<p>Hmmm....where is History? What about English? Looks like a lot of the usual suspects named when the the question of "useless college degrees" comes up on CC are missing. I'm not saying these degrees are useless -- not by a long shot. Nor an I saying that one cannot live a productive and meaningful...and possibly even an economically successful...life with one of these degrees. So please don't shoot the messenger (or if you want to, please aim for Yahoo!). </p>
<p>Well, if everybody were an engineer, this would be the dullest planet in the universe.</p>
<p>Personally, I am VERY THANKFUL for all the writers, muscians, artists, social workers, teachers, and philosophers out there. They enrich lives in that “priceless” kinda way, even if they can’t always pay off their MasterCard.</p>
<p>How sad that education is on this list.</p>
<p>This is not about how well the major pays. It’s about how much people earn in the profession that is logically suggested by the degree. So yes, actors in general do not earn much and have very uncertain job prospects. But an undergraduate degree in “theatre” may be the most practical of all degrees IMO.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t encourage many kids to set their sights on a career in theatre, but as a liberal arts foundation upon which to build a career in another area, theatre is fabulous. Theatre students are trained to present in front of an audience, to be attentive to the full quality of their communicative style as opposed to merely the words, and to attend to their listeners in the delivery of their messages. Theatre majors should be very well-prepared for future success in many fields.</p>
<p>History majors don’t appear on the list because they typically don’t go on to careers as history teachers or “historians.” They become lawyers, professionals and CEOs. In fact last fall, Yahoo! put out a list of mid-career salaries by degree, and history majors ranked just ahead of lawyers.</p>
<p>I was surprised not to see political science or philosophy. Maybe they are considering the income for the most common careers that come after getting a bachelors in those fields-- and for a lot of the lower paying bachelors degrees the most common path is grad school first and then a relatively higher paying career.</p>
<p>As the mother of a Music major (probably two when my younger son chooses a college), I get very frustrated with the focus on future salary of college majors. It seems like half of my son’s friends are planning to major in engineering. Not because they are particularly interested in it, but because they (or their parents) think that they will make more money. There is so much more to getting an education (and being human) than how much money you make. It’s not trade school people, it’s college! The only reason I can see for this focus on income is for those folks who are taking on massive debt for college. And don’t get me started on that… Sorry for the vent, I feel better now.</p>
<p>I think the difference between the listed degrees (drama, arts, education, hospitality, music, theology, social work) and the other humanities degrees typically thought to provide little direct opportunities (PoliSci, English, History, etc.) is that the former can generally lead to particular job fields in the major and those job fields are low paying whereas the latter usually don’t lead to ANY particular job fields hence people use them as admission to a grad degree (med school, law, etc.) or just enter business in general and work their way up that way - i.e. there are lots of history grads who aren’t employed in a direct history related field (unless they went into education), etc.</p>
<p>Folks, the salaries that various college degrees pay doesn’t have anything to do with their value or worth in our society. Any economist can tell you that.</p>
<p>The salary that jobs pay is based on the supply (people who have that degree) and the demand (of employers trying to hire people with that major). Engineering pays well because there are a lot of jobs that require engineering degrees while relatively few people have these degrees. Social work and teaching pay less because there are a lot of people who have degrees that qualify them for this work in comparison to the number of positions that are open.</p>
<p>Please don’t mistake supply and demand economics with value to our society. Toliet paper is highly useful in our society but is supply exceeds demand so cost is low. Diamonds, ignoring industrial use, serve no functional purpose in our society but demand is high and available quantity is low so the price remains high.</p>
<p>Same with college majors.</p>
<p>^^^ Nice toilet paper / diamond analogy bigtrees. 
