Poll of the Day > Why do people pick shitty degrees in college?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I hear a lot of talk about how some degrees are completely worthless nowadays, and I'm just like "well why would you pick them then?"

why not do everything and get all the degrees at once?

Why are they offered if they are shitty?

Cruddy_horse posted...

Why are they offered if they are shitty?

I don't have a fucking clue.

for example?

Kanatteru posted...

for example?

Gender studies and Art?

Can you find any practical applications in the job market for these type of degrees?

People choose shitty degrees so they can hop on the "cancel my student loans" bandwagon.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


I would tend to agree that education is a net positive. However the problem is with the cost of higher education. If one has to take out large loans to pay for it and it doesn't offer prospects to pay it back, they would probably just be better off with a library card.

KingDavid posted...

Gender studies and Art?

Can you find any practical applications in the job market for these type of degrees?

My cousin is now poet laureate of Canada

Would you consider a Museum Studies degree to be a useless degree?

Jen0125 posted...

Would you consider a Museum Studies degree to be a useless degree?

wait... this is triggering a weird memory.

Who was that other girl on here that also did museum or art restoration stuff.... JediMutant? I can just barely remember

Because the actual subject matter of most degrees is meaningless, even degrees that you might traditionally associate with being practical, unless you're doing something highly specialized.

You're probably not doing anything worthwhile with a bachelor of physics, so why not at least have fun and take a degree in something interesting?

Blightzkrieg posted...

You're probably not doing anything worthwhile with a bachelor of physics, so why not at least have fun and take a degree in something interesting?

I went on to get a masters in medical physics and am part of the cancer treatment process which is useful, and I found my physics BS to be very interesting throughout the entire degree. But I have to say, almost all of my classmates who got a physics BS have higher paying jobs (with less hussle day to day) than the ones who went into non-STEM fields. While the subject matter itself may not be used in the day to day job for some, most are in positions that wanted physics/math/engineering degrees.

blu posted...

I went on to get a masters in medical physics and am part of the cancer treatment process which is useful, and I found my physics BS to be very interesting throughout the entire degree. But I have to say, almost all of my classmates who got a physics BS have higher paying jobs (with less hussle day to day) than the ones who went into non-STEM fields. While the subject matter itself may not be used in the day to day job for some, most are in positions that wanted physics/math/engineering degrees.

Almost all my MS friends in basically any subject out-earn my BS friends. And my PhD friends who gave up on academics are about the same as my MS friends.

But you're a known liar

The two highest paid people I know fit both ends of the spectrum. One is a mural artists with a masters in Art science and the other is a pharmacist.

Because they're 18-20 years old and a lot of people that age don't make the greatest decisions involving their future

some people just like learning

some people think life is more enjoyable if you're doing something you love regardless of whether or not it's a safe or generically useful choice

Jen0125 posted...

Would you consider a Museum Studies degree to be a useless degree?

Nah, because you can actually do something with it.

Nade_Duck posted...

some people just like learning

some people think life is more enjoyable if you're doing something you love regardless of whether or not it's a safe or generically useful choice

<3

Kanatteru posted...

for example?

A philosophy degree is useless unless you plan on becoming a professor.

Revelation34 posted...

A philosophy degree is useless unless you plan on becoming a professor.

but they're all philosophy degrees... that's the Ph in the D

KingDavid posted...

I hear a lot of talk about how some degrees are completely worthless nowadays, and I'm just like "well why would you pick them then?"

Because teenagers generally don't know what they want to do with the rest of their lives, and they're really bad at judging which degrees will actually matter and which ones will doom them to working at McDonalds. They also have unrealistic belief in their own potential - "Sure, 99% of people who get this degree wind up unemployed, but -I'm- going to be the exception!"



Zangulus posted...

Its almost like education for the sake of is still a net positive to people who dont need to have a specific reason to engage in higher learning.

That hasn't been true for decades!

Yeah people gave my brother shit for his degree but it was his dream to work on video games. His niche is art so he went with 3d modeling. He figured maybe he could work his way up from there and make games himself (as in like Kojima. The brains or whatever behind the game) Problem was any game company that would let him do the kinda things he's into is far far away. Like not see your extended family for years (or just once a year) kinda far.

