<p>communications /gender studies / ethnic studies</p>
<p>I canât get over the misconception on this board that someone must choose between a job they love and money. Beleive it or not most Americans are working in jobs they donât like AND they donât make a lot of money. Many one love to have a choice of one or the other.</p>
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<p>Beleive it or not most Americans are working in jobs they donât like AND they donât make a lot of money. Many one love to have a choice of one or the other. </p>
<p>Agreed- but I think we want more for our kids if possible</p>
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<p>However, they may still have to make a choice between a job that they donât like, but donât strongly dislike, and a better paying job that they otherwise dislike more.</p>
<p>@Consolation: Wow, not bad. Are you sure that prof didnât write something popular and big under a <nom de="" plume="">?</nom></p>
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<p>I have noticed this for a long time now. While talking heads on TV are telling us to go and get a good general (liberal) education, whatever that means, those who do the hiring do not agree and they focus very much on very specific degrees. Failing that and your resume will not see the light of day.</p>
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<p>As a group, I think students with solid quant skills are simply stronger students. A recent study at Duke shows that the less academically prepared run the risk of switching out of STEM into the humanities and social sciences in order to maintain their grades.</p>
<p>The most honest assessment I saw came from Charles (The Bell Curve) Murray. In a piece written for the WSJ in 1997, he said:</p>
<p>In engineering and most of the natural sciences, the demarcation between high-school material and college-level material is brutally obvious. If you cannot handle the math, you cannot pass the courses. In the humanities and social sciences, the demarcation is fuzzier. It is possible for someone with an IQ of 100 to sit in the lectures of Economics 1, read the textbook, and write answers in an examination book. But students who cannot follow complex arguments accurately are not really learning economics. They are taking away a mishmash of half-understood information and outright misunderstandings that probably leave them under the illusion that they know something they do not. (A depressing research literature documents oneâs inability to recognize oneâs own incompetence.) Traditionally and properly understood, a four-year college education teaches advanced analytic skills and information at a level that exceeds the intellectual capacity of most people.</p>
<p>This type of honesty is hard to take, isnÂt it?</p>
<p>Yes another âstudyâ that makes sweeping generalizations. Everyone doesnât enjoy doing the same thing for a career. How much money you make isnât the only measure of success. Getting a specific type of degree is no more a guaratee of âsuccessâ anymore then getting a degree in a field that doesnât offer the same pay range is considered a âfailureâ. Employers hire people not degrees, so everyone who has a degree in X wonât necessarily be as âsuccessfulâ in their career pursuits.</p>
<p>Beg to differ about graphic design. S got his BA in design in '05 and has had a lucrative career both freelancing and working for companies to the point of making six figures way before turning 30! It all depends on what you do with the degree.</p>
<p>Little Mother, what is always missing from these things is that there is a big difference between the fate of the TRULY TALENTED in many of these fields and the tens of thousands of wannabees who manage to scrape by with some kind of a degree from some kind of a school.</p>
<p>BTW, Mythmom, who posts on CC, is not only making a living as a college professor, she is a published poet as well. They do exist.</p>
<p>Engineers donât always stay âjust engineersâ - they become PROJECT engineers, project managers, department heads, consultants, etc., and their salaries become pretty dang fantastic. </p>
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<p>But those who are truly happy âbeingâ engineers wonât make the big bucks. I know ⊠I am married to one, and I have quite a few friends who are just like my H. These are guys who want to be engineers, not managers. They made a lot of money early, and they still make more than most ⊠but they definitely were passed up salary-wise by other engineers who moved away from pure engineering, as well as those in many other lines of work. However, these same engineers enjoy going to work, while earning good money â so itâs all good.</p>
<p>There seem to be two different types of majors in the list:</p>
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<li><p>Liberal arts majors, where you canât expect to get a job directly related to your major without further education beyond a bachelorâs degrees.</p></li>
<li><p>Art of all sorts.</p></li>
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<p>Definitely agree with this. These are majors about college for the experience, and/or worthless majors entirely. If youâre looking for a career, especially in this day and age, you donât major in something Liberal Arts-y, even if itâs your passion, unless you have job opportunities not pertaining to your major.</p>
<p>I think one thing thatâs tough with music majors is that many (not all) that are excellent performers arenât exactly the outgoing, âI love working with kidsâ type and those that are outgoing and love teaching arenât always the best performers. I went to school with a guy whose parents made him major in performance and Education because they just didnât believe the performance jobs were out there. Teaching was something to âfall backâ on. (This was when this country was actually hiring music teachers!) Well, my friend did his student teaching and HATED it. Said heâd rather work at McDonalds! At least he was honest! He went back to school determined to make it in performance, got a scholarship for a Masterâs in performance at Yale and has worked steadily in an Orchestra in Minneapolis. He always said âI may not be the best, but I will work and practice the hardest.â I think he underestimated himself, because he was the best, and pushed himself hard. Incidently, he was a SUNY Potsdam grad fwiw, and a state school to him meant no debt! Woo Hoo!</p>
<p>Itâs tough to find that small group that is good at teaching and performing and should go into that field, and those that are excellent at purely performance and have a chance. But
because some kids really mature musically as well as personally only after high school, itâs tough to dismiss their dreams early on. My daughterâs teacher thinks that music education can still be a good bet for those not yet in college because when the economy picks up, so will the arts teaching positions, and some music majors will have moved on, because he
estimates weâre 8-10 years out. 
Iâve also been told by a few top musicians âitâs not the degree itâs the auditionâ and says many professional players werenât performance majors but kept up with practice, a good teacher, prepared and nailed auditions.</p>
<p>Redeye, good post.</p>
<p>Kelsmom, absolutely, if engineering, the actual work is your Passion then it makes the monetary hit âworth itâ.</p>
<p>Little MotherâI can give you a list of 10 or more âgraphic designersâ I know that havenât worked in 5 years because of the economy though too. All of them were making very nice salaries before 2006 thoughâŠ</p>
<p>And Steve, I can give you a list of many, many graphic designers that are working steadily and doing nicely. Sure, there are more unemployed people in general these days, but Iâve noticed (since Iâm in marketing) that when marketing depts layoff, thatâs one of the last positions to go. They get rid of marketing managers, they get rid of writers because they think everyone can write (my pet peeve ⊠Iâm a copywriter.) But they keep the graphic designers. Esp. a designer who can do web and keeps up with the latest technology.</p>
<p>No, it doesnât have the hiring/salary potential of an engineer or an accountant, but graphic design is not at the bottom by any stretch.</p>
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<p>Ainât that the truth! The other face-palm thing about non-writers hiring writers is this: they look at a person who has written successfully in 11 very different styles/content areas/genres, and say, âBut you havenât written about #12!â They donât understand that some things are transferable skills.</p>
<p>Consolation, that is SO true! They donât care how much experience you have and how good your book is. If you havenât written about their little niche product for their niche audience, they donât even want to look at you. In this economy, they can get away with that.</p>
<p>I donât think philosphy is so bad, it is actually a pretty good major if you want to be a priest which is really not authorized by goverment</p>
<p>I am ver suprised to see english here cause you can become an english teacher or proffesor which is not so bad.</p>
<p>Not trying to spam here but i just thought of some ideas cause i am thinking of majoring in english .</p>