<p>it’s not a good sign when no evidence will convince you that you are wrong.</p>
<p>“yeah whenever i make important decisions i usually stick with my gut. facts and statistics just get in the way.”</p>
<p>– lethal fairy</p>
<p>btw some other lib. arts major just used the same argument in another thread about makin money out of college. just from going off of my personal experience, maybe the adage that the lib. arts education teaches you how to think isn’t true . . .</p>
<p>Perhaps a liberal arts education teaches one to recognize sarcasm.</p>
<p>ha if so then pardon me</p>
<p>i just witnessed a lib. arts major make the exact same arg.</p>
<p>That was a pretty poor argument Lethal Fairy, but that link is golden. I’ve referred to it myself before. I’m glad that someone else on CC reads Study Hacks.</p>
<p>lrn2sarcasm?</p>
<p>Statistics are informative, but you can’t just rely on them. Like anecdotes, they don’t show you the whole picture. They’re data, they don’t offer explanations. So, let’s say the statistics I haven’t seen do show that preprofessional majors find more employment than humanities majors. That doesn’t mean liberal arts are useless. There’s a variety of factors that need to be examined and analyzed in order to conclude anything. I’ll give an example. We agree that a preprofessional major is innately more difficult than a liberal arts major because writing and reading are survival skills, while math and science are not. We read and write every day, but we don’t do advanced calculus every day. It’s easier to dumb down a liberal arts course than it is to dumb down a math or science course. Liberal arts are subjective, so a professor who is not interested in education can inflate grades easily. In math and science, you’re right or you’re wrong, there’s not as much room left to interpretation. So, lazy students are more likely to flock to a humanities degree than an engineering degree. If a good portion of liberal arts degrees are held by lazy people while engineering degrees are held by driven people, is it out of the realm of possibility to suggest a lazy person is going to have a hard time finding a job and holding on to a job, while a driven person will find a job faster and do better, thus remaining employed? </p>
<p>Which is why I am interested to see statistics, but am wary to see them used as the only evidence used to make a point.</p>
<p>… Internet sarcasm is hard to tell. It just sounded like something a faceless rabid teen would write on digg or 4chan. Then again, I only read metafilter anyway.</p>
<p>I’m majoring in humanities. The thing about a degree in any of the humanities majors is that you have so many options for jobs. You’re not just stuck to one type of profession, such as with a degree in engineering or science. With a degree in any humanities majors, you can go to graduate school and teach. Or you can even attend medical school, with the proper science classes. You can be an editor, writer, advertising person, diplomat, pretty much whatever you want.</p>
<p>Humanities gives you a good basis for any job, it teaches you about humanity, and doesn’t every job in some way deal with people?</p>
<p>i haven’t read the entire thread, so i don’t know if i’m going to repeat something someone’s already said. but i think majoring in humanities has the potential to be a total waste (in terms of jobs and salaries, not self-fulfillment) if one has no intention of going to grad school, law school, etc. what can you really do with a bachelor’s in american studies, for example? </p>
<p>(and i am a humanities major, just to be clear… i’m not an “angry engineer”)</p>
<p>I have read and enjoy that Study Hacks article about whether or not your major matters…probably because it reinforces my own opinion</p>
<p>As a History major, I can tell you with great confidence that there is very little I can learn in this major that I can not learn outside of the classroom. You’d be missing out on great lectures from esteemed scholars if you did, but you would not miss out on anything vital. In other words: The degree itself is useless. After all, it’s just a pretty piece of paper when the day is done.</p>
<p>Would I major in anything else? Of course not! I love History, and if you don’t major in what you love you WILL live a mediocre life riddled with misery. Those people that force subjects like engineering or business on people that have no interest in them are scum. Their hubris is almost nauseating, and their narrow-minded perspective of life is depressing. To place so much importance on an undergraduate degree without evaluating the person is criminal.</p>
<p>There are no useless majors, only useless people.</p>
<p>I agree with Malak. Here’s the way I see things. I keep a record of the novels I read. I came into college an economics major and thought I could just read novels during my spare time. My gosh! How dismally low was that number in my first few terms when all I could read were economics textbooks and papers! Sure, I did find some time to read novels too. But then I decided to take a term heavy with English classes and the number shot up.</p>
