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College Majors That Are Useless - Yahoo! Education

Never mind the subjectivity of the "uselessness" of any given major. Never mind the fact that people should be free to study what interests them even if they know full well that it won't pay a lot of money. No, even from a dry, objective standpoint, this article sucks....

Useless Degree #3 - Theater

Total Number of Actors/Producers/Directors in 2008: 155,100
Projected Change in Number of Jobs 2008-2018: +16,900
Percent Change: +11

(A) ...because a Theatre degree is applicable to jobs other than acting, producing, or directing. Any crew member with more responsibility than an entry-level stagehand will have an edge getting hired with a Theatre degree than without one.

Useless Degree #4 - Animal Science

Total Number of Animal Scientists in 2008: 3,700
Projected Change in Number of Jobs 2008-2018: +500
Percent Change: +13

(B) ...because "animal science" is a very broad term that could be used for any number of careers, including pre-vet students or ranchers, so there's no way that 3,700 figure is correct.

(C) ...because both of those fields are projected to have large increases in jobs. At least the other 3 majors in the article were decreasing.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

I linked that article to my Advisor, who proceeded to forward it to everyone in the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, and then into the plant sciences department and just about all of them want to kick that person's arse for being so narrow, especially when they actually have increases.

Especially with Horticulture. :P I'm in Horticulture...I love how it says this:

Typical coursework: Crops, plant diseases, agricultural business and economics, crop and fruit science

If you like the farm life but aren't all that keen on all the whining and clucking of an animal farm, perhaps a degree in horticulture is growing on you.

Unfortunately, the number of jobs in the field itself is not growing, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. And Shatkin agrees. "Better than agriculture, but not by much. If you're lucky, you may find some way to apply that to a related business like food processing or production," he says.

I have to wonder if Greenhouses&Nurseries, and Landscape work is considered different than Horticulture and Agriculture. Not only is Agriculture pretty obvious (Yo, they grow your food.) but also stuff like hydroponics, aeroponics, aquaponics (I can actually explain how it differs than Hydroponics) and the like. Not to mention....plant&Crop diseases can be just as bad as an outbreak of human diseases, or even animal diseases. (Rinderpest, which was actually eradicated last August.)

I'm willing to bet that maybe Viticulture and Brewing are considered "Food crops" or "Fruit science", or Brewing is marked under another degree - trust me on this; you can get a job at a Brewery with a Microbiology degree.

Numbers going down is indeed a bit unsettling, yes, but as you said, "Uselessness" was highly subjective.

Articles like that are so stupid! They're always like "DO BUSINESS. OR LAW." Umm, if I wanted to do that A) I would and/or B) I'd be like every other unhappy kid ever who listened to their parents. (although if I listened to my parents I'd be in education or music and still be unhappy. And poor.)

The great thing about linguistics is that I can do a lot with it. I can translate. I can do voice acting. If I really really wanted to (I don't), I could even teach. The people that write these articles just don't understand that you can apply a lot of degrees towards a lot of different things.

< animal science major with possible minor in theater

Lawl<3

Also my mom has a programming degree and her job is a French/english translator so this person needs to figure out that major doesn't always lead to your future career- just having A major will help you in any job cuz it shows you stuck it out through schooling.

>Yahoo! Education
>Yahoo!

Quit reading there.

Turns out some people go to university to learn things they're interested in, instead of how to generate the most money. Fascinating.

^^Quoting from a book by a non-Yahoo person.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

I read this article when it came out and didn't take it very seriously. There are some fairly useless majors out there, I suppose, but everyone doing business or law would be pointless too. And none of these majors seem particularly useless. Why not pick on philosophy majors some more?

^ I' msurprised they aren't picking on Philosophy majors. The Colorado State University newspaper did that and they got a letter to the editor saying, "What can you do with a Philosophy degree? Two words: Law School". I'm also surprised they never picked on Art majors, either...Art's another popular "Whipping boy" major next to Philosophy, History, and Interior Design.

Katty Bard wrote:Articles like that are so stupid! They're always like "DO BUSINESS. OR LAW." Umm, if I wanted to do that A) I would and/or B) I'd be like every other unhappy kid ever who listened to their parents. (although if I listened to my parents I'd be in education or music and still be unhappy. And poor.)

Or Medical school. Yeah, it's a sad truth that a lot of people go to college and picked a major in something like pre-med, engineering, business, law, etc because that's what their parents pressured them into doing. :/ We basically get discouraged from picking stuff like more cultural majors (English, theatre, fashion, art) or the stuff we would love to do simply because careers associated with Business and Law put more food on the table. Then we have people wondering why everyone hates their job and why we don't "produce" any good writers or singers.

This isn't even something that happens in America mind you - Mom's friend from Japan made one cultural observation about this very phenomena. During middle school, a lot of her friends wanted to be writers, singers, actors, etc but their parents all pushed them into studying math and science because "Writers/singers/actors/etc have to work 80+ hour weeks just to eat". (course they do have a point about voice actors, who aren't treated very well in Japan.) They even tried to talk her out of doing research because nurses make more money.

They forgot film studies.

I want to major in something where I makes lots of money for little work. And I get flunkies to boss around.

^ Might I suggest palling around with one of these guys?

Kil'jaeden wrote:I want to major in something where I makes lots of money for little work. And I get flunkies to boss around.

Actually, you know I'd love to be a banker.

You get millions of dollars in bonuses when things are going well, and when things aren't going well, you get millions of dollars anyways.

Kil'jaeden wrote:I want to major in something where I makes lots of money for little work. And I get flunkies to boss around.

And I get to buy a fast car, but not have anywhere worth driving to. And I get to buy a brand-new eighteen room house, bigger than the ones my friends used to have, when I used to have friends. And where most of those rooms are left unfurnished, filled only with dust and my echoing footsteps as I walk by. And I get to lie down in bed with my wife, a woman who I have never loved and has never loved me. And I get sleepless nights and spend all of my days in a drowsy haze. And I would know the price of everything and know the value of nothing.

And I would purchase a real green dress, but not a real green dress that's cruel.

I am glad to see people not all doing business or law. We have a big pack of people that mostly have backgrounds in those running things, and look at where that has gotten us.

And here's an equally-useless sequel, courtesy the New York Times. Anybody wanna play spot-the-missing-essential-information?

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

Amazing how Art History managed to have less people, yet still appears to have earned more than Chemistry and molecular biology. And how low Business Economics is on that list. :P

And how they didn't look at post-grad occupations or graduate degrees. Technically, you can go into law school with almost ANY of those bachelors.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

CaptHayfever wrote:And how they didn't look at post-grad occupations or graduate degrees. Technically, you can go into law school with almost ANY of those bachelors.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

You can get into medical school with a degree in English. :P

That is counterintuitive. I have never met anyone planning to get into a medical school with an English degree.