<p>Are majors such as East Asian Studies, African American Studies, Latin American Studies, etc. pretty much useless when you get into the real world?</p>
<p>hmm, it depends on what you define as being useful. if you mean mean in terms of doing stuff thatll make you rich or famous, then probably not so much. those majors, however, are good for going id say mainly into academia where there are various applications of them.</p>
<p>Pretty much. All you can really do with an African American Studies major is write an incredibly esoteric book or become an African American Studies professor, helping a new generation of students major in African American Studies, thereby perpetuating the vicious cycle.</p>
<p>My New Hampshire Jewish rowing roommate majored in East Asian Studies. His Chinese became better than mine. Went to Wall Street afterwards. Love to learn. You’ll go far regardless.</p>
<p>T26E4, that’s awesome, great for him. But I have a feeling that I wouldn’t get that fortunate. Did he do anything other than East Asian studies?</p>
<p>Both Kirsten Gillibrand and Tim Geithner have BAs in East Asian Studies. They’ve done OK.</p>
<p>sqd: he obviously took economics as well as other types of classes but he majored in E Asian Studies. We attended an HYP college.</p>
<p>Having some economics background and speaking Chinese is obviously marketable…</p>
<p>Anything with “studies” at the end of it, in general, tends to be a very interesting yet less marketable major.</p>
<p>I disagree-</p>
<p>If say, for example you Majored in East Asian Studies or Latin American studies, had a minor in pol, history, or economics, and actually did something with your undergrad career instead of sitting on College Discussion all day(study abroad, internships in DC, internships with the UN, spoke and learned in demand languages etc) plus pulling a 3.7+, which is easy to do, I think you could be just as successful at landing a job as someone with an Economics degree (or a degree that is seen as “worthwhile.” )</p>
<p>It really comes down to what you make of your degree and how much you are willing hustle/work hard. Which is true for any other degree. </p>
<p>My college mentor is making 75K and she majored in Latin American studies.</p>
<p>Pulling a 3.7+ is not that easy. It’s completely achievable, but don’t demean the people who accomplish this by calling it easy.</p>
<p>In a “Studies” Major? Yes it is. If you have “studies” in your major name, and you struggle pulling a 3.8+, there is something really wrong with you. You either are studying too hard, or are not studying/playing the class strategically.</p>
<p>The people who bring out examples where East Asia studies majors are successful are overlooking the fact that their major still contributed nothing to their eventual career.</p>
<p>In Geithner’s case he spent time in the US Embassy in Tokyo. Given that China is the single largest holder of US debt and a huge trading partner, you really don’t think it’s useful for the Secretary of the Treasury or a Senator to have some knowledge of East Asia?</p>
<p>I think you’ve got college confused with vocational school.</p>
<p>There are no useless majors, just useless people.</p>
<p>Tax cheat Tim Geithner? </p>
<p>Several language courses and a culture course or two, perhaps. A whole major? no…</p>