10 most Worthless degrees

[imported_Lothar]

Originally posted by: Saint Michael

Originally posted by: Lothar

Originally posted by: BigDH01
True, it is very unwise to take 100k in loans to get a degree that will make it very difficult for you to pay that back, but it is equally unwise to select a degree because you like the average starting salary even when you know you wouldn't like the work.

I disagree.
If liberal arts was my life long dream and I couldn't afford it when I was entering college, I would take a more financially sound approach.

I know someone who took loans to get a degree in nursing, and later went on to do her dream in psychology and now has a masters there. Loans paid off easily, financed education in psychology completely.
I know many people who do this. Most people get a Nursing degree, then go on to do whatever they want (Law, Medicine, Psychology, "insert other majors here") these days so they won't have much financial burden hanging on their necks.

Much better than jumping early to get a 100k loan and finishing with your head cut off.

Even if I have to do a job I don't like for a few years to be financially secure, I'll do the sacrifice.
Getting a 100k loan on my head at 6.8% interest that I most likely won't be able to pay back anytime soon by starting a career in liberal arts is not an option.

If you get a good scholarship, or your parent's are rich, or you have business connections then you can ignore this entire rant.
If you have to get 100k in loans to major in liberal arts, take the more financially sound approach, then come back to do what you actually want.

Eh, aren't you a cop? What are the requirements for that, anyway? Second grade?

Aren't you a devil?
Just because I'm using "police_man_glasses.gif" doesn't mean I'm a cop.
I picked that avatar when I started here because no one else had that on P&N.
When I made venture to other forum categories, I saw that 2 other people were already using that.

 

[imported_Lothar]

Originally posted by: jonks

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: jonks

Originally posted by: Kevin1211

ummm... the majority of students getting into med school are philosophy majors...

huh?

what is hard to understand about that

I understand it, I merely question it's truth. My understanding is most med students are hard science (bio/chem) majors. Stating the majority of med students are philosphy majors is extremely counterintuitive and I refuse to believe it unless some link is posted as evidence.

My brief foray into google seems to confirm my impression.
http://www.tcnj.edu/~engsci/BME/med_accept.pdf
http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/2007/mcatgpabymaj07.htm

http://www.amsa.org/premed/rx/rx0900.cfm
Read that. Straight from the horses mouth.

 

[Saint Michael]

Originally posted by: Lothar
Aren't you a devil?
Just because I'm using "police_man_glasses.gif" doesn't mean I'm a cop.
I picked that avatar when I started here because no one else had that on P&N.
When I made venture to other forum categories, I saw that 2 other people were already using that.

In that case, what did you major in and what do you do? I see a lot of people here throwing around anecdotal evidence about other people, but few straight answers about personal circumstances. It's easy to view the superficial details of somebody else's life and speculate as to causes.

 

[Ns1]

Originally posted by: Lothar

Originally posted by: jonks

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: jonks

Originally posted by: Kevin1211

ummm... the majority of students getting into med school are philosophy majors...

huh?

what is hard to understand about that

I understand it, I merely question it's truth. My understanding is most med students are hard science (bio/chem) majors. Stating the majority of med students are philosphy majors is extremely counterintuitive and I refuse to believe it unless some link is posted as evidence.

My brief foray into google seems to confirm my impression.
http://www.tcnj.edu/~engsci/BME/med_accept.pdf
http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/2007/mcatgpabymaj07.htm

http://www.amsa.org/premed/rx/rx0900.cfm
Read that. Straight from the horses mouth.

Interesting. However does not overcome the fact that the philosophy degree is all but worthless on its own.

Thus, if a bio major goes to and then drops out of med school, he still has plenty of career paths.

I don't think the same can be said for philosophy, but I'm open to be proven wrong.

 

[jonks]

Originally posted by: Lothar

Originally posted by: jonks

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: jonks

Originally posted by: Kevin1211

ummm... the majority of students getting into med school are philosophy majors...

huh?

what is hard to understand about that

I understand it, I merely question it's truth. My understanding is most med students are hard science (bio/chem) majors. Stating the majority of med students are philosphy majors is extremely counterintuitive and I refuse to believe it unless some link is posted as evidence.

My brief foray into google seems to confirm my impression.
http://www.tcnj.edu/~engsci/BME/med_accept.pdf
http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/2007/mcatgpabymaj07.htm

http://www.amsa.org/premed/rx/rx0900.cfm
Read that. Straight from the horses mouth.

HAHAHA! You had me for a second.

50% of philosophy majors that apply to med school get in, therefore the majority of all students who are admitted to med school are philosophy majors?

 

[BigDH01]

Originally posted by: Lothar

Originally posted by: jonks

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: jonks

Originally posted by: Kevin1211

ummm... the majority of students getting into med school are philosophy majors...

huh?

what is hard to understand about that

I understand it, I merely question it's truth. My understanding is most med students are hard science (bio/chem) majors. Stating the majority of med students are philosphy majors is extremely counterintuitive and I refuse to believe it unless some link is posted as evidence.

