College Majors That Are Useless

iOnlyownMymind

I personally feel that news article is absolute BS except for the theatre major I disagree with the ag major being a waste. I've got a friend that just stepped into a great job straight out of college with an ag major. He had 3 or 4 companies recruting him and said his company is booming and adding several thousand jobs in the next year.

DS1119

iOnlyownMymind wrote:

I personally feel that news article is absolute BS except for the theatre major I disagree with the ag major being a waste. I've got a friend that just stepped into a great job straight out of college with an ag major. He had 3 or 4 companies recruting him and said his company is booming and adding several thousand jobs in the next year.

The question is though...could he do the job without the AG major? Put yourself at his desk...can that job be done by someone without an AG major? Can you do his job? Most positions in this country that "require" a degree can be done without the degree. It's just all part of the machine IMO.

F Me In The Brain

DS1119 wrote:

iOnlyownMymind wrote:

I personally feel that news article is absolute BS except for the theatre major I disagree with the ag major being a waste. I've got a friend that just stepped into a great job straight out of college with an ag major. He had 3 or 4 companies recruting him and said his company is booming and adding several thousand jobs in the next year.

The question is though...could he do the job without the AG major? Put yourself at his desk...can that job be done by someone without an AG major? Can you do his job? Most positions in this country that "require" a degree can be done without the degree. It's just all part of the machine IMO.

Understand your points and think they are valid -- even though I went to college and believe I learned a tremendous amount about myself and developed a critical way of thinking/evaluating information, my boss did not go to college and as much as I make he certainly makes money off from every dollar I make! [I am sure we all know plenty of people who are happy with where they are that both DID and DID NOT go to college.]

Shit sure is expensive these days, where I went is now 55k per year. (I paid 20k in loans after 4 years...rest was grants, scholarships, etc...)

CServant

Psychology seems pretty useless unless you get a Master's Degree. The Psych Major I know from college is selling coffee. I wonder how that relates to the ID/Super ID???

photogirlliz

So far, going to college has done nothing for me but get me further in debt. I appreciate some of the classes I took and people I met (especially considering I met my boyfriend, Joey, in grad school), but as far as getting me a job that I couldn't have had without it...not so much. Maybe my opinion will change one day, but right now, I'm so disillusioned with the education I've gotten.

Will Hunting (Matt Damon) said it best..."You blew $150,000 dollars on an education that you could have gotten in $1.50 in late fees from the library."

iOnlyownMymind

DS1119 wrote:

iOnlyownMymind wrote:

I personally feel that news article is absolute BS except for the theatre major I disagree with the ag major being a waste. I've got a friend that just stepped into a great job straight out of college with an ag major. He had 3 or 4 companies recruting him and said his company is booming and adding several thousand jobs in the next year.

The question is though...could he do the job without the AG major? Put yourself at his desk...can that job be done by someone without an AG major? Can you do his job? Most positions in this country that "require" a degree can be done without the degree. It's just all part of the machine IMO.

I don't know the ins and outs of his job, but I'd imagine he wouldn't have gotten the job without the major and his previous experiences. I think a lot of it comes down to having the degree on the application, whether it ends up being useful or not. I don't think somone with a degree in psychology would get the job he did.

F Me In The Brain

CServant wrote:

Psychology seems pretty useless unless you get a Master's Degree. The Psych Major I know from college is selling coffee. I wonder how that relates to the ID/Super ID???

My brother is taking night courses (and has been for a while) to get his Psych degree....he is a case manager (social worker) and needs to have an applicable degree or he is at risk in his position (which he has held for years.) So the degree will not help him do his job better necessarily but it will help him keep his job.

LikeAnOcean

If I were an employer, I would look at resumes with a college education over those with none.

It just shows ambition. College is not a life requirement, but high school is unless you are a high school dropout.


Any shmo can graduate high school. College takes some effort. It shows commitment.

mca47

SatansFuton wrote:

I've known a few people who majored in "Dance", and none of them went on to do anything dance related. In fact I'm not sure any of them went on to have careers, just become stay at home mothers. One of my friends mothers majored in dance in college, and she flat out said that she just went to college to "find a husband".

