<p>This is interesting:</p>
<p>The</a> 13 Most Useless Majors, From Philosophy to Journalism - The Daily Beast</p>
<p>As long as people continue to equate college with trade school, some degrees will always appear to be “useless”.</p>
<p>I’ve posted on this topic before, but I’ll re-iterate:</p>
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<p>I am curious about this list. Some of the majors (like history) are projected to have an increased demand (+18%) in the future and experienced graduates have an unemployment rate under 6%. </p>
<p>So while it appears that it might be difficult for history majors to get started it doesn’t seem like a major with no future.</p>
<p>I am not a fan of the ‘college as trade school’ way of thinking.</p>
<p>Even more ridiculous than I expected. Architecture is a useless degree because there’s a lot of competition for jobs? I hope the bloggers wrote that part outdoors, under a tent.</p>
<p>One limitation of the GU study is that it focuses just on outcomes right after college and ignores that history/english etc degree recipients are more likely to attend grad school than say, for example, nurses or marketing majors (two of the supposedly most useful majors; the useful majors list also includes finance – enough said) . </p>
<p>Here is an article discussing the limits of the GU study and the benefits of a liberal arts degree. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.umass.edu/history/people/faculty/documents/TheConfidenceFactorinLiberalEducation-4.pdf[/url]”>http://www.umass.edu/history/people/faculty/documents/TheConfidenceFactorinLiberalEducation-4.pdf</a></p>
<p>“Never in a million years would we undermine that gift by discussing any expected return on the investment–the investment is in him and the life of his mind.”</p>
<p>I respect you opinion, but seriously doubt that I would ever be in a position to share it. My kids have to view their education as a means to an end. We live in a different world I guess.</p>
<p>Some gifted students will progress quickly through math, computer science, and the natural sciences, aided by online courses. This may free up time for them to take humanities and social science courses in college which arguably benefit more from class discussions and an in-person teacher.</p>
<p>Need to show my sister</p>
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While I don’t view college simply as a stepping stone to a career, I think it’s very unwise to choose a major without any consideration for job prospects or career options. </p>
<p>For example, I knew a couple of people who majored in journalism and anthropology because they wanted to travel and see the world. Reality ensued, and they’re stuck at Starbucks while their friends who went into banking are the ones with the time and money to go jet-setting. Unfortunate, but eh, it is what it is.</p>
<p>Warbler, nobody majors in banking. And last time I looked, JP Morgan and Citi and UBS were just as eager to hire political science majors from Princeton as they were to hire “banking majors” from the schools that have vocational training in finance.</p>
<p>I know scores of kids who are majoring in accounting because that’s what their parents would pay for. An accountant who hate accounting (or has a C- GPA) is just as unemployable as someone who majors in something on your “not on my dime” list. Deloitte and KPMG don’t need to scrape the bottom of the barrel.</p>
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<p>All kids need to make a living eventually, mine included. I just don’t understand the mentality that values education as a ticket to a job instead of a way of improving the mind which AS A BY-PRODUCT prepares a person to contribute his/her best to society. Focusing on earnings potential seems to me to be a perversion of the definition of education.</p>
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<p>…if money and jet-setting are what you value…</p>
<p>I have a good job, six figures plus that Uncle Sam, USAF, helped me pick out and tought me how to do…I dont always love it, sometimes do. I do apparantly have some aptitude for it even 30 years later. I wish everyone could do what they are passionate about for a living. But that is not realistic. On the other hand, I choose to do what Im good at in order to afford that which I am passionate about. I encourage many young people I meet to consider this.</p>
<p>The kids who are really in to the fine arts (and similar) majors for college are seldom those who would do well in a STEM field even if they signed up for it. Some kids can do anything well and just need to decide. Others have a definite talent for their niche.</p>
<p>Students tend to do the best when they’re talented for what they choose to do. Not all value $$ over a satisfying job.</p>
<p>Lol- I dont know why they expect a 21% increase in Anthropologists. Clearly those stats were complied separately from the article. </p>
<p>As much as schools like to have kids run around with an egg to avert teen pregnancy, they should issue high schoolers a Bachelor in Poly Sci for a week and have them try to find a job when their only qualifications are they liked to hang out in their dorms getting high and confidently explaining how the world was being run incorrectly. Not so much call for that.</p>
<p>What do y’all think the most “useful” majors are? I bet most people would be surprised to see what the Internet prognosticators have to say. </p>
<p>As to the “most useless”: If you choose a major with absolutely no thought to your future career, you are not being realistic. But it’s a fine thing, if you ask me, that there are people who choose to major in arts-related fields, graphic design, architecture and English, as well as any other fields the Daily Beast in its wisdom deems “useless.” Imagine a world without the people who love these pursuits.</p>
<p>You go, Choatie Mom.</p>
<p>It may surprise many of you to learn that many of my students are rejecting the increasingly utilitarian focus of our society, and are expressing a hunger for a life of the mind, including in lots of their college application essays. Some of them have explicitly told me that they have abandoned the quest for the highest gpa, and are seeking learning for learning’s sake. (Imagine.) Lots of them are specifying courses to study in college which have been ignored in their cumulative curriculum. High on that list is philosophy. Also mentioned are literature, ancient studies, studio art, architecture, and an additional, “useless” language. (i.e., “not needed” for their professional career) </p>
<p>Others are especially valuing the need for a Time Apart (away from the “insane” rush to success), and are constructing some of those opportunities now.</p>
<p>They get it that they need to have a career. They’re just wise enough to envision the next phase of their lives as a moment they will never have as “purely” again. They’re growing disillusioned with the focus on making as much money as possible, as fast as possible, and the limitations of that in itself as a source of permanent happiness.</p>
<p>Bravo for them.</p>
<p>People also said that I would never make money with my major. I did and I am. So there. ;)</p>
<p>Thank goodness people choose these majors. How boring the world would be if everyone was a quant. If people stopped looking into our past and our future. If people stopped exploring the mind and emotions. And how “odd” for the Daily Beast to even chose this topic considering the livelihood of their medium would not be what it is without visual art and journalism. </p>
<p>Finally I totally agree Choatiemom and when are we finally going to stop equating college with vocational training on this forum?</p>
<p>My oldest has immense STEM aptitude, but also has a double major in the arts. She would need to go to grad school, which she is fully supported in by faculty, which she does NOT want to do right now, to do interesting work in her STEM major. </p>
<p>She is already, however, working in her art area, and has been steadily working since the summer after her freshman year, and has been offered a “dream job” by a contact she made in her first internship. </p>
<p>We would have banked on the opposite when she left for college, but then, what the heck do any of us really know, anyway? When we were growing up, there weren’t even personal computers or cell phones. Who even knows?</p>
<p>When all professionally-produced entertainment suddenly disappears, the same people will start complaining and wondering where all their books and music and movies and tv went.</p>
<p>Funny thing is, half the tech that is making a lot of people really, really rich in Silicon Valley and Silicon Alley in NYC, is only useful or interesting because of a lot of great content made by people with useless majors. That iPod or iPhone wouldn’t be half as useful without the graphic designers and fine arts majors and penniless musicians…</p>
<p>I’m already complaining about what happened to the great films??? But, then, that’s just me.</p>