This is a thread for college majors that don’t really seem real, or useful, or maybe way too narrow.
Or even pretty useless ones…
Yes, I’d like to hear about all the people who borrowed $200,000 to major in “something that interested them” which qualified them for no reasonable job so they end up 1) working at a retail establishment and 2) bitching about their student loans.
Someone at my old job had an Ethical Leadership major.
Seems very narrow. More like a class or two instead of a full blown BA.
Just read yesterday that Carnegie Mellon has a “Bagpipe Performance” BFA. From Carnegie Mellon. $70k a year well spent.
Sort of related, I started in engineering and then switched to applied math with an econ minor. My father was really upset because he said I’d never get a good job with a math/econ degree.
He had a business degree, and my first year out of school I made more than him, and he conceded that math was ok.
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I studied 19th century French poetry
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I’ve a friend who majored in drama, fine arts. A.couple of years later they went back and got a degree in cs. Now they work in cs, and do performing as a hobby.
I just hired ft someone who we had as a coop student last year. They just graduated with a fine arts degree. I don’t get it, they’re killer technically and with marketing principles, where did.that come from? But same thing, they’re going to do to find arts in the side.
Ooh, I’ve got a good one. My daughter went to Sarah Lawrence college. They had a masters program in dance therapy.
At convocation they announced my daughter’s program with ‘and now, people who actually have jobs’. She wasn’t in dance therapy lol.
Prince Edward island has a whole college dedicated to bagpipes and the like.It’s called.the.college of piping. When we went there, I’m like, where’s all the pipes.outside, i.assume they have pipe.inventory for welding. Turns.out they didnt mean thatkind of piping.
RN
Eh, that at least leaves a person with a chance of ekeing out a lower-middle class existence doing something they love, which isn’t the worst outcome.
They can make some money performing and supplement that with teaching.
What a waste of time! I mean, for someone else, that would be an incredible waste of time. It’s so bold of you.
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I personally love hiring people with completely unpredictable majors into the profession. The oddest I’ve seen was pop culture, but pretty sure it was a double major. Anyway, they still have to pass several exams to be hired, so who cares what their field of study was? Big gamble, though.
Separately, I think AS is a big gamble. If you don’t get a career as an actuary, you’re probably better off than someone who majors in, say, pop culture, but why not major in statistics or math and increase your options out of school?
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“There once was la jeune fille from Nantucket…”
Yeah - I didn’t plan on it, but it worked out well. The marketing person I mentioned above, thrown into the mix I get top-tier web design and graphics illustrations as a bonus. Normally I outsource that stuff, with this person I get better than any pro I’ve ever worked with, and I don’t need to work around someone else’s schedule. It’s worked out really well.
If they can do two things, I think it really broadens their abilities.
I hired an analyst who had a degree in biblical studies. Worked out extremely well for the years he was with me. Unfortunately for me, he left for a different role that could offer more.
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Proverbs 23:4
Do not wear yourself out to get rich;
do not trust your own cleverness.
I think it was both more money and better long-term opportunity. But honestly that is the goal in my opinion.
Yeah, I hired someone with a somewhat unusual academic background and it worked out really well. Passed exams at a somewhat slower rate than many others, but progress was steady… just slow. So this person’s salary increased at a slower rate than their peers, but they were still making good money and doing good work and I was happy to have the person on my team.
Mr aj has a degree in history. Worthless without a master’s or maybe a law degree.
Honestly though, I always thought business majors were a dime a dozen. I’d rather hire someone who is interested in something. I can’t remember the last time I hired someone with an actuarial science degree bc they are just not all that prevalent around here. But I wouldn’t discount that degree either.