<p>So happy I am a double major :)</p>
<p>The son of a friend of mine is considering going to Penn State/University Park to major in agricultural economics & agricultural sociology.</p>
<p>Funny, I don't recall seeing "Agricultural Economist Wanted" in the want ads.</p>
<p>I also don't recall seeing any want ads for anthropologists.</p>
<p>Nobody thought the N64 controller BONG was hilarious?!</p>
<p>Agro-economics is a legit major. They're hired not only by farms, but governments (policy) and large businesses (consulting). Shouldn't end any time soon with huge firms taking over family farms.</p>
<p>A major that should be on the list is Sports Management. The major is based entirely around internships and sports versions of marketing and management 101. A general business AA degree and some contacts will serve the student just as well.</p>
<p>Somebody will surely mention philosophy, and while that is perhaps the worse major to pursue as a grad student, it is perhaps the best major to have as an undergrad. It's one of the few to teach you how to think rather than what to think.</p>
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The son of a friend of mine is considering going to Penn State/University Park to major in agricultural economics & agricultural sociology.</p>
<p>Funny, I don't recall seeing "Agricultural Economist Wanted" in the want ads.
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<p>Are you being ironic? I can't tell. If not, that's a really silly opinion you have there.</p>
<p>The least valuable (not "worthless") undergraduate majors are those that lead to preparation for entry-level positions in one and only one field. The most valuable are whatever stimulates you to read, think, research and discuss. Ironically, undergraduate majors like Accounting that may paint someone into a corner that they don't wish to occupy for 40 years, tend to be those which older adults with obsolete views of a college education recommend to young students as valuable.</p>
<p>"Ironically, undergraduate majors like Accounting that may paint someone into a corner that they don't wish to occupy for 40 years, tend to be those which older adults with obsolete views of a college education recommend to young students as valuable."</p>
<p>Maybe that's because all of us "old coots" know amazing Wall Street million/billionaires who started out in public accounting....(but that's not to say it's necessarily true today!!)</p>
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the truth is if you graduate with a science/math/economics/engineering degree, you have accomplished something, because grading is a precise process, where you are tested on very detailed knowledge and analytic methods that take forever studying for in the library. But I can't say the same about liberal arts, where you can easily cram and do well on exams and papers.
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<p>I'm a science/engineering person, and I think this is a ridiculous statement. It might be true for you (did you take the easy way out with your choices of non-technical classes), or your school (some schools just don't have good humanities teaching), but at best it's a crazy overgeneralization.</p>
<p>I do want to point out, though, to both sides of this argument, that you don't have to be a humanities major to be intellectual, or to broaden your horizons through coursework.</p>
<p>"Most Worthless" - sounds like the author didn't go to college.</p>
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<p>I quite agree, which is why I said that an undergraduate education is . . . </p>
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also about intellectual challenges, which you can get in many fields . . .
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<p>"Maybe that's because all of us "old coots" know amazing Wall Street million/billionaires who started out in public accounting....(but that's not to say it's necessarily true today!!)"</p>
<p>Likely will. SOX essentially requires top executives to have significant accounting knowledge.</p>
<p>In some ways, many of those majors can be self taught. Take philosophy. If you really want to, you can just get some books written by philosphers and read them. You don't need someone to tell you how to philosphize, you just do it! That goes the same with Film and Dance. Though I plan to be a music major one day, some majors don't seem "hard" enough to be real majors. Like Music Therapy or Religion. Just pick up a textbook and read a couple chapters. It's not like you'll remember everything you learned in college anyways...</p>
<p>I know where you're coming from - my parents are disappointed in me for majoring in a humanities subject that I can just read about on my own - but it's not just about the information. In writing history essays, for example, and hearing your professor's and fellow students' comments and critiques, you're learning critical thinking - how to account for source bias, how to fashion an argument from sometimes limited evidence, etc. - as well as, hopefully, being able to view modern society in a very different light. I could read all the history books I wanted on my own (though I don't know if I'm that motivated), and even write essays for fun (ha), but I wouldn't be learning all that I would if I did this in an academic environment. Nor would I have the opportunity to handle 600+ year old books for homework!</p>
<p>Plus, things like languages are really, really difficult to learn on one's own.</p>
<p>History's a great major. An economics professor once quoted to our class that more history majors get hired as consultants for top-level business firms than any other major including economics, engineering or math.
The amount of research top history students do is incredible. Throw in writing skills and a broad base of knowledge, they're well prepared to learn most careers.</p>
<p>It seems like aforementioned majors are typically too narrow or irrelevant in today's society.</p>
<p>Actually, Music Therapy majors are in high demand and short supply; it's not a major that's available many places.</p>
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But we digress. As for the substance of this thread, you can get a job as an i-banker or go to law or medical school with a "useless" degree if you so desire. Employers and grad schools are looking for people who can write, speak, and reason well. 99% of specific job skills are learned on the job, not in college.
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<p>ONLY if you went to an elite university.</p>
<p>Those 10 majors are indeed worthless ... unless you went to an elite university. As someone in this thread pointed out, there was a Black person who went to Harvard and he majored in BLACK STUDIES and he's MANAGING a hedge fund. Do you think that this same Black person majoring in Black Studies would be managing a hedge fund if he went to HOWARD Univeristy instead of Harvard?</p>
<p>Again, this just further proves that going to an Ivy League or elite university is the golden ticket. It's ridiculous that all these Ivy Leaguers who major in the most pathetic majors like Art History or Womens studies are making hella lot more money on Wall Street than many of my alma mater (Top 50) friends who had "real" majors like biochemistry and electrical engineering.</p>
<p>Actually here's the #1 most useless major: Bagpipe Major: "The only university offering a degree in bagpipe music, Carnegie Mellon's Pipe Band... " Traditions</a> - Carnegie Mellon University</p>
<p>I want to see the average salary for that major and the 5 guys who are majoring in it.</p>
<p>"It's ridiculous that all these Ivy Leaguers who major in the most pathetic majors like Art History or Womens studies are making hella lot more money on Wall Street "</p>
<p>Quite wrong. Not everyone goes into Wall st. Princeton/Harvard's avg postgrad salaries were in the high 40k to 50ks. This is similar to state school engineering/CS/tech postgrad salary averages. In fact, my high school teacher went to Cornell and he majored in Economics and not Art History or Women Studies. Don't only look at outliers, check the averages.</p>
<p>Howard has some very heavy IBD recruiting.</p>
<p>IAmYourFather, are you on CC for any reason other than to troll about how top schools are the key to everything? I'm a fan of top schools - I went to one, and will defend that decision as tremendously beneficial - but your posts on the subject read like parodies.</p>
<p>Tons of people major in these "worthless" majors. Most of them are gainfully employed.</p>
<p>Some of these majors seem to me like they have clear career possibilities. I bet American Studies would look good to the advertising industry, since it presumably means that you understand the American people and American culture. Women's studies, which wasn't on the top 10 list but which a few people mentioned, could track into jobs with various womens' issues or womens' health-focused nonprofits. English Lit majors have evidence that they can write - in many areas of the country, tech writers and grant writers are in great demand. I suspect that Religion majors with a focus in Islamic studies could be useful in the national security realm these days. And there are a lot more jobs in museums for those Art History majors than the writer of that blog post seems to think. Plus, several of these topics can be taught in secondary schools, and good teachers are generally in demand.</p>