<p>I was told that Hank Paulson was an English major at Dartmouth. Another guy I know graduated from Harvard in History major worked at the Wall Street and pulling in big bucks…There are enough examples like that. Agreed, there are more “practical” majors. However, job prospect depends on many factors.</p>
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<p>I don’t know the facts, but I suspect that studying math, science, or engineering in school gives you a better chance at getting one of these jobs.</p>
<p>Even though it is only one factor among many, if you mostly care about getting a job after college, you should pick a major that helps you achieve your goal.</p>
<p>Too bad not everyone can go to Harvard.</p>
<p>Film is a terrible major, it’s expensive, and yes you are right you will not have a job with this major, and you don’t even need to major in film to get a job as a director, Christopher Nolan director of dark knight and Inception was an English major.</p>
<p>English is useful if you want to be a professor or teacher, and combined with a business degree can offer up more career options.</p>
<p>Now the most useful major, Computer Science. That’s where it’s at.</p>
<p>Wow… I came late to the party. OP, you have zero idea what happens with a Sociology major, zero idea. I’m not even a Sociology major and I can tell you it cross-pollinates with a lot of the other social sciences. Social Psych and Anthropology come to mind.</p>
<p>Also, to defend my own turf a little… you should know that your classification of Psychology being one of these “least useful majors” just because you can’t do much with it until graduate school is also fallacious… anybody who is truly serious about being a Psychologist realizes that it’s going to take until grad school. We don’t consider pursuing medicine a useless major but they can’t do much without their Ph.D either. It’s not a matter of it being less useful, it requires MORE work than programs that can be completed in ~4 years.</p>
<p>Anything that isn’t business, economics, engineering, math, or all around science is useless… well also law, medical, and some others</p>
<p>basically liberal arts suck</p>
<p>I’m just going to drop out of college. Sick of self-righteous pretension masquerading as work ethic and realism.</p>
<p>(and besides, since I’m a lib arts major, I’d actually do BETTER in life without getting a college education, right? :P)</p>
<p>Why did this thread have to turn into a liberal arts vs. science and math debate again?</p>
<p>I love these threads. </p>
<p>Now, if anyone who has actually graduated, has gone through job searching and is working full time has anything to say…</p>
<p>Henry Paulson got an undergrad degree in English from Dartmouth, but got an MBA from Harvard. It’s safe to say his MBA from HBS got him his job at Goldman Sachs. Being CEO of GS obviously led to his position as Treasury Secretary. Actually, being CEO of GS and making friends with powerful people obviously led to his position as Treasury Sec.</p>
<p>If one wanted to go to grad school to specialize in whatever you wanted that isn’t Professional or Engineering based a bachelors liberal arts/studies degree is one of the best ways to go. It’s only going to be certain people or fields where they would perceive a liberal arts major as dumb or indecisive. Once you got your masters it wouldn’t even matter anymore. You actually can get a great education without a bunch of extra prereqs or cores and get to pick and choose what classes to support the major from computers to management to business to econ, math, the arts, history or sciences or all for teaching credentials.</p>
<p>As far as jobs are concerned in film vs computer science, in today’s California there are more better paying jobs for film/media majors than computer science majors with just a bachelors. You can take the majority of the computer science classes needed on the associates level along with most of the media, language, apps and networking classes and do just as fine as a comp sci bach student.</p>
<p>I’m not a film major, but I’d like to point out something I thought was obvious: Hollywood isn’t the only outlet available for those interested in film, in the same way that Wall Street isn’t the only place for businessmen.</p>
<p>“Why did this turn into a liberal arts vs math and science debate again?”</p>
<p>Because the title is least useful major</p>
<p>Isn’t the definition of “liberal arts” supposed to include math and science, even though most people seem to use it to cover only humanities and social studies?</p>
<p>It appears that in the 2009 [survey</a> by the UC Berkeley career center](<a href=“https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/Major.stm]survey”>https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/Major.stm), some of the majors with the least successful graduates are (based on percentages “seeking employment”, as opposed to employed, grad school, and “other”):</p>
<p>80% Film Studies
75% Earth and Planetary Science
71% Asian Studies
62% Peace and Conflict Studies
59% Architecture
57% Comparative Literature
55% Mass Communications and Media Studies</p>
<p>None of the french majors were unemployed with 25% attending grad school.</p>
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<p>Can you back this up? I find this very hard to believe with all of the computer companies stationed in CA.</p>
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<p>Right, but there are way more non-Wall Street business jobs than there are non-Hollywood film jobs. </p>
<p>How much money goes into and thus how many jobs are available for people working on non-Hollywood films in the US? My guess is not that much.</p>
<p>if you include computer companies and technology all supporting a/v media and entertainment, it is huge in scope and scale. One could get a AA in F/TV Production and BA/BS in Computer science or a AS in Computer Sci and Bachelors in film and be at the same competitive level if wanted to work for like Lucas or some big production. The best degree to get if really wanted to merge computer engineering with a/v technology is to get the AS in Broadcast TV/Engineering Technology degree offered at Napa Valley College then a BS in Electrical and Electronic Engineering with CS support courses or a minor in Computer Engineering (not Comp Sci which is more theoretical, systematic overview, and math based). The wages would hover on average around 40k a year with the AS/Cert and around 80k a year with both degrees and multiple level certifications. </p>
<pre><code>The advantage is one works onsite while the disadvantages may be oncall and a far distance. There are certain Computer Engineer/IT/IS jobs that require a physical body present while other ones can be outsourced. Tons have been outsourced and auctioned off to people who will work for 1 to 3 dollars an hour to 10 an hour for advanced programming. A simple job that could still take 1 -3 hours may be only a few dollars to wages still lower than federal minimum. Some film jobs have gone that direction but just not as many but in that matter its an iffy proposition and relies on real skill and talent and new business models to emerge.
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<p>“Useful” is a ambivalent term at best, often used fallaciously at worst</p>
<p>“Right, but there are way more non-Wall Street business jobs than there are non-Hollywood film jobs.”</p>
<p>Spend some time in NYC and you’ll start to realize there are just as many jobs for those studying film as those studying business. There are more jobs for film students than just directing or producing films. People have a very narrow idea of what a film major can do outside of typical jobs like directing.</p>
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It wouldn’t be Harvard if everyone could go?</p>
<p>Too bad I am not a legacy/rich/powerful/a URM…</p>