My brief foray into google seems to confirm my impression.
http://www.tcnj.edu/~engsci/BME/med_accept.pdf
http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/2007/mcatgpabymaj07.htm

http://www.amsa.org/premed/rx/rx0900.cfm
Read that. Straight from the horses mouth.

What Kevin said and what your link says are not the same thing. Your link says 50% of philosophy majors that applied were accepted. However, far more biochem/chem/biology majors apply than philosophy majors. The article quoted the ratio at 14:1. If 140 biochemists applied and 43% were accepted, that is still more than 50% of 10. Quite a bit more actually.

 

[rpanic]

One of my wife?s friends has a dance degree, it?s a joke especially since she is 50 pounds overweight and bad vitiligo. The only job offer she had was teaching strippers (couldn?t be one because of looks); she is 60k in student loan debt working as a secretary now.

Why do people go to college for things that are based more on natural talent, and in general don?t require any degree?

 

[krunchykrome]

this is getting to be quite funny....

the sensitivity of the liberal arts people here, defending something they know is not true

and Lothars irrelevant example to put a philosophy degree on the high horse

 

[imported_Lothar]

Originally posted by: Saint Michael

Originally posted by: Lothar
Aren't you a devil?
Just because I'm using "police_man_glasses.gif" doesn't mean I'm a cop.
I picked that avatar when I started here because no one else had that on P&N.
When I made venture to other forum categories, I saw that 2 other people were already using that.

In that case, what did you major in and what do you do? I see a lot of people here throwing around anecdotal evidence about other people, but few straight answers about personal circumstances. It's easy to view the superficial details of somebody else's life and speculate as to causes.

I'm a legal drug dealer.

 

[imported_Lothar]

Originally posted by: krunchykrome
this is getting to be quite funny....

the sensitivity of the liberal arts people here, defending something they know is not true

and Lothars irrelevant example to put a philosophy degree on the high horse

I didn't mean to put philosophy on a high horse.
I wouldn't take a $100k loan to major in philosophy either.

I'm not a moron.

 

[imported_Lothar]

Originally posted by: Ns1

Originally posted by: Lothar
http://www.amsa.org/premed/rx/rx0900.cfm
Read that. Straight from the horses mouth.

Interesting. However does not overcome the fact that the philosophy degree is all but worthless on its own.

Thus, if a bio major goes to and then drops out of med school, he still has plenty of career paths.

I don't think the same can be said for philosophy, but I'm open to be proven wrong.

Philosophy is pretty much worthless on it's own.
However if you want to use it to increases your chances of getting into grad work, it's great(better than liberal arts and social science at least).

More stats.
http://www.clemson.edu/caah/ph...ndex.html#philosschool

 

[Special K]

Originally posted by: Lothar


I disagree.
If liberal arts was my life long dream and I couldn't afford it when I was entering college, I would take a more financially sound approach.

I know someone who took loans to get a degree in nursing, and later went on to do her dream in psychology and now has a masters there. Loans paid off easily, financed education in psychology completely.
I know many people who do this. Most people get a Nursing degree, then go on to do whatever they want (Law, Medicine, Psychology, "insert other majors here") these days so they won't have much financial burden hanging on their necks.

Much better than jumping early to get a 100k loan and finishing with your head cut off.

Even if I have to do a job I don't like for a few years to be financially secure, I'll do the sacrifice.
Getting a 100k loan on my head at 6.8% interest that I most likely won't be able to pay back anytime soon by starting a career in liberal arts is not an option.

I like your idea, but many professional schools are incredibly expensive. In addition, the time demands of many of them would prevent you from working while attending school. Some don't even have part-time programs.

My point is that even if you take a less-interesting but decently-paying job initially to save up money to pursue your real passions, you may still have to take out many loans to get there. When law school costs $30k/year and increases at 7%/year, it could take a very long time for someone to save that up. At that point, they would have to question whether pursuing the degree would still be worth it.

 

[jonks]

Originally posted by: Lothar
I'm not a moron.

Originally posted by: Lothar

Originally posted by: jonks

Originally posted by: Kevin1211

ummm... the majority of students getting into med school are philosophy majors...

huh?

It's true.

FoxNews. We report, you decide.

 

[brxndxn]

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: Imp
I know someone who majored in philosophy... ended up doing social services work. He then moved on to work in IT and is raking it in ($80k-$90k).

It's not all worthless. A lot of people don't use what they majored in. I have a revered engineering degree, which hasn't gotten me anything. I wouldn't mind doing something else in fact.

Except maybe religion...

I think you just defined worthless.

LOL.. this guy reminds me of all the people that think a degree will make jobs come after them.. while sitting around living with the parents, hanging out with friends that have real careers..

Meanwhile, I sucked at school (mostly because of a car accident), finished with a political science degree, and work as an industrial programmer (with mostly EE's).. and I get paid what EE's should get paid.

Seriously, Imp, take your engineering degree and start going after real jobs. You should be setting up multiple interviews and working 60-hours every week at getting a job until you land a good one.. And, browsing forums online is NOT work... unless you're browsing trade forums to look for companies that are hiring.

