A practical major: philosophy?

[Vladenschlutte]

<p>Astronomy is a prestigious field? </p>

<p>Anyway, in the spirit of philosophy, my objections to the article:</p>

<p>

Thus philosophy is a demanding major. The chairman of the Villanova University department is quoted as counseling students with mediocre grade point averages away from concentration.

</p>

<p>Non-sequitur. I have NEVER heard of a department that advertised itself as “for the dumb kids.” </p>

<p>

Philosophy majors also score highest among disciplines in verbal reasoning and analytical writing on the GRE aptitude test.

</p>

<p>First of all, this seems to imply that:

1. The human factor is negligible, in that the average person majoring in Philosophy is naturally only as smart as the average person majoring in anything else. In all likelihood, this is false. Infact, the previous claim implies that this is untrue.
2. By not mentioning other achievements of Philosophy majors in the same paragraph, this seems to imply that the greatest achievement of Philosophy majors is that they do well on the GRE.
3. If the GRE is really an important metric, then it’s worth noting that the average Physics major gets the best overall score, and there are other majors between Physics and Philosophy by GRE score (math, some engineering disciplines for instance). </p>

<p>

It is true that philosophy majors’ salaries aren’t especially high.

</p>

<p>Then what metric is Philosophy the most practical major? What is the algorithm the author used to determine this? Or was he just hypothesizing?</p>