<p>Hello, everyone! Just another high school student struggling to decide on a major. I've looked at several, unfortunately, the majors that are in my area of interest are just too risky of a investment to make. They, as you politically incorrectly say, are useless degrees. Mainly looking at a French/German major or an Advertising Journalism major.</p>
<p>Well, I really am fascinated with foreign languages. Specifically, European languages. Also, I'm quite interested in writing, so, that explains the Advertising Journalism major.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, as I stated, these majors are basically a waste of time and money. I need to find a major that's worth it. Now, I'm thinking of Marketing. Or maybe International Studies. Are those majors useless, too?</p>
<p>If you have any recommendations, please, let me know!</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Oh, yeah, I apologize if this was poorly written. It's really late. :P</p>
<p>If you are interested in French or German and want to combine one of those languages with a “practical” field, many schools now offer major that combine language studies with business. Here are some examples:</p>
<p>A degree isn’t useless if you know what you’re getting and to expect.</p>
<p>If you get a degree in philosophy and complain that you can’t get a job, then that degree was useless to you. If a job is not your main priority then you can have your degree and enjoy it.</p>
<p>No degree is useless; each one has its own usefulness, although it really depends on what field you want to enter. That being said most jobs are degree-open - you don’t need any specific set of technical skills to do them. Most jobs want people who can communicate well, write well, analyze and synthesize large amounts of information, work under time pressure, etc. Some of those things are things that language/culture majors do very well. Besides, doing something with your major is all about preparation. A philosophy major with two summer internships at great firms is more likely to get a job than a computer science major who didn’t do any. There’s no reason you can’t double-major in marketing and French or German, or major in French and minor in marketing, and then set yourself up by doing summer internships to explore your interests in advertising and make your resume that much sweeter to employers.</p>
<p>Marketing, I think, is a pretty good alternative to advertising journalism. Do you have any interest in learning some technical skills? The name of the game in marketing these days is consumer research and data mining, so if you’re willing to try to learn some programming and/or statistics you’ll be a much more attractive job candidate.</p>
<p>But I wouldn’t worry so much about your major right now, as a high school student. Unless you’re going for something very specialized, you can go to most colleges and find what you’re looking for.</p>
<p>^I wouldn’t say there are no useless degrees.</p>
<p>I think that a useless degree is one that doesn’t help a person get where they want to go.</p>
<p>The degree is useless to that person for that reason and it may be due to that persons lack of due diligence to find what was required to reach their goal.</p>
<p>And a degree can be made useful if one can find a creative way to apply it to whatever endeavor one may pursue.</p>
<p>I think that technical skills are in high demand and the more technical something is, the more “job security” there is with it. If a person goes to school and majors in soft skills, non-technical stuff, they may do great but will have to work very hard to show value. A jack of all trades is great when opportunities are abundant but bad when opportunities are scarce and employers are holding out for the masters.</p>