I agree with several posters in that college should not necessarily be training for a job. However, as a father, I would be somewhat concerned if my son chose a major in the humanities and had no intention of going to grad school. As for majors that are in demand, I think that the biotech sector is pretty hot now. My wife works at a pharmaceutical company and they can never find enough bachelor and master's level people in organic chemistry. The same is probably true for biology but I'm not sure.
Any kind of business "degree" is the worst. JV, In regards to the Basic Instinct comment...they say similar things about Tim Duncan because he was psychology. Yeah...he got one of the easiest degrees possible so he is an "expert."
Not true! A history major (in any field) prepares you for a lot of things - extensive research for private institutions or government departments, excellent and speedy writing to deadlines, *and* teaching at all sorts of levels. Plus, there's the low-paying dead end job all historians end up in at one time or another: library work! Um, yay.
The most useless: philosophy, classics, and medieval history are up there at the top. (Nothing you can really do with those except get a Ph.D. and teach them to other people... or go to law school, which you can do with just about any degree.) Sociology isn't much better, nor is history (unless you like teaching high school and middle school). Science and engineering degrees are usually better, but even then - watch it. I am a chemistry major who's spent the last eight years paired up with a geology major; he has an advanced degree (in a particularly useless subfield of geology) and has never been able to find full-time work in the field. He's either done miserable, low-paying jobs that don't even require a college degree, or has taught courses part-time (which isn't enough, but he could survive by living off his savings and/or me). Witnessing all this has made it very important to me to make sure I studied something that would be useful. Especially in the 2002 recession economy, which requires "square pegs for square holes". So many people are looking for work that companies can afford to pick and choose someone who specialized in the right thing and has the right degree. There is a glut of people right now in computer science - not surprising. Also, don't pick advertising. Not these days. Not to be biased, but I think the best major is biochemistry. As was mentioned above, biotech companies are always looking for people. So are biomedical researchers. There's a lot you can do in the lab with a bachelor's degree. One of the next best things is a chemistry degree. Or you could just do what a lot of people I know are doing, and go to law school. (still, a science or engineering major is very useful when coupled with a law degree) I'd be bored to death doing that, but I'd be making more money than I am teaching right now... (and, yes, with my lab skills and degree I could make a lot more, but some of us are just destined to be poor academics) Also, I agree completely with mrpaige that students come to college unprepared, and expect everything to be handed to them. I just started teaching at a school like that... we need to prepare them to actually think, and understand, for themselves. Most of the science majors aren't bad about that, but some of the others... they just expect life to be a series of blanks you fill in and things you do to get through (a certain course, an exam, whatever). Well, this is not high school anymore... or it shouldn't be.
I was gonna say that there is no such thing as a useless degree until another brother proved me narrow minded. I'll go with this: There is no useless college degree. Education isn't just about getting a job.
I was a biotech major. Very similar to bio-chem if not the same. I thought the lab work was a lot of fun. It's a nice field because drugs will always be in high demand. So there will be jobs. But it's filled with failure. Tough job to live unless you really love the high you get when you succeed after a couple hundred tries
I don't think there is a worthless degree. I do agree that you should study something that you are intrested in. Your GPA will matter more than what you studied. You're experince is more important than the degree. It all depends on what type of person you are. If you are all about money, than business is the way to go. I disagree about working for something you enjoy. You can burn out pretty quick on what you enjoy if you force it to be your primary job. Some people are lucky to enjoy their jobs.
Isabel: you too are wrong about history, medieval or otherwise! Sure, you don't get terrifically high paying jobs, but there is a far greater range of possible careers open to you than just teaching. (I'm certainly not going to be a teacher with my history Ph.D, if I ever finish the bloody thing. Urkh.)
I flat out hate psychology and psychologists, so it gets the 'worst degree possible' label from me. However, philosophy is equally as big of a joke as psychology. Philosophy is only entertaining when you're young and think that ethics are important. The moment you know one thing about the way the world actually works, you rue every friggin' second lost in a philosophy class (though I do have cute quotes from Habermas and Adorno... which are about 1/tenth as valuable as the quotes I got watching Empire).
