<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>Actually, agriculture is the largest industry in the United States and offers good employment opportunities in far more areas than you might think (biotechnology, genetics, veterinary science, biochemistry, food science, winemaking, aquaculture, pharmaceuticals, private industry and government research and administrative positions at all levels, alternative fuel production, just to name a few). As such, many "agricultural" majors are legit and students with degrees in agricultural disciplines are in great demand. As for what you can do with a degree in agricultural economics, ever hear of commodities trading?</p>
<p>Not to revive a dead thread but I see lists and comments like these everywhere and they're infuriating.</p>
<p>I'm planning on studying Econ (a so-called "useful" major) but some of the brightest and most self-motivated people I know are in humanities majors. And I know engineering majors from top schools who are now either jobless, bored or terribly unhappy and dissatisfied.</p>
<p>So much of that list and similar ones read like people dumping on other people's life choices because they need validation after selling out themselves and their intellectual interests in college just to make quick money.</p>
<p>Of course, most people who major in "useful" fields are not like this but the ones who feel the need to constantly talk trash about how dumb people in humanities disciplines are and brag about how much money they're going to make or job offers they're going to get out of college, in my experience, very frequently are.</p>
<p>If you're treating an elite liberal arts school like a trade school, it's a wonder you got in in the first place.</p>
<p>The most hired undergrad degrees on wallstreet are **philosophy **and economics. Since philosophy has no direct applications in the business world, morons can't see how it is useful. Philosophy requires and developes the intelligence and analytical/critical thinking skills which lead to success in business and life.</p>
<p>"The most hired undergrad degrees on wallstreet are philosophy and economics."</p>
<p>Do you have any link supporting this? In my experience, this is not remotely true. Some form of business, be it finance or accounting is still the number one represented major. Out of liberal arts majors, it would be economics. In my history of interviewing and working with people, philosophy would be much lower down the list after at least political science, history, math, computer science, engineering. I don't dispute that philosophy requires strong analytical skills, but that's different than claiming it's a major that is highly represented on Wall St.</p>
<p>i was an engineering major, i certainly don't think humanities majors are "dumb", but the amount of work that science/math majors have to do to get the degree is considerably more than is needed to get a woman's studies degree. So when engineers complain about how others are dumb, it's really a way of comforting him/herself that it's ok to do homework on a friday night, when the humanities folks are out partying.</p>
<p>If you graduate with a "Worthless Major" from a Unprestigious school, sorry but you're life sucks. You're going to have one hard time getting a decent job that a high school'er who never went to college couldn't get, and will be swearing and hating those crazies who told you to do it.</p>
<p>Prestigious University + Non-Career Major = Unprestigious University + Career Major</p>
<p>Yes, absolutely, NY Democrat. Given that you're not even a high school senior, your view of what makes the world go round is of utmost importance. In the real world, plenty of people get great jobs and do just fine in life even if they go to "unprestigious U."</p>
<p>Considering that less than 30% of Americans have a college degree, having ANY college degree is likely enough to secure a better job than waiting tables.</p>
<p>Granted, I'm making an assumption here as the above data relates only to starting salaries, but still... the gap between starting salaries is pretty big.</p>
<p>^That's what I'm going to do. Oh yeah. But wait until 20 years later. I believe it is ********, as long as you can get into good graduate school and stuff, you should be fine. Life has infinite possibilities, the most important thing is perseverance. And of course, who gives privileges to rich kids a chance to dwell into philosophy whiles proletarianize us state school kids to do the dirty works? </p>
<p>Ivory tower is not only made for ivy kids, u know?</p>
