Useless Courses , Majors and Degrees?

Post Reply New Topic

As far as applying useless college degrees you have to be creative and think outside the box.

Preferably Montreal. As long as I don't have to speak French. lol I was also thinking Ottawa. Never been there, but people tell me it's really nice!

Well, it often is... unless you plan to get a MA or Ph.D. in it and teach it.

You can "gain" knowledge from such a degree, but it could be difficult to find a job with a BA in philosophy. A BA in anything can be useful in some jobs, especially if you have experience. Some higher level jobs require a BA-- doesn't always matter what you majored in.

How about accounting, instead of math?

Plan it carefully, and think about the odds of you attending grad/law/med school, and the odds of getting a job in the field you're majoring in.

If you want to be a doctor, a BA in philosophy wouldn't do you any good. If you want to be an engineer, it wouldn't make sense to major in English. Think about what career you want to end up in, and what educational requirements that career has.

starting in 1980 the canadian immigration authority made it much tougher for [specifically] americans to emigrate up north, one must have blood relations living there or have a high net worth or have what they consider to be a userful professional university degree. also one must have a spotless criminal record, to include such minutia as traffic tickets. an informal chat with an immigration attorney informed me of these things.

Me too and you know what? I actually wrote this word for word before I browsed the other replies. If you are not going for a Masters, an Economics degree is WORTHLESS!



I'm probably one of the few native born and raised Canadians who knows this and ONLY because my 7th grade Geography teacher explained it to us. What an eye opener! People I know go on and on about how Canada lets anyone in but in reality our country generally only allows liars and frauds in. My brother in Edmonton tells me that most immigrants in his workplace faked their credentials and the immigration authorities turn a blind eye to it and refuse to investigate. Yes, you also have to a spotless criminal record even to visit but if your name is something like George Bush or Dick Cheney this doesn't apply. The honest among us get $@##ed over again!

My experience has been an entry level job search is tough regardless of your major. I have my BA and MA in History and I believed the reason I couldn't find work was my "useless major." So I went and got my Master's in Public Health. It hasn't helped yet although I'm optimistic. The overall economy is so bad right now I just think experience matters more because when employers hire someone new they are as concerned with how much it will cost to train them as much as they are with the actual salary you are making. Also in a bad economy one employee is doing the work of like three in a good economy so employers are more willing to "take chances" (their words not mine) on those of us with disabilities who will possibly need some help to be successful. I know I've had two job interviews already in which the people seemed very excited to interview me but once during the interview I explained to them I had a disability I never heard back again. I only graduated in late April so now I'm starting to broaden my search to other fields outside of my major where my core skills might be useful and it sounds like that might help you also. Math teaches systems level thinking very well for instance and logic and these broader skills are needed in many areas.

I think business administration is. I had it in my 3rd year of college and the classes are all movies and sitting around in a circle and complain about their jobs, especially the older students. I was one of the younger ones and the only jobs we had then were like Burger King. Many of us were going into Human Resources. That might explain why we have such trouble with HR departments.

Then, when businesses hire, we hear that the major does not matter. So why have business administration?

Also, have you ever met a person who had an MBA who was not total grouch or a**hole?

clueless moi has some questions i wanna ask the successful university graduates/advanced degree holders- how did you swing the tuition? if you had to supplement your fundage with a full-time job how did you have time to study and cram for exams and such? did you go without sleep on a frequent basis? was this tough for you, or second nature? i gots to know thanx you in advance for any who deign to answer my jejune queries.

Quite honestly I have about 90k in student loans having just finished. The thing with me though is that any job I get in my field will either be a government or non-profit job so after I make 10 years of payments on IBR they will wipe out my remaining debt since I want to do public service. (Google: 2007 college cost reduction act). For those wanting to work in a private business education is less relevant anyway but for government jobs at least in theory they are supposed to count a year of school as equal to a year of work experience which means if you have an advanced degree that's a lot of years!

so doing some elementary math, that would seem to mean that [presuming you got your BA+MA=6 years] you owe payments on that $90K for 4 years then it is wiped clean? sweet deal.

No, the 10 years starts when you begin work sadly. You have to be employed in a full-time job. Also it was 8 very long years my BA then my MA then my MPH.

well at least you are still young and vital, you have many good years ahead of you, and you will still be less than 40 by the time you are free from the yoke of your student loan debt.

I take it you don't have private student loans?

People should really think about the costs and public service/etc. programs like this.
And, if they have private vs. aid loans. $90K is huge... if you majored in sociology, had only private loans, and didn't want to do public service, it wouldn't be wise to spend that kind of cash. If you get aid, grants, etc., and find public service or employer sponsored tuition, it's less painful.

Yes, for me college was probably one of the biggest wastes of time in my life...I'm just glad I dropped out when I did, I probably should have sooner.

college has become one big racket here in america, there is collusion between business and colleges, the businesses raise their employment requirements and make business for the schools. whatever happened to on-the-job training?

I wouldn't listen to anything those lists tell you. I've seen some with psychology and journalism as the most useless careers. Isn't the author of the list most likely a journalist??