<p>foxdie, I'm surprised you really think Shakespeare, arguably the greatest English writer, has no relevance today. You say that nobody write or reads his works for publication. Are you not aware of the amount of movies, plays, other books, journal articles, popular culture references, etc. based on his writings? I mean, all of that is pretty hard to miss.</p>
<p>Sorry, I just thought that was a weird thing to say.</p>
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Especially when we're focusing too much on old-english e.g. shakespeare, etc. That has ZERO relevance today. Nobody writes/reads shakespeare today for any publication.
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<p>Dude. Dude!</p>
<p>personally i think most liberal arts studies is usless in terms of having a solid foundation of income.</p>
<p>How is kinesiology useless? If you got in a car wreck and needed physical therapy/surgery afterward, it's quite useful to have that MD/PA/PT that has a kinesiology degree and knows exactly how the body works.</p>
<p>It's really not a just a jock major.</p>
<p>Business. Finance.</p>
<p>Like I said, it's been theorized and over-analyzed too much.
Shakespeare is simply very overrated. It shouldn't have any relevance today, there are much more pertinent modern works</p>
<p>marge, but I do think liberal arts is "useful" in general. I actually consider political science, sociology, psychology, etc to be good academic pursuits.</p>
<p>"Business. Finance."</p>
<p>They will be laughing at you in June after graduation when they start at $50K plus in exciting major cities like NY, Chicago, Atlanta, LA and you are taking their Starbucks order and hoping for a $.50 tip.</p>
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They will be laughing at you in June after graduation when they start at $50K plus in exciting major cities like NY, Chicago, Atlanta, LA and you are taking their Starbucks order and hoping for a $.50 tip.
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Haha, you really took that personally barrons. There's no need for the ad hominem, that's just my opinion. You must be a struggling businessman or something?</p>
<p>Truth be told, I'd rather be a plumber than fellate some i-banking representative. Or work in a coffee shop like you suggested.</p>
<p>there is no way anyone could say engineering is useless...those guys can do about anything they want</p>
<p><quote>"Business. Finance."</quote></p>
<p>They will be laughing at you in June after graduation when they start at $50K plus in exciting major cities like NY, Chicago, Atlanta, LA and you are taking their Starbucks order and hoping for a $.50 tip.</p>
<p>I'll be laughing at them when the economy crashes, and we see the arrival of a new historical system not founded on the never-ending accumulation of capital.</p>
<p>engineering is NOT useless.....engineering has so many job opportunities. thats why a lot of colleges have huge percentages of engineering majors.</p>
<p>and photography majors end up being photographers. so i don't see how that's useless. my cousin was a photo major and he is a photographer for like ten famous bands, a fashion photographer for several agencies, and travels all over the world in the process.</p>
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marge, but I do think liberal arts is "useful" in general. I actually consider political science, sociology, psychology, etc to be good academic pursuits.
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<p>I think the word "useful" is being misinterpreted from how my professors mentioned it. What they meant is, undergraduate studies in the liberal arts are about teaching you how to think and develop ideas, and how to read and understand/interpret-- yes, that's useful. But they are only a potential launching pad for studies as a graduate in grad school, and then an actual job candidate. But they don't necessarily make an actual job candidate right off the bat. </p>
<p>While your undergrad major-- be it African-American studies, English, art history, polisci etc-- is necessary for an undergrad degree, the major is not actually effective/useful in itself. To actually earn a living in those fields of study, or in any liberal arts field, they're saying you MUST go on to graduate school. The point of undergraduate studies is that in the process of studying whatever liberal arts major, the true intent of professors is to help you learn how to be a better "thinker"-- not an actual English/art history/polisci "expert." You have to go beyond undergraduate studies to actually learn in-depth enough to get a job in your chosen field.</p>
<p>Most liberal arts majors are thus useless until they're pursued in grad school.</p>
<p>No major is useless. That's why Albert Einstein majored in Hotel Managment. </p>
<p>But seriously, what you do is what matters. I do agree that some information is more relevant or useful. If you objective is to be successful, then you will be successful with any major.</p>
<p>"I'll be laughing at them when the economy crashes, and we see the arrival of a new historical system not founded on the never-ending accumulation of capital."</p>
<p>Keep on waiting, it's going to be a LONG time. I hear Cuba is nice and they don't have capitalism. Of course every car there was built prior to 1959. And just try to find a nice plasma TV which would be useless as there is nothing to watch anyway.</p>
<p>Actually Cuba has a huge cinephile culture. You can basically go into a film analysis on your cab ride to the movies.</p>
<p>I will probably take a lot of flack, but I think Psychology is the most useless subject. It's not psychiatry, though psychologists play them on occasion. PhD required - and then, it's still useless.</p>
<p>Psychology the most useless? </p>
<p>Fencersmother, I think that is rather ignorant comment. Psychology is one of the most popular majors in the U.S., so is almost everybody wasting their time?</p>
<p>Psychiatry and psychology might have the same goal, in terms of counseling, but have different approaches. Psychology and psychiatry are very different. Psychology is not simply just counseling.</p>
<p>I agree with fencersmother psychology seems useless to me. Maybe there is something I don't know about psychology, but most of the people i hear of that major in psychology do so because they didn't know what else to major in. I am not trying to offend anyone; we are all entitled to our own opinion; but by comparing usefulness, I think my life would be just as fine w/o psychology whereas w/o engineers, it a whole different story , life just wouldn't be the same.... I wouldn't be typing on a computer if it wasn't for engineers.</p>
<p>I have to agree with the above 2 posts about psychology - it is a popular - useful - major for many reasons - it is the basis for understanding human nature and how the mind works - or in some cases how it doesn't work correctly - which is very important in many fields. Knowledge of psychology - is many times - the basis for many graduate degrees.</p>
<p>FYI - Psychiatry is an MD level - to which psychology is the basis for :)</p>
<p>Psychology as an undergrad degree is useless, unless you go into grad. school, which is incredibly hard to get into... and then you have to jump through so manty hoops (coursework, diss, clinical placements, masters thesis, internship, post-doc year, EPPP exam, etc.).... but with a PhD in clinical/counseling psych one can make a decent living doing a number of things
(private practice, employed, health psych, research, consulting, academia [though this one is hard], neuropsych [though that requires another match for post-doc], government/military work, foresnic psych.). Also, psychologists tend to have more training in therapy and more of willingness to do it than psychiatrists (many of whom just do "med checks"), and there's a strongly body of empirical evidence for therapy+meds and--sometimes even therapy alone--as evidence-based best practice in treating psychological disorders, not to mention subcllinical stuff.</p>