, and we're looking for technical majors like IT and engineering. Interestingly, my agency at least may be one of the few places where you can still get hired with a major like journalism (writing skills), linguistics, and philosophy (critical thinking).

Right now, wer have so many applicants that like everyone else, we're focusing on internships or quirky life experiences. We just hired a guy who taught US law at a German law school.

Anyway, I wouldn't advise going to a bottom feeder law school unless you're positive you're going to wind up on law review (still counts, no matter where you went)., or you have a trust fund.

It's not the degree that is useless, it's the person who gets it and doesn't know what to do once they have it.

Whether its a hammer, scalpel, or Excel spreadsheet, if you don't know how to use one to its greatest advantage, whose fault is it really?

I've hired people over the years, and the best employees tend to have majors in the liberal arts. Some of the worst employees had some sort of business major. MBAs tend to be dreadful employees who lack analytical and writing skills. Of course that isn't true in every situation. You have to know what to look for. I like people with liberal arts backgrounds who had good GPAs and took a variety of courses. For example, and not surprisingly, History and English majors tend to be very good writers. History majors in particular seem to have the research and writing skills I look for, and are able to take the information they find, analyze it, and put in a helpful memo format. Philosophy majors are good critical thinkers. Foreign language majors with another major in say History, or even a minor in History, tend to be very good writers, researchers, and analyzers.

The business majors tend to be somewhat myopic, aren't the best researchers, and can't seem to analyze concepts as well as they can numbers. They also tend to be some of the worst writers. Same for anyone with some kind of IT major. People who went to law school who had undergrad liberal arts majors are also really good, even people who went to lower ranked law schools provided they graduated in say the top 20%, although top 10% is preferred, but those who graduated that high are likely employed in the legal field.

What sucks now is that employers want someone who has the exact type of major in the field and/or has already done the exact job we're looking for. This gets pushed hard by HR, who are some of the most useless people in Corporate America. I'd rather take a smart, motivated critical thinker with analytical abilities and good writing skills and teach them the job. There is always a learning curve anyway, so why not think long-term? But no, usually we're forced to hire someone who has the background who then inevitably turns out to be a shitty employee.

Any degree from Hudson University is bullshit.

I'd say education.

r147 has a good response too.

I loved getting a liberal arts education. I learned about so many aspects of the world--science. art, art history, music, anthropology, psychology, and on and on.

Once you leave college, you will never be able to learn anything with that scope again.

And yes, I have a great, well-paying job.

Online University degrees are useless. Fly-by-night for-profit college degrees are useless. They popped up just to get government-backed student loan money.

Employers all know who these are.

There is a reversal starting and it will gain speed in the coming years. As a poster above said, History, English, majors will be sought after as people now (myself included), are terrible writers. As computers do more grunt work, the creativity opening will be big. In the design fields, the big thing was to learn every program you can. Now with the newest computers, hand drawing is coming back fast. Very soon, sketching a design that transfers into Auto Cad as you draw is a very real thing. No more knowing all the mechanics of Auto Cad. You just draw. The same with writing and all the other "useless" degrees. There will be a new better time where having these degrees and the mind-set that comes with them will be very sought after.

r151 your post reminded me of this gem.

It's better (and cheaper) to go to a community college than to go to those new for-profit colleges that advertise on the bus.

Art History was the best college course I took. It opened up the whole world of art to me.

I didn't major in it--but it made my life appreciably more interesting.

[quote] This is why Bernie "Socialist" Sanders proposal to give everyone a bachelor's is laughable. What are all those English, History, "studies" majors going to do for a job?

That person with a college degree will get a better job than anyone with just a high school degree. THAT's why Sanders is proposing it. Cons are against it because they need a permanent underclass to stay rich.

r155, in my experience, art historians are very intelligent.

I studied literature (and made an academic career out of it); lit majors tend to be a mixed bag. Art history majors are almost all bright.

[quote]Any degree from Hudson University is bullshit.

It still beats one from Trump University.

R150 I agree. I loved to study in college. R157 I had both literature and history (not art) as majors and made a career to myself, too.

The world has changed so much since I entered college in the 70s. And the academy in the non-STEM areas has given up on the notion of objective truth. Liberal arts really are facing a crisis.

Good post, R155. I took an art history class in one of my semesters when I studied abroad. It was just fantastic. The professor encouraged us to go see great works of art as we traveled around Europe. She also didn't force us to like anything in particular. She just encouraged us to go look at all the wonderful museums Europe had to offer while we traveled over breaks, and if something caught our eye, study it. What was it about the work of art that drew us to it? It definitely made life, as you put it, appreciably more interesting.

The truth is if you care about landing a good job after college the degrees to get are engineering, computer science and statistics. They open the door to a nice paying career.

All of the social sciences. The only ones who aren't useless are medical degrees, architecture, law degrees, business and engineering.

A law degree is not an undergraduate degree r163, neither are most medical degrees.

Business is a waste of an undergrad degree, it is usually broad and easy. Major in something like management Information systems, accounting, economics, finance would be more useful.

Ask yourself this: would you rather go to a dinner party with CPAs, marketing persons or engineer,s and listen to their dreary, boring conversations, or have dinner with someone who is knowledgeable about art, music, politics, history, literature, who can easily flip from one fascinating topic to another with some real awareness and knowledge of the subjects that come up? There's much to be said for giving people a wide-ranging education, not least for the quality of their interactions with other people for the entire rest of their lives, vs. very narrow, vocation-(jobs) driven educations I grant that many people can auto-didact themselves into being well-rounded by reading constantly in a wide variety of subjects, but many if not most people need to be gently led in that direction in their schooling

Marry me r165

r165 And all that scintillating dinner party conversation for the low low price of $100,000-200,000. And 20 yrs to pay it off.

No one needs to go to college for 4 yrs to learn what you described.

Just because someone has a BA in English Literature doesn't mean they'll have anything interesting to say. Just because someone is an accountant, doesn't mean they're boring.

No, you're right, but it ups the odds.....

Accounting is actually a very good major, but you have to ace it with a high GPA & then get your CPA. There's lots of opportunity in a lot of different industries. You get the BA & then the CPA. No need for a Masters.

My cousin's son has his CPA, worked at one of the big firms for 3-4 yrs, then struck out on his own, about 3 yrs ago.

He focuses on forensic accounting & works with alot of high end divorce lawyers across the US, tracking down hidden assets, bank accounts & assets in foreign countries, etc. It sounds very interesting. He is only 32 & I think he's making about $250K a yr.