College Majors.

As the senior year of my undergraduate school slowly approaches, I wanted to take a moment and reflect on my college experience. Being a science major, I would say that over 50% of my friends are science-related majors. Physical science, not social science (those don't count). With that in mind, I wanted to make a list of majors that I have not, and never, will understand. I watched a video on Youtube that discussed the "Most useless college majors" and that was the inspiration for this post.

NOTE: I AM NOT INTENDING TO DOWNPLAY ANYONE'S MAJOR/CAREER PATH WITH THIS BLOG POSTING. THESE ARE SIMPLY MY PERSONAL OPINIONS AND IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO SHARE ABOUT MY LIST, YOU CAN LEAVE A COMMENT AT THE BOTTOM.

#5. Psychology.  

Why this on the list: Psychology is considered a "soft" science, grouped with others like sociology, anthropology, geography, etc. Unless you want to go into academia, I don't often find having a degree in a "soft science" being very marketable.

Jobs you can get with this degree: Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Counselor, etc.

While I think that the skills you learn as a result of your degree are valuable (such as critical thinking, identifying behaviors, counseling, etc.), I don't think that psychology degree's themselves are rather difficult (Its like Criminal Justice, which isn't on the list, but its like #6).

#4. English/Humanities

Why this is on the list: Other than being able to write long papers without any grammatical errors, can you tell me another benefit for having an English degree? I actually just finished up with my summer class on Latin American Literature (which was very enjoyable!) with my professor who has a Ph.D in English. I can understand a dissertation for a science-related field (a research project), but what constitutes a dissertation for an English major? Write a really, really long paper?

Jobs you can get with this degree: Writer/Author, Journalist???, English teacher, etc.

#3. Anything ending in "Studies"

Why this is on the list: At my school alone, we have so many different types of "studies" programs. Some of those include: Women, Any race you desire (Asian, Native American, Latin American, etc.) Family, etc. I have quite a few friends who have completed or are in the midst of completing their Family Studies degree. I don't even know the point of that is? I mean you grew up with a family at one point or another, am I right? The other types of studies, such as the different geographical areas, what can you really do with that? "I spent four years studying Women Studies, now I can be a better woman because I understand them," as if you did not understand them before?  

Jobs you can get with this degree: Family counselor, social worker, etc. 

I feel like the job market for people who have obtained these degrees is not very hot. I think that this degree could be a great asset as an accompanying degree (or like a minor). But I think the integrity of this degree is similar to that of wet paper. 

#2. Recreation & Tourism

Why this is on the list: Aside from my #1 most ridiculous major, I whole heartily do not see the purpose of this. "Congrats on your Rec/Tourism degree! You can serve me drink on the plane, or you can be the entertainer on the cruise I am on." At the end of this past school year, my Professor (for Transition Metal Chemistry) took us all out for drinks and we were talking about other degrees. Someone had mentioned Rec/Tourism and everyone laughed because that degree is seriously a joke. Scanning over the classes required for the major, I noticed that they all have to do with "helping people," as if that is hard? Here's a concept: Get a job that requires human interaction. There is your degree right there. 

#1. Interdisciplinary/General Studies

Why this is on the list: A college degree is suppose to prepare you for a future career, correct? Well, how does knowing little about unrelated topics useful to anyone? It may help you out on Jeopardy because that is the only way you are going to make money from a Gen. Studies degree. As I was looking through various images pertaining to Gen. Studies, I came across this little nugget (See the graduation cap). At the University of Michigan (which is great institution!), they surveyed their athletes on campus and found that athletes (which make up 3% of their undergraduate population on campus) make up almost half (49%) of the General Studies undergraduate degrees. What can we infer from this? That a lot of athletes are choosing General Studies for their major. Why is this? Because this degree is EASY! As a former student athlete, I can attest to the time commitment athletics takes throughout the course of just a single week!

At the University of Michigan (which is great institution!), they surveyed their athletes on campus and found that athletes (which make up 3% of their undergraduate population on campus) make up almost half (49%) of the General Studies undergraduate degrees. What can we infer from this? That a lot of athletes are choosing General Studies for their major. Why is this? Because this degree is EASY! As a former student athlete, I can attest to the time commitment sports takes. I understand that your passion is sports, but when your are at college, you are a student athlete! Not an athletic student. The webpage that this image is associated with (can be found here: http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/academics/stories/index.ssf/2008/03/athletes_safe_harbor_is_genera.html) has another interesting image of a General Studies students' transcript. It was noted that the student's GPA in the four independent study courses they took was a 3.91 and a 2.68 for all of the other courses they took. Not too surprised.

I would like to thank anyone who is reading this and please feel free to leave comments!

Have a good day!

NT