<p>My point: Yes, one could very easily learn anything on his own, without classes. But the problem isn’t the way you learn it; the problem is the limited time you have in your hands. For each minute you spend reading an economics textbook, you lose a minute that can be spent reading a novel. That’s okay if you prefer economics or if you want to be well-balanced in both. But it’s a stupid path to take if you enjoy literature so much and you just want to be brilliant at that. Neither path is better than the other; it’s all up to your preference.</p>
<p>Sorry to resurrect a thread from nearly two years ago, but I just wanted to add my two cents: One of my relatives, who majored in Art History at a prestigious school, which is considered to some of you guys as “useless,” just got a job at a business corp, earning 65 grand as a start. Do you know how she did it? Dedication. She went into art history knowing what she wanted to do. So, in some ways ANY major can be a waste if you don’t know what direction you’re going into and just doing it because either it will make you a lot of money or because it’s the easy way to go. I also know an English major who got a job straight out of undergrad at a local weather forecasting station, earning about 50k, which is pretty good considering he hasn’t gone to grad school, yet. I’ve also learned that with practical majors like engineering, science, math, etc., you really have to enjoy what you do in order to actually land a “decent” job. I know so many cocky aspiring engineering majors thinking they can find a job that pays 100k per year with just an undergrad degree, only to end up working for some road construction job that they were least expecting, vice versa. It’s not always about the major. It’s about knowing what you’re going to do with the skill and how you’re going to apply it to the real world. Sometimes it might even be a career that you would least expect it. For example, my older sister is a Sociology major, who just recently found interest in demography. She’s in grad school, but she got a job at a local school district, who analyzes the demographics of students of the school district; she’s earning 55K as a start.</p>
<p>I think it’s incredibly low of someone to say that a major is “useless”. If it was so useless, then why does it exist? It’s meant for SOMETHING, regardless of the pay, so there is always work for someone with, let’s say…a philosophy degree. A lot of them go to law school or education, even possibly business/marketing; it’s not just for them to become some all-mighty philosopher.</p>
<p>Art? I would hardly call that a useless field, designing clothing, ads, paintings, etc. History? Teaching, museums, etc. Religion? Pastors/priests? I think what you mean is less in demand. I agree that there aren’t as many job prospects but there are still jobs in those fields that someone has to do. Also consider that what may be less useful as a primary major can be a real supplement as a double major. There are a lot of jobs for foreign language majors in business or medicine. You can also major (or double major) in something for the fun of it, if you love something then find a way to make it useful.</p>
<p>Your major doesn’t determine your career. You could get plenty of jobs just y having a bachelors degree. I think some people are just way to picky or don’t look/try hard enough.</p>
<p>This entire thread is nothing more than the never ending argument between the realist and the idealist. You have people who look at how things are, why they are the way they are, and from that learn how to adapt and tailor themselves to reality and eventually their personal definitions of success. People like this are needed in the world. They are our builders, our industry leaders, our business men, engineers, and accountants. Without these people industries would collapse, technological progress would be halted, new development would be slow progressing. Technology, healthcare, infrastructure all of these different fields require people with the realist minds to manage and make these industries profitable, viable, and effective. </p>
<p>Some famous realists include Woodrow Wilson, JFK, John Locke, James Madison, as well as most of the world’s mathematicians etc. </p>
<p>Now lets look at the idealist for a moment as well. The idealist is often considered ignorant by the realist. “He does not know what the real world is like” is a common statement of the realist or “Its not logical to do something you like if your not going to make a good living form it”. While the realist’s arguments are valid and in many cases true you cannot deny the need for idealists in the world. Without idealists and people who can look beyond what is now, and dare to dream big, quite frankly sometimes outrageously big, we wouldn’t have had the thousands of advancements in civil rights, human rights, government, society, and law that we have now. </p>
<p>Some famous idealists you guys may have herd about are Aristotle, Plato, Jung, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, Cesar Chavez, Carl Marx, George Berkeley, etc. These people envisioned a reality not present in their time. They were scrutinized, humiliated, ridiculed, and in many cases hated in their life. Now we look at them as heroes, and proponents of progress and change. </p>
