<p>CNN had a story about 6 unusual college degrees today: 6</a> unusual college degrees - CNN.com</p>
<p>I know we talk a lot on here about what to do if a child says they want to major in something that seems unlikely to lead to employment. I have to say that if my kid wanted to major in puppetry it would be an uncomfortable conversation....</p>
<p>And I know a few people from my past who would have been all over that race track management degree ;)</p>
<p>The word niche comes to mind. Never knew UW-Stout had a “packaging” major, but the article description makes it seem logical and it fits with how some majors are offered at different state schools to fill needs for specialized skills (a >90% job placement rate says something). It would be interesting to see the lists of courses required for the unusual majors- easily done on their websites. What is sometimes interesting is how certain colleges ended up offering majors- why turf management at Michigan State (from the article) instead of another school, for example (the agriculture school for Michigan?).</p>
<p>Decision science is incredibly valuabe for marketing. It’s why people do what they do. I had considered looking at CMU for Decision Science for quite some time.</p>
<p>I wonder if MSU’s Turfgrass Management now includes astro turf?</p>
<p>A Masters in Puppets
Nice use of tax payer money</p>
<p>My guess would be that more Americans currently earn a living in the field of puppetry than in, say, Russian literature.</p>
<p>A kid in my son’s class is going to major in golf course management and a friends son just graduated from NYU and got a Fulbright Scholarship to study Flamenco dancing in Spain.</p>
<p>Golf management is a big deal. There’s only a handful of colleges in the country with PGA-approved programs.</p>
<p>I think we judge people’s degree on what the degree is named. To have a better understand of what their degree is in you need to talk to them and figure out what they choose to major in it. </p>
<p>I laughed at the Cornell major on that list. I live in Ithaca and go to college at Ithaca College and between the two colleges there are some odd majors. IC has majors in Outdoor Adventure Leadership while Cornell has Viticulture and Enology. </p>
<p>I am a Television-Radio major so I am not the one to talk about being judged by my major. We just don’t watch television all day ;)</p>
<p>I am familiar with Ferris State for golf course management, which I believe is more than just the grass part of things. MSU began as a land grant college & agriculture is a cornerstone of the school. I think I recall reading that the Tigers’ field manager is an MSU grad, so she probably was in their turf management program.</p>
<p>MSU also has an excellent packaging degree program. I had several friends who graduated with packaging degrees in the early 80’s. They got great jobs. D knows someone who is graduating with that degree this year, and she had a job wrapped up early.</p>
<p>Decision Sciences is a crucial academic subject. I’m not sure how it sounds like “fluff” unless you’re an idiot who doesn’t understand how important decision making is to business and governments.</p>
<p>Agreed with what previous posters have said about Decision Science - I was rather perplexed to see that on the list. At Carnegie Mellon, the department of Social and Decision Sciences is well-respected and mathematically rigorous - not considered easy and/or odd in any way. At CMU, at least, it is very intertwined with policy/management and political science.</p>
<p>Oh, I don’t think they’re all supposed to be “fluff” degrees, just “unusual.” At least to the average reader who knows about english, history and comp sci degrees.</p>
<p>But I’m sticking to my guns about that puppetry degree ;)</p>