Most worthless major(s) at Cal?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
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<p>I just read an article on the NYTimes talking about how an NYU graduate is now saddled with 100k in debt and no way to pay it off. She majored in religion and women's studies. I was just shocked at her choices of majors, she goes off to live in a super expensive city and attends an expensive school... just to be saddled with debt? I think it's a lack of personal responsibility.</p>

<p>Sure it's important to follow your passion, but why choose a major that is "impractical" in the sense that you limit your potential earning power. What extremely questionable majors have you seen students major in at Cal?</p>

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<p>Anything with “studies” after it.</p>

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<p>Would you consider Legal Studies useless?</p>

<p>I feel like it’s the exception to that rule.</p>

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<p>I wouldn’t say the “studies”-majors are always useless. It depends on the student’s post-undergrad plans and ambitions. The studies majors are quite useful for pre-laws-- with heavy writing components and easy A’s to boot.</p>

<p>Easy doesn’t always equate to useless.</p>

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<p>Seeing as most law schools do not recommend one being a legal studies major, yes, I would include it in the useless “studies” category.</p>

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<p>How about we end this thread before someone like sakky sees it and decides to turn it into a 30 page-quote/statistic-filled lecture on how nothing/everything is actually useless. k thanks.</p>

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<p>your welcome^^</p>

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<p>Fail ■■■■■ is fail.</p>

<p>OP always has the most vapid posts. Seriously, check his post history.</p>

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<p>Nah, I have a better idea. We should keep the thread open for those posters who have nothing to contribute whatsoever to the topic at hand but are only interested in tossing out random flame-spam.</p>

<p>Oh wait, look’s like that’s already been done.</p>

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<p>Flutterfly thinks Berkeley is near perfect, so don’t hate on it or else he/she will call you out.
:D</p>

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<p>lol i don’t see how anyone can possibly think I’m a “he”
</p>

<p>And my post/this thread is not even related to my opinion on Cal lol.</p>

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<p><a href=“http://www.holytaco.com/2008/06/03/the-10-most-worthless-college-majors/[/url]”>http://www.holytaco.com/2008/06/03/the-10-most-worthless-college-majors/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>^ :D** I need more pls**</p>

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<p>Majors =/= worth. It’s your EC’s. It’s just that there’s a tendency for certain type of people/personalities to be attracted to certain majors.</p>

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<p>Let me sort of give the usual perspective on this 
 </p>

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<p>You have to do research to see what opportunities you’ll realistically have in the future. For instance, if you’re entering a physics major expecting to be tenured at Princeton some day, you are kidding yourself almost completely. Whereas if you develop strong quantitative skills in a broad sense, you can probably land yourself a good career in the long run.</p>

<p>Doing a humanities major without any quantitative skills makes it hard. The reason is, jobs that aren’t run of the mill go to people who have skills that are specifically necessary to get the job done, and/or people who are <em>perceived</em> to have these. Knowing the state of human emotion and knowledge is important, and literature should be studied, but it’s not what’s immediately going to do the odd jobs that need to be done, and it doesn’t promise to give some wealthier employer information and developments which could help them make money in the long term.</p>

<p>In effect, to make money, you either help someone else make money (which happens if the someone else has something that you can actually sell, in high enough demand), or you satisfy someone’s immediate needs. How intellectually accomplished you are ends up having only something to do with this.</p>

<p>The quoted “worthless majors” piece basically says a lot of this, except it’s probably a lot more fun to read than what I wrote.</p>

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<p>Those defending the top 10 worthless majors, Latin in particular, are unselfish people leaving top paying jobs and positions for the rest of us. Praise the humanities.</p>

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<p>You could argue any major as worthless. Science, math, comp sci, engineering? It can all be offshored now and done cheaply by someone in a third world country. Have fun finding a job people in ‘worthwhile’ majors who aren’t superstars. :wink: J/K. </p>

<p>I really don’t think there is a -worthless- major per se. Anything that allows you to think critically and proves you are trainable is highly worthwhile.</p>

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<p>OK honestly, even as a joke, not true, as you know :)</p>

<p>Cheap skills are cheap. But real skills aren’t cheap, whether from another country are from here.</p>

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<p>There are courses and skills which more directly relate to some employable skills. Spending long amounts of time training to think in a way employers value is saying a lot more than just being able to think critically. </p>

<p>Let’s remember, SCHOOL IN GENERAL will not prepare you for the exact skills employers need, but sometimes quite a bit of direct training beyond critical thinking skills are necessary for employers to even consider you trainable in any reasonable sense. </p>

<p>Also, trainable doesn’t just mean having a good mind - it can mean having shown interest and aptitude in <em>particular</em> ways of thinking. A lot of this has to do with interest and fit, not just smart or not. Show that you care about that employer’s position, and that you can do it, and you’re in a better position.</p>

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<p>Sakky is hardcore, no doubt, and it can be tough to read through the posts. But from having various posts, I know (he?) knows and shares a lot of things I don’t know, which is untrue of a vast majority of posters I have encountered.</p>

<p>Arguably CC reaches its peak of usefulness when there is such information spread.</p>

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You could argue that, but you would fail miserably unless you could provide a) evidence supporting that broad generalization and b) evidence indicating that this problem is specific to those majors.</p>