I wish I had an engineering degree.. but either way.. if you have one, and you don't hurry up and start using it, the legitimacy of your degree will come into question..

 

[magomago]

I just read every single one and no one, save for Spidey, came CLOSE to what should be said. To a degree, Spidey only kind of indirectly hinted at it when he said that a job was not tied to your degree (which is largely true - only in CERTAIN engineering jobs do you need an actual engineer. Stuff like "Sales Engineering" does not need it). ATOT totally failed at this.

Going to college is NOT supposed to be about getting a job. Note how I said it is NOT about getting a job; I didn't say it SHOULD NOT be. It ISN'T.

Going to college is about learning to think critically, and being skeptical - necessary ingrediants for any citizens who would live in a democracy (or what we call a democracy). Those classes that everyone calls bullshit - be it a history class, a philosophy class, or a social science class are supposed to make you think, and challange your own preconceptionsor even the views of what you read. It makes it more difficult to engineers, because you can't have a debate on the laminar flow of water through a pipe - Doesn't matter how argue, it will flow a certain way. But that doesn't mean that we have the most applicable degrees - 90% of our coursework is theory anyways (although I heard towards the east coast its more 'practile' in that regard). Do we really need to derive all the equations that we do, do we need to take classes in phase transformation theory, or mechanics of materials? We may say "oh but when we design we need it!" and we come back to the fact that very few engineers become intimately involved in R&D where they are really needing that theory to stake out new ground. We still have all that theory because it allows us to think critically to simplify a system to either understand it, or take advantage of the method by which it works.

It is annoying how so many engineers look at the other fields and call it bullshit as if their degree is the culmination of all that is practicle. If anything, engineering misses the mark because what is practicle is to communicate with others and adapt socially in situations...that is what really gets us through life. A person should not do engineering because they want to make money - far from it.

I'm going to graduate soon (hopefully...lol...) with two engineering degrees and a minor in what everyone wants to say is bullshit, and I have to say my minor probably gave me more worth as a person than my engineering degrees. It taught me to think critically in a complex society that we CAN'T simplify.

Note: this doesn't mean I don't think that engineering has no merit. I want to work as an Engineer. I'm just adjusting my message because we are dealing with a tech board with an extra dose of engineers/scientists who need to stop with their immature views

 

[AstroManLuca]

I went on a couple dates with a girl recently who is a PEACE STUDIES major.

Can't imagine a more worthless degree.

 

[JohnCU]

lulz at this turning into engineering vs every other major

 

[krunchykrome]

Originally posted by: JohnCU
lulz at this turning into engineering vs every other major

engineers believe they're superior to everyone

 

[JohnCU]

Originally posted by: krunchykrome

Originally posted by: JohnCU
lulz at this turning into engineering vs every other major

engineers believe they're superior to everyone

not all of them, i'm dumb as a rock

 

[jman19]

Originally posted by: spidey07
Majors have nothing to do with what you do with your career, much like GPA.

Wrong.

 

[jonks]

Originally posted by: magomago
Going to college is about learning to drink beer

 

[aldamon]

We know someone that went to an expensive school and majored in Native American studies and obviously is doing nothing with it after 9 years. Figure that one out.

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: Nitemare
I knew someone that got a degree in Art. She became a waitress til she married a doctor.

Now she's an independent artist who farts around in her custom built studio and sells one piece of overpriced art a year, while her husband pays for all her shit?

 

[imported_Imp]

Originally posted by: JohnCU

Originally posted by: Imp
I know someone who majored in philosophy... ended up doing social services work. He then moved on to work in IT and is raking it in ($80k-$90k).

It's not all worthless. A lot of people don't use what they majored in. I have a revered engineering degree, which hasn't gotten me anything. I wouldn't mind doing something else in fact.

Except maybe religion...

you must suck at your engineering degree if you haven't done anything with it, that or you picked the wrong major and just don't like it

It's partly column A, but mainly column B. I've gotten sick of the engineering shit, and have actively searched for a different school/career to enter. After I graduated this past June, I almost went into something completely different. Now, I'm planning on settling on a crap job for a year or two before going to do what I want. Oh, and I've only been trying to get a job for a month so far. I was so deadset on the career change, I didn't apply during the new grad "hiring season"; nice contingency planning...

And in my initial post, I shoulda included that I assume most people don't use it cause they don't like it or like something else more, but they still gain organizing/thinking/reasoning skills in the end. I took an anthropology and sociology course: now I see the bullshit of the world differently. Also, some of my classmates/their friends were already signed up for majors in other fields after graduating. That and it was late when I posted, I was tired?

 

[IEC]

Originally posted by: aldamon
We know someone that went to an expensive school and majored in Native American studies and obviously is doing nothing with it after 9 years. Figure that one out.

I know an English major who's an i-banker making 6 figures a year.

I know a Psychology major who's pulling in about 60K/yr at IBM.

It's all about your potential to be great at the job and how interesting/compelling you are as a person. Most fresh college grads are inexperienced newbs that will need training in the real world anyways.