nonwto wrote:
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.
Actually, at best, those degrees will get you in to law school. They're all fairly common gateways to a career in law, in fact. Though if you don't like the hard sciences, I doubt you'll much like law.
Arts degrees like English, psychology, and philosophy are the kinds of degrees you get when you're either going into a graduate program, you're going to teach, or you're just going to accept that you want a general degree for general jobs that require any degree. They're not going to open many doors for you, though. My SO got her bachelors in English, is generally an ingenious lady with everything going for, and she beat out 280 people for the job she has now... which is still a fairly crappy, low-paying job, particularly considering her ability level. The thing is, that's probably the best job she could get without having any really solid connections (short of nepotism, really). That's the state of the economy in many places right now. She's now getting her masters in web development so that some day she'll actually be able to pay off her loans (which include a year's tuition at Duke, which is a lot even at max scholarship... she graduated in three years with as much debt as I have for ten years of school).
But like others have said, you really need to know what you want to do with your life at some point. I'm sure there are online inventories that will give you some idea of what career you might be best suited to. Don't forget about technical jobs like being an electrician.