<p>My point is the argument is not black or / and white, nor is it one sided. There is a NEED in society, and at a global level for both realists and idealists. Yes generally idealists are not appreciated in their time. Yes Idealists generally don’t live a very luxurious life, and for the most part are not part of the wealthy class in any society or time period in which they existed. </p>
<p>I will agree with the argument made that in general people who major in social sciences and humanities are for the most part idealists, while those who major in more technical subjects such as math and engineering are much more realists. I will also agree with the fact that if you major in something such as math, and engineering you will much more likely make a good living, and have a much higher chance of attaining wealth than a person who majors in say… communication or humanities. </p>
<p>What I will not agree with is the argument made on previous posts, by people who choose the majors such as engineering and math that these people can do anything that the person who majors in communication and or humanities can do with a bit of book work and a library card. They also state that those who major in humanities can’t do engineering or math in the same fashion. That argument is in my opinion a huge fallacy. Generally both types of majors attract very different kinds of people, and the fact is if you are human being with an average intelligence you can do engineering, you can do math, you can do English, and you can do history and do a good job of it all. It takes hard work, passion, dedication, and a desire to succeed to do well in any major. If you love what you are doing you are going to be better at it than a person who does not care, or does not have a passion for the subject. At the same time, if your ideals and belief system works best with your major you will likely find it more enjoyable and satisfying. </p>
<p>By reading this you probably have already figured out that I am an idealist. I believe that doing what you want in life and doing it well, going the extra mile and working hard at what you love is going to lead to a successful path in life based on your own definition. I am an idealist yes, but with a grasp on reality. I am a communication and political science double major. I have a 3.4 GPA, and I have done research at 2 different institutions. I am currently working on obtaining government internships. I love my majors, and I bust my butt to find ways to make myself a more attractive employee to an employer once I graduate. I have done free internships or research every summer and fall of every year since I became a college freshmen, and have gained invaluable knowledge about the fields which I am interested in pursuing careers. I understand the reality of life I know that I need to work hard in my majors and to show that I am not just another lazy student trying to take the easy way out of college. I don’t party, I don’t drink, I sit at home, study, read, and make sure I get nothing less than a B in any of my classes. I realize that a lot of people who major in humanities etc, are not like me. I just wish that people would also see all of the hard working people like myself in these majors who are going the extra mile to differentiate ourselves from the pack. </p>
<p>There is nothing wrong with being an idealist, nor a realist; both are needed in this world in order for us to progress as the human race. To evolve, change, adapt, and learn we need to look at both arguments seriously and understand that both points of view are valid and required for us to continue moving forward into the future. There are lazy uninspired realists, and idealist everywhere. No one field of study can claim to have all the best students, or all the bad students. No one area of study can possibly encompass every subject or every skill that a employer is looking for. Down at its core this argument like most, becomes a simple disagreement based on personal values, cultural differences, and social influences. </p>
<p>Thanks for reading.</p>
<p>"With the exception of Renaud who sat beside me, the others have faded out of my memory; they belonged to that category of colorless individuals who make up the world of engineers, architects, dentists, pharmacists, teachers, etc. There was nothing to distinguish them from the clods whom they would later wipe their boots on. They were zeros in every sense of the word, ciphers who form the nucleus of a respectable and lamentable citizenry. They ate with their heads down and were always the first to clamor for a second helping. They slept soundly and never complained; they were neither gay nor miserable. The indifferent ones whom Dante consigned to the vestibule of Hell. The upper-crusters. "</p>
<p>Quite frankly, I don’t think you should get the major for the money. Get the major because it’s what you want to do - you can find a job for almost any of those. For instance, you can teach practically all of those whether its at a high school or college level.
English especially has lots of job opportunities - you can branch off into creative writing, journalism, screen writing, publishing, freelance writing, copy ad work, etc etc.</p>