He did try a voice acting gig and flopped but once again it just wasn't his kinda thing. It was for a military shooter game and he's more cartoon character kinda voice acting.

Seeing him fail so hard at following his dreams kinda makes me glad I never had any

Given the ease at which information can be obtained nowadays and the relative laziness of a lot of professors (also the fact that most of them are working on a PHD while trying to "teach" at the same time), I would argue college needs a serious overhaul. For example, any class where you sit in a lecture hall for 3 days a week, and your grade is determined only by 2-3 tests, should probably be online only, with PDF study materials, and cost next to nothing. Most "IT" degrees should also likely be online only given that there is absolutely no reason a tech focused worker should ever have to work in an office. Also would mean students could live at home the first couple of years of college, which would greatly reduce the amount of debt they accumulate since most of the cost is dorms/apartments. Hell, take the savings and give all the students 5G enabled laptops instead, now they don't even need home Internet, or going to their local library.

Probably still need traditional college for most SEM (STEM minus the "T") classes, but still.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


Right?? Tf.

There are thousands of jobs that just require "bachelor's degree" with no specific type. There is no such thing as a useless degree.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


Or they're mad people with those degrees monetized them better than he monetized his illustrious STEM degree lol

True, it can definitely help net you a decent job just having a degree. It shows an employer that you committed to something for four years and saw it through to the end. But definitely some degrees are more practical than others in the job market.

It's all personal preference but if I were to go back to college i would definitely do it much differently than i did. Luckily, i had scholarships, but tuition definitely costs too much to simply go just to learn something for the sake of learning something or getting a degree imo. After all, you're really just learning a lot of one specific field of study for the most part

OhhhJa posted...

But definitely some degrees are more practical than others in the job market.

This is not true at all. There are a ton of industries that just want "degree" and you can make $90k a year.

Some degrees can help you in specific career markets but "degree" can net you a higher than well paying job.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


Bullshit

Sufferedphoneix posted...

Yeah people gave my brother shit for his degree but it was his dream to work on video games. His niche is art so he went with 3d modeling. He figured maybe he could work his way up from there and make games himself (as in like Kojima. The brains or whatever behind the game) Problem was any game company that would let him do the kinda things he's into is far far away. Like not see your extended family for years (or just once a year) kinda far.

He did try a voice acting gig and flopped but once again it just wasn't his kinda thing. It was for a military shooter game and he's more cartoon character kinda voice acting.

Seeing him fail so hard at following his dreams kinda makes me glad I never had any

If I ever post about winning the lottery, pm me. I will be in the need for modelers and voice e actors.

jsb0714 posted...

Bullshit

What kind of degree do you think will get you no job at all?

Jen0125 posted...

What kind of degree do you think will get you no job at all?

He probably thinks underwater basket weaving is a real thing

Jen0125 posted...

What kind of degree do you think will get you no job at all?

first degree burns?

People should be free to study what they want, BUT there should no debt forgiveness/incentive for those who picked less valuable degrees

joemodda posted...

People should be free to study what they want, BUT there should no debt forgiveness/incentive for those who picked less valuable degrees

just like there should be no payroll protection for employers with less valuable jobs, right?

Lokarin posted...

payroll protection

Not the same thing. Don't be ridiculous with your comparisons.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


Not my position, and I'm not even sure how you get the idea that I think education should be free. All degrees aren't equal in terms of utility, that's the reality whether you like it or not.

We want to nudge younger people towards getting an education that will benefit society in a meaningful way. But perhaps more importantly, we want to prepare the students for the job market and nudge them towards prospective, (ideally) well paying jobs.

Conversely, we want to steer students away from degrees that don't have a prospective future if it means they will end up saddled with large amounts of debt with no clear path for paying it off. (And no, I'm not advocating for the fact that education needs to be expensive and unaffordable to the lower-class, or anything like that, so don't glimpse over that nuance to frame me as a heartless person)

Of course, students are still free to study what they wish, there just won't be that incentive to reward them for picking a less valuable degree.

What people declare as a "useless" degree says more about the person saying it, than the actual degree itself.