<p>Anything that you major in and actually follow through with that major as a career option. Some examples would be: education, engineering, nursing, and many of the majors that might be classified as "vocational".</p>
<p>"I think a versatile degree or major is much more important than a practical major.</p>
<p>if you major in engineering/accounting it leads to a safe career, but what can you really do outside that field?"</p>
<p>liek0806, I think you're being very close-minded. Engineering and accounting can offer lots of opportunities beyond their field and both within. Because engineers, for one, have been trained in a combination of lots of subjects and are taught how to problem solve, they can make ideal workers in virtually every type of job. Don't think of these two occupations as simply white collar workers who drag the days aways sitting at a desk doing the same thing.</p>
<p>I have no clue about most, but in my opinion, Psychology is the least practical major UNLESS you plan on attending grad school. Almost all jobs within the feild require a masters, if not a doctorate. I am not discounting psychologists, Lord knows I love mine. Just the bachelors degree.</p>
<p>Least practical: marketing. DON'T DO IT!</p>
<p>Strykur- I don't know about that. </p>
<p>I'm not a marketing major, because my school doesnt have a marketing major, but I'm Comm which lots of people perceive as being just as useless. I landed a decent paying job as the marketing coordinator for an established company (as an incoming fourth year- not even graduated yet). Have lots and lots of options open to me b/c of it, all of them potentially leading to a very comfortable salary. </p>
<p>Marketing and ad services are practical for some of us :)</p>
<p>It is possible to major in ceramics or medieval studies and still land an awesome job - just take some good business and economic courses and suddenly you're happy and employable.</p>
<p>Most - Probably electrical or mechanical engineering. You can do many jobs with those qualifications.</p>
<p>Least - Golf and terf management. lol</p>
<p>While some majors are certainly not practical on the surface level, they can lead to great opportunities that just may not coincide specificaly with the field. Like philosophy, which was mentioned above- you are obviously not going to get a job as a philosopher, but it will really open your mind and broaden your understanding of humankind and lead to grad school or a number of interesting career options. Ditto performing arts degress, especially theater. They may seem impractical when considering the odds, but they give you great skills- like the way you interact with people, confidence, going beyond what is asked- that make employers want to hire you. The moral- pursue your passions and if you love it you will probably find some way to make a career out of it.</p>
<p>That being said, if you have a broad category of interests or are dead set on a well-paying job, anything that deals with computers and technology will probably open a lot of doors.</p>
<p>MOST: Anything in engineering or business, economics, education, mathematics/statistics, actuarial science, pharmacy, computer science, journalism.</p>
<p>LEAST: Art, Art history, music, poly-sci</p>
<p>least: philosophy, sociology, religious studies (unless you want to be a clergy person), linguistics, american/asian/african studies</p>
<p>as for the psych suggestions- all my psych major friends are now doing things quite relevant to their degree!</p>
<p>I wanna major in POKER!!!</p>
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<p>I think any major is "practical" if you play your cards right. Plus, most philosophy, gender studies, classics, etc majors I know want to eventually be professors or teachers. My best teachers have been philosophy majors.</p>
<p>To make a degree instantly more marketable, it's a good idea to double/triple major or minor in international relations, any foreign language (though Spanish should almost be basic requirement and rarer languages like Arabic, Russian, and Mandarin are excellent), or economics. Those help almost any career- business, law, even medicine in terms of the foreign language, journalism, really anything.</p>
<p>most: engineering, accounting, medical field (pharm, dentist, doc, etc.), nursing</p>
<p>least: communications, history, philosophy, psychology, ______ Studies. </p>
<p>pretty much any liberal arts major.</p>
<p>I think accounting is a very practical major, because the fact of the matter is that people will ALWAYS have to pay taxes, and very few are smart enough to be able to figure out everything on their own. Another practical major is architecture, because buildings are constantly being built, renovated, etc. and someone's got to plan that out. Both of those careers are things that I don't think would ever go outdated.</p>
<p>I think the most unpractical major is journalism. I used to be very gung ho about going to journalism school, but the more journalists I talked to, the more I realized that you don't really need to go to journalism school. More than anything, you need experience for journalism. Having knowledge about a topic is more useful than knowing only about journalism. </p>
<p>On another note, I know someone who went to one of those schools where you design your own major, and majored in "evil." I'm wondering how that one will work out in terms of practicality.</p>
<p>
[quote]
On another note, I know someone who went to one of those schools where you design your own major, and majored in "evil." I'm wondering how that one will work out in terms of practicality.
[/quote]
LOL! That's awesome!</p>
<p>KingJames23:</p>
<p>How is poly sci an unpractical major?</p>
<p>"I used to be very gung ho about going to journalism school, but the more journalists I talked to, the more I realized that you don't really need to go to journalism school. More than anything, you need experience for journalism. Having knowledge about a topic is more useful than knowing only about journalism."</p>
<p>This is very true. I think majoring in English is probably the best preparation for a career in journalism. Even History, Philosophy, Classics, or Political Science is better prep than J-school. And I know for a fact that many newspapers and major magazines are wary about journalism school grads -- for some reason, most of them aren't very good writers. They know how to string quotes together and the inverted pyramid style, but their knowledge of history and world events is usually lacking. </p>
<p>I guess J-school is OK if all you want to be is a general daily beat reporter. But if you want to be a columnist or feature writer or editor, or write books, I would seriously advise getting a degree in something other than journalism.</p>
<p>"religious studies (unless you want to be a clergy person)"</p>
<p>Most seminary hopefuls these days major in either philosophy or Classics, or both. Seminaries -- Catholic and Protestant -- strongly encourage it. Reason being, undergraduate philosophy is the single best preparation for theological studies; and Classics is the best prep for graduate Biblical studies.</p>
<p>engineering may be the highest paying major but you peak pretty much right away. With business you can rise the ranks and end up making well over 500k a year.</p>