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This is a thread about modern education, at the college/university level. Given the general advanced age and, begrudgingly admitted, wisdom of many of the regular visitors here, you seem likely to have some useful insight.

To the point: It's often said that the only worthwhile degrees are in the hard sciences. It seems that this is usually said by people with such degrees, but there's apparently a general consensus that majoring in English, philosophy, linguistics etc will not likely gain you more than ridiculous levels of debt, and at best a career in teaching. As a person with almost no interest in the sciences, only really being inclined towards literature, I find this rather depressing.

There are those who say that what's important, more so than your education, is to be industrious, dedicated and all that. This doesn't seem any more pleasant than the former.

So, you know, give me your opinions on the matter. I am your humble student, as always.

If you have a clear understanding of what you're going to be trying to get into as a career post school, then take the degree that applies to that. The problem with Arts degrees is that so many people just take them just to get a university education but don't truly have a clear path they plan on following. A hard science or even a business degree gives you something to fall back on, but nothing more, whereas most others are just a waste of money if you don't know where you're going afterward.

The unfortunate fact of the workforce these days is that having a degree or not is the single biggest hurdle to jump on getting a resume past the first line HR application screener. Is a degree worthless outside of the hard sciences? Absolutely not, on nothing more than it can get your resume a second look. Can you go on to do quite well without one? Most certainly, it's just a longer and, in some cases, more difficult road.

Agreed. A degree in philosophy is still a degree and, if nothing else, represents that you're college educated and can make it through four(+) years of college. That alone places you above those without. I've know plenty of people in positions with the "wrong" degree who got there primarily because the requirements were simply having a college degree. By this measure, a degree in a field you're likely to complete is worth more than two years of business college (or marine biology) before you drop out.

Of course, this is all economy dependent. A philosophy degree right now puts you above the high school educated but probably well below someone with a business degree when you're all applying for a sales manager position.


This. People ask where your degree is from, they don't ask where you spent the first two years earning your degree.

Edited, Jun 28th 2011 1:26pm by Jophiel

Bottom line is that a degree's worth is completely relative to what you want to do in the future.

To go into science/engineering you need BS bare minimum and usually masters or higher to get a great job. What school you go to, what summer/lab work you did, and your GPA matter a lot in applying for jobs in these fields.

If you just want to write (or most creative arts) though, it's completely possible to have a good career without spending the money on a college education as long as you 1) have experience in what you want to write about, 2) write/rewrite/hone your style as much as possible on the topic (find a mentor and guinea pigs) and 3) are crazy persistent/flexible in finding someone to pay you for your work. Portfolios are judged by quality of content much more than GPA/degree/schooling.



In both cases, however, building/maintaining connections and networks of professionals in the field is one of the most important actions you can take. They're the ones most likely to hook you up with a great job, not some monster.com ad with 500 applicants/position.

If you're going to go this route triple check with both institutions to make sure that the courses you're taking will carry over, I know several people that have been screwed over by this strategy.

Lots of states are now requiring (for funding) that credits will transfer between it's community colleges and it's universities, which is helpful. Also, the more basic the class the more likely it is to transfer with full credit.

I was talking to somebody a few weeks ago (about something only tangentially related), and they mentioned that there was a recent study that found that graduation in 4 years or less from private universities was much more likely than public universities. In fact, the discrepancy was so wide that it may actually be cheaper to attend a private university for four years rather than a public one for five (or more).

This is especially true when talking about very prestigious (read: expensive) public universities (e.g. University of Michigan).

Public universities (and colleges) receive government funding from the state. They have conditions for this funding that vary by state, and can (and are) incredibly impacted by state budget changes. Case in point, UF lost about 10% of its state funding last year due to budget cuts in FL. Luckily, state funding only makes up about 27% of our funding here, if I recall correctly, so my office avoided any lay-offs.

Edit: As for why they're cheaper... for one thing, the state funding means that tuition isn't quite as important to operations. Whereas in private universities it is. I believe there are also conditions such as caps on tuition increases each year, but I'm not sure.

For example, UMASS Amherst costs $12,612 in fees/tuition for next year.
Harvard, however, costs $33,696 for tuition, and $3,132 for fees.
WPI (Worcester Polytechnic Institute), where my best friend went, is even worse. $40,030 for tuition/fees.

Edited, Jun 28th 2011 4:38pm by LockeColeMA

Start by looking at jobs as if you were looking for work. Be sure to look at areas you haven't really thought about, for example health care is frequently ignored unless someone in your family works in that area.

As you look, try to get a feel for two things -- what you'll need to get those jobs and what those jobs are going to be like. Begin to build a list of things that you want and another for things you really don't want and use specific language; phrases like "I want a good job" are useless because they sound pretty but don't really define a goal. Once you have an idea of what you really want, go back through and see what you're going to need to get it -- include both degree and non-degree requirements (e.g. publication or internships).

Remember that there is a good chance that the actual profession is likely to be far different from your experience in class. Too many students pick a major because they like the classes, only to discover that they hate the work. The bane of many engineering students is the discovery that successful engineers are often forced into management. As one friend put it: "if I wanted to be a manager, I would have been a business major."

Whatever you do, don't just pick a major and hope that it will bring you good employment. It probably won't. There is enough competition for jobs (particularly decent jobs) that you'll need to know how to make a pitch to HR. As others here have noted, that may mean knowing that HR doesn't really care what your degree is in, they may simple have the idea you need some kind of degree. In such situations, you have to think about what it is that they really want. Are they looking for someone who can write? That philosophy degree may get you in the door, architecture might be a harder sell.

Four daughters seem to have used this method successfully, YMMV.

Thanks to everyone for the info and advice, it's been qute helpful. I'd respond more specifically but I'm posting from an itouch. I'm pretty sure I'm going to study something related to literature. I have a very idealistic dream of becoming a Hemingway/ Orwell styled writing career, which is almost certainly impossible to accomplish these days, but I think pursuing that will be much more bearable than a well paid but mind numbing career. Don't suppose I'd be able to sit through years of classes on a subject that doesn't interest me, anyway.

College girls have been factored into the decision as well, of course.

Smart girl indeed. She gets to use him to get herself through grad school, then she can dump his uneducated ***.

Meh, powerful alpha males have been ditching their aging, 'unsexy', housekeeping wives for years. Sociologically speaking, I don't see family life suffering from the advent of more men taking on the domestic duties. Folks need little reason to give-up on a marriage these - an unsexy housedad is just another.

With that said, for most of our married life (while we were raising kids) my husband only kept a part-time job while i was the main bread-winner. He looks REALLY good in an apron. We both work full-time now, but he still does much of the housework (cept the bathrooms!!....no one will clean the stinking bathrooms!!)