Can anybody list off majors to avoid? I wanna be cautious when I choose my major this year
All the humanaties and liberal arts except maybe Econ
^Not true. Many liberal arts subjects have excellent job prospects.
IMO, there is no bad major, except maybe things like MIS, which many people who pursue it don’t really understand that it’s a business degree and not a STEM degree and so they end up not being able to find a job, since they’re looking for IT or CS jobs.
What matters most is what skills you learn, that you succeed in your classes, and that you love what you’re learning.
Are you compelled to choose your major now? Many colleges give their students free time, i.e. >1 year to think about what they should take and try out classes.
The only “majors to avoid” are majors that don’t align with your skills and interests. Don’t major in engineering if you hate math; don’t major in English if you struggle with writing; don’t major in computer science if you don’t like computers.
@guineagirl96 I’m sorry that sounded harsh but on average liberal arts and humanities majors generally make less money of course a history major from Harvard will be better off than a business major from a CSU. But if the poster has no idea of what to choose why not choose a generally higher paying major like computer science or finance but then in your second year you hate STEM and have developed a passion for history then by all means choose history, just beware unless you’re going to an elite school you will be diminishing your job prospects and better save up money for grad school because you’ll generally need it to get a job
@BucketsUCSC The thing is, your reply was apparently based on a single criterion – but OP stated no criteria. And if no one had called you on it, your criterion would have remained unstated. Gotta be careful about that. Other people might value different stuff.
FWIW, I think OP’s question was quite silly, being so open ended
True it’s just the question is so open ended that we must presume the OP has no direction whatsoever and generally people have no passion towards certain fields like history or literature tend to choose the “high paying fields in engineering and finance”
I’m majoring in computer science because I love the field. Even if this field was a low paying job, i’d still major in it becuase I love the aspects of this degree so much.
Avoid any major that will lead you to a job you won’t love.
You’re going to be working for a good 40-50 years. Choosing a major based on someone else’s preferences, or even on the 2015 economy, is a huge mistake.
Find something you love. Then find a way to get someone to pay you to do it.
Interesting read from the wsj:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-im-not-looking-to-hire-computer-science-majors-1440804753
@bjkmom a major doesn’t tie you down for the next 40-50 years. A computer science major can end up going into non profit work if that becomes his niche down the line but it would be a little harder for a humanities to major to get a job as a programmer
Actually, CS is one of the technical areas where self-education is more possible than others.
Of course, if a student knows that s/he will be interested in working in that field, studying CS in college makes sense. But a highly motivated person with sufficient ability can self-educate CS more easily later, compared to some other subjects like various engineering subjects.
I agree with the first post, avoid humanities. Unless you don’t mind being poor. IMO double majoring is the best
To each his own.
what is humanities?
I’m not sure if you’re a troll but they are majors such as English,history political science etc. and involve more writing and really broad thinking where is stem majors are technical and use more math
@BucketsUCSC
That’s a rather broad and, in several cases, inaccurate generalization, and political science is not one of the humanities, it’s a social science.
@bryan9234824234
Humanities includes subjects like English, classics, history, linguistics and foreign language, philosophy and the like. Humanities tends to approach issues qualitatively/analytically as opposed to scientifically/quantitatively. You might want to do some research/Googling on your own before asking questions here.
Sorry I was just providing him a general idea I don’t have much knowledge myself
The following majors, given comparatively low ratings (<50%) in job (current, not necessarily major, field) satisfaction by people who did them and completed the survey at the Students Review dot com website, I would be leery of (presuming that I wanted to work straight out of college): animal studies, archaeology, athletics, nuclear engineering, physical therapy/exercise science, public health, radiological sciences and video/media. I would also be leery of the ones for which people there reported comparatively high unemployment (>10%) that also did not have good prospects per the Bureau of Labor Statistics (http://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_table_102.htm): art & design and industrial design.
Very big factors in determining the financial value of a major is whether you can expect financial support from parents, a spouse or someone else after you graduate and whether you are tolerant of doing low, non-degree jobs after college while awaiting appropriate professional work. If these are in play, I would consider literature, languages, art, music, history, philosophy, political science, sociology, psychology, anthropology, biology, public health and physical therapy/exercise science to be OK, but I wouldn’t do them otherwise unless I had great confidence I could get into and afford a teaching credential or graduate program more job-oriented right afterward. (However, unless AMOUNT of pay didn’t much matter to me, I would avoid teaching, which I find is job-secure, but poorly-paying. On the Students Review site, it has, of approx. 75 listed majors, the lowest reported pay at both starting and 10-year average.)