But again, in the 21st century, you don’t need to think about bachelor’s degrees as entryways to specific career paths as much as you need to consider the skills that their students are developing. On the same Yahoo! window that displays this story, there’s a link to another Yahoo! story: “Skills Bosses Want to See.” The article lists “Communication skills, Analytical skills, Teamwork skills, Technical skills, and a strong Work Ethic.”</p>
<p>For most students, four undergraduate years focused primarily on technical skills would not be wise. The shelf life of technology today is so brief that that’s a good preparation for this year and next, but not for a lifelong career. So students with the other four skill sets who subsequently add technical competence are way ahead of mere technicians. </p>
<p>And how do musicians and actors rate on the other four areas? Communication skills? check. Teamwork? - obviously. Work Ethic? - off the charts. Analytical skills could be argued, though they’d not seem as clearly connected as they would for some other liberal arts majors. These majors not only have great value for society, but great value also for the individual students who achieve them.</p>
<p>Thank you gadad, you express my rant much better than I did! Many of the careers that will be available to our college students in future years don’t exist yet. My husband was a pre-med major and is now an Information Services Manager (no networks or even desktop computers when he went to college). I was a Biology major (because I thought there were no jobs for English majors) and ended up working as a Technical Writer. Yet we expect our 18-year-olds to be making career choices before they have even started college.</p>
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<p>Wrong. Payscale’s best- and worst-paying degree rankings are based on “annual pay for Bachelor’s graduates without higher degrees.” In short, it doesn’t include philosophy majors who go on to graduate or professional school. Include those, and philosophy grads would come out considerably higher, especially insofar as many of them end up in law school where they often excel due the fact that the field tends to attract people with both strong verbal and strong analytical skills, coupled with the rigorous, analytical nature of their undergraduate education which prepares them exceptionally well for law school and the legal profession. </p>
<p>I don’t seem to be able to find the full current Payscale ranking, but in the 2008 ranking philosophy BAs (without graduate degrees) came out well above the mean for all college grads, and ahead of such “practical” fields as chemistry, marketing, geology, accounting, architecture, information technology, and business administration. That’s because many top employers hire for the individual’s skills and talents, not for the major. Surveys consistently show philosophy majors at or very near the top of the heap in average SAT scores, one broadly accepted measure of aptitude.</p>
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<p>I love the values and outlook that you expressed here. Certainly we all know plenty of people who make money up the wahzoo but are not particularly happy people. That’s not to say they’d be happy with a lower paying job, but I’m merely saying that going to work every day solely for the paycheck is no way to live, IMHO.</p>
<p>Do what you like, and like what you do. And to get to that point, college students should major in what they like, and like what they major in.</p>
<p>My music major is still interested in pursuing a career in music. My engineering major is NOT interested in pursuing a career in engineering. So much fo the “value” of a major.</p>
<p>“How sad that education is on this list.”</p>
<p>Even more sad… </p>
<p>[GRE</a> Scores by Intended Graduate Major](<a href=“http://www.ncsu.edu/chass/philo/GRE%20Scores%20by%20Intended%20Graduate%20Major.htm]GRE”>http://www.ncsu.edu/chass/philo/GRE%20Scores%20by%20Intended%20Graduate%20Major.htm)</p>
<p>Do a search for Education, see where they fall. Keep in mind as well, people looking for a post-grad degree in Secondary Education would have gotten a UG degree in something other than Education.</p>
<p>It’s awful that social work pays so little when it’s so important. Now wonder so many states are so backed up on child abuse cases . . .</p>
<p>“It’s awful that social work pays so little when it’s so important. Now wonder so many states are so backed up on child abuse cases . . .”</p>
<p>Wouldn’t paying them more only further back it up? The more they have to pay each person, the fewer people they can hire. What were you getting at?</p>
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How is a music major any less ‘trade-schoolish’ than an engineering major?</p>
<p>Why do so many assume people only study engineering to make the high starting salary and that they’re not actually interested in the subject, just as a history major might be interested in history or an MD might be interested in medicine, and that engineers are somehow deficient in all other areas besides the pure engineering subjects?</p>
<p>I agree. </p>
<p>Engineering is not any more of a trade school than law school, medicine, densitry, architecture, biology, microbiology, education, music, theater, accounting, marketing, art, photography, journalism, or any of a number of other degrees.</p>
<p>I wonder what they’re including in horticulture, is that like farming or plant biotechnology? It seems like a pretty broad range</p>
<p>As the mother of a Music major (probably two when my younger son chooses a college), I get very frustrated with the focus on future salary of college majors. It seems like half of my son’s friends are planning to major in engineering. Not because they are particularly interested in it, but because they (or their parents) think that they will make more money. There is so much more to getting an education (and being human) than how much money you make.</p>
<p>I can understand your frustration, but if your sons are going to be breadwinners for themselves and possibly a future family, shouldn’t there be some concern about whether they can earn a decent salary? Or, do they have a trust fund, or perhaps they’ll always be able to count on you?</p>