I was dating a girl in college who was a dance major.
She's some kind of yoga instructor now.

Johnny Abruzzo

he.who.forgets wrote:

A lot of people would probably say my major is useless...I was a Recreation, Parks & Tourism major, but emphasised in event planning and facilities management. And that's exactly the career that I have. I did have all the jocks (mostly football players) in most of my classes, several of whom have gone on to the NFL. I'll admit, when I went into it (prior to that, I was a business major, then psych) I was really just looking for an easy, slack major, but I've actually applied it to my career.

Why would anyone say that is useless? There's boatloads of money in tourism.

I majored in actuarial science, which was also useful.

he.who.forgets

Johnny Abruzzo wrote:

he.who.forgets wrote:

A lot of people would probably say my major is useless...I was a Recreation, Parks & Tourism major, but emphasised in event planning and facilities management. And that's exactly the career that I have. I did have all the jocks (mostly football players) in most of my classes, several of whom have gone on to the NFL. I'll admit, when I went into it (prior to that, I was a business major, then psych) I was really just looking for an easy, slack major, but I've actually applied it to my career.

Why would anyone say that is useless? There's boatloads of money in tourism.

I majored in actuarial science, which was also useful.

Well, it was just pathetically easy, so I guess I jumped the gun a little bit. I mean, come on, recreation??

photogirlliz

LikeAnOcean wrote:

Any shmo can graduate high school. College takes some effort. It shows commitment.

I think this could be easily argued...

Jeanwah

DeLukin wrote:

Marketing.

Marketing will never die. Selling is what this country is about, sadly.

DS1119

LikeAnOcean wrote:

College takes some effort. It shows commitment.

Are you 100% positive about that?

Enkidu

I was a theatre major. Yeah, opened a lot of doors - ha ha. However, I was a girl from a very small town and going away to college and getting a liberal arts education at a big university was great for me. I fell in love with history, took an opera class and learned to like opera (really), got exposed to all different kinds of people so it was a good thing.

(I have a graduate degree in film - that's a different story, I wouldn't recommend that.)

iamica

I majored in Theatre...everyone laughed at me, and they still do...but it was what I loved. I suppose if I had it to do over again I would have majored in English and minored in Theatre.
The thing is, most people in my generation have a college degree, so I think the overall value of having one is going down. The only advantage to having one that I can see at this point is that many companies require you to have a B.A., doesn't necessarily matter in what subject.

DS1119

iamica wrote:

The only advantage to having one that I can see at this point is that many companies require you to have a B.A., doesn't necessarily matter in what subject.

That's exactly my point. The american public was sold on getting a college education while tuition rates went through the roof, and what does it result in? Us not making anymore on average than the "noncollege educated" generation before us. It also gave us a sense of entitlement that somewhow manual labor/manufacturing jobs are somehow below the college educated. So where are those jobs now...overseas. At least it gives us college educated something to discuss and bitch about. I saw a job for a "merchandiser" for a local beverage/snack company. In the ad it stated college degree required. Do you know what a merchandiser does? They are the people that make sure the shelves at your grocery store are stocked with the proper numbers of their products and then actually stock the shelves. Did that person need four years of college to be able to do that job? You mean they couldn't take a two week training seminar and be as effective? Colleges and universities have become extremely big business in this country by this idea we "need" a college education to be successful.

photogirlliz

See #4

http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-ways-we-ruined-occupy-wall-street-generation/

gabers

I have a friend with a B.S. in Entomology. His job offers were from Pest Control companies. No shit. He's in a totally different field now, go figure.

comebackgirl

I could have skipped undergrad completely. Didn't learn a damn thing there that really helps in my career. Everything I needed to learn I learned in grad school and post grad classes and internships. Art history and theatre and environmental science were completely unnecessary. But college was a hell of a lot of fun I learned some....erm...very necessary life skills there :shifty: