<p>As a proud Linguistics and German double major, I think we liberal arts advocates need to band together. I am so sick of getting asked "What do you want to do with your majors?" I have no idea and I'm PROUD! :D</p>
<p>Pointless thread? Maybe.</p>
<p>That’s a bad attitude to have.</p>
<p>@woeishe, I totally disagree! Major does not equal career. One will find success studying what one loves. Power to you, KevRus!</p>
<p>You should tell them that you want to be a German linguist.
Like Tobias Funke: I was a professional twice over - an analyst and a therapist. The world’s first “analrapist”.</p>
<p>^lol</p>
<p>And I think that although it is definitely important to think ahead in your life, it’s even more important to pursue what you love.</p>
<p>I’m sure a German linguist or any other esoteric major is sought after in certain circles.</p>
<p>I agree that it’s so frustrating to get people who look down on your future just because of your major. So often do I, as well as countless others in humanities or social science majors get asked “Well what are you going to do with your life/what could you possibly do with that major?” And to a certain degree, it’s a valid point–engineering, pre-med, or other “hard science” jobs probably would be more stable, provide a good enough income level to lead a comfortable life (although getting into med school is not exactly an easy thing to do). And it seems students in the liberal sciences have a hard time getting good jobs right out of college, and then are shunted into grad school, incurring financial debts. </p>
<p>But I think when it comes down to it, your skills in areas such as writing, communication abilities, etc will matter more than your major when trying to find a job after college. So yeah, I think that you should pursue the major that suits your interests in college, and use your skills to find a job, even if it’s not in your major area. But if you’re a rising senior and you don’t care about finding a job or have any clue as to what you’re going to do after college…then I think that’s a bad idea. If you’re a frosh/soph and even a junior, it’s fine. But having a sense of direction isn’t a bad thing.</p>
<p>It is a good idea to be aware of the job and career implications of major choice, so that you are not surprised at graduation time. For example, don’t assume that “science = good job at graduation” and then major in biology or chemistry. Similarly, the odds are very steep against getting into any medical school or a top law school that offers top lawyer job opportunities; getting in may also require compromising one’s academic experience (e.g. avoiding taking interesting courses because they may be “hard” and result in unsightly B+ grades).</p>
<p>Berkeley is one of the few schools that posts career survey results by major for all to see:
<a href=“https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/Major.stm[/url]”>https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/Major.stm</a></p>
<p>While the survey has limitations (some majors have poor response rates, or too few responses to protect the privacy of individual respondents, so they information is not listed), the information provided is much more useful than what most other schools provide in this area (which is nothing).</p>
<p>I am a MechE and already afraid of my own future since a majority of engineering jobs expect me to know EECS-related material in addition to several program languages. Applying to more than 25 companies and having heard back from just 1 company that I got rejected and the rest of 24 not even responding was the biggest shock in my life. Obviously I did something really wrong to not submit something “in addition” to my resume when my friends from my department got offers from plethora of companies and complain about “I don’t think I chose the best company to work over the summer”.</p>
<p>Either my resume is that lackluster, or it seems like having some connections with people who has influence is so much more important than good GPA, choice of major, whatever.</p>
<p>Actually, obviously 25 wasn’t enough.</p>
<p>Obviously. It’s all about them Benjamins baby.</p>
<p>Dude, you have all the respect from me. Study what you love for its own sake and not try to sell out the degree as some form of real world application. I personally think there is value in education for education sake.</p>
<p>you studied a useless major which will lead you professional failure according to statistics from the career website, which shows very low average salaries which directly relates to personal achievement</p>
<p>-business major
also i’m chinese</p>
<p>To add to ucbalumnus, I’d say you have to be honest with yourself - you can’t claim not to care about something and then actually care secretly. If you don’t really care, and will take what job comes, fine. Else, it’s always good to give it a little thought what you want to do afterwards.</p>
<p>No thought whatsoever!</p>
<p>Linguistic science is fascinating, and I love German language and culture. I knew I wanted to study linguistics before I even graduated high school. I love my classes and I love my professors.</p>
<p>Getting a job is the last thing on my mind. I remember being surprised my first semester at Cal by how pre-professional many students’ attitudes are. But I guess that comes along with attending a “competitive” public university. Maybe somewhere like UChicago is more for me. 
Too bad it’s so depressing.</p>
<p>I don’t know if @eminemgotrobbed is being sarcastic or not. But if not, I don’t think any Berkeley grad will encounter “professional failure.” Maybe part of my apathy toward career planning stems from the fact that I just don’t care much for making “a lot” of money. Thinking about my future, I’m fine living in a small apartment and living comfortably.</p>
<p>And for what it’s worth, I am quite pleased with my GPA, and am on the right track for top-tier grad schools…and I attribute a lot of that to my passion for what I’m studying.</p>
<p>yes i was being sarcastic. i was showing the general view of my business major friends, which alot of them are chinese lol, towards the other majors and its pretty *****ign annoying.<br>
its refreshing to hear someone thats not always thinking about getting a job. keep on keepin on brotha</p>
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<p>It probably has more to do with student loans and such. At a school where students either come from wealthy families, or receive extremely generous non-loan financial aid, there may not be as much pressure to study something with good job and career prospects. But when more students have to take student loans, they need to be concerned about paying them back after graduation (they don’t want to be the subject of a news article about “$100,000 in debt and no job”).</p>
<p>Of course, this does not necessarily mean that the “pre-professional” students are making the optimal choices in this respect. Majoring in biology is very popular, presumably because it is “convenient” to do so as a pre-med. But most pre-meds do not get into any medical school, and the job and career prospects for biology graduates at the bachelor’s degree level are poor.</p>
<p>Well being on track to a good graduate school can mean you’re banking on academia keeping you alive long enough that you can do something else.</p>
<p>The people who are very pre-professional may have less interest in going to a great graduate program, and indeed, may not really go to grad school.</p>
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<p>try not to blame them - a lot of it is family pressure as well as a whole lot of insecurity. (i’m studying business, what if i still don’t get a job?? let me feel better about myself, so i’ll go insult liberal arts majors!)</p>
<p>i’m chinese and i get looks from fellow chinese who wonder why on earth i’d want to study linguistics. i just try to remember that any of them who might have considered studying something liberal-ish would’ve met with the same thing i did when telling my parents - a huge argument, pressure, etc.</p>
<p>i’m not saying i condone their behavior, just saying that i understand part of their mindset. goodness knows no one should be insulting someone else’s major, but we aren’t perfect…</p>
<p>I think (hope) those who opt to study “useless” majors are well prepared for whats to come afterward. After a lot of sleepless nights, I just came up with a list of things I wanted to and could do with my major. In the end I came up with at least 3 back-up plans if everything goes south. I think as long as you have some sort of idea of what you want to do post-graduation, you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>No major is useless.</p>
<p>If you get a Bachelor’s degree you’re instantly far better off than the vast majority of the nation’s (and the world’s) population.</p>
<p>And people need to start realizing that most non-specialty or -technical employers couldn’t care less what your degree is in. You probably can’t be an engineer if you know nothing about engineering (i.e. if you don’t have a degree in engineering), but I’m sure that same engineering company needs people to work in management, HR, marketing, etc. And those fields don’t have specific major requirements.</p>