[SeekAndFind]

Upon reflection, it appears that “useless” degrees share one or more common traits:

• Lack of Job Market (outside of academia or government subsidies)

• Not Data-Driven

• Demands Post Grad Degrees

• General Lack of Scholarly Rigor

• Rampant Groupthink and Plagiarism

Look upon these features as red flags.  The more of these red flags a field of “study” flies, the higher the likelihood recipients of these degrees will wind up as a burden on society.  More bluntly, a burden on you.  Below is a table of arbitrarily-chosen college degrees, rated on the scale described above.

Image created by the author.

Some may quibble with the labels or applicability of the red-flag traits, or the number of flags assigned to certain degrees.  But the overall method of analysis is valid.  This can serve as a road map of sheepskins to avoid.  The more of these boxes are checked, the more money colleges will scam out of you, and the less likely you are to ever earn it back.

[Leaning Right]

Colleges themselves play a big part here. They will lie to naive students, just to boost the numbers.

Naive student: I’m thinking about getting a degree in poetry.

What the Literature Department advisor should say:
Be aware there are no jobs in that field. None.

What the Literature Department advisor does say:
Good choice. You will learn how to express yourself and organize your thoughts. Companies look for that.

[FrankRizzo890]

The daughter of a well to do friend recently graduated with a degree in some BS with a minor in “arts and letters”. So, post grad what’s she’s doing? Working a minimum wage job. What else?

[Grampa Dave]

“For a long time now, the debate has raged as to whether it’s worth going to college anymore. The libertarian view on this question has typically been along the lines of… if people are foolish enough to waste money on worthless degrees, the world will soon enough teach them another lesson.”

Our 50 something age wise adult offspring and nieces and nephews cracked this code, decades ago.

They labeled the worthless degrees as IUD’s aka Instant Unemployment Degrees.

Many which have become engineers or RN’s did enter the good degrees programs and got good jobs before and after they were graduated.

The other younger family members did a 1-3 year trade school and have kept being employed on a regular basis.

[subterfuge]

So my calligraphy degree is worthless? My college advisor said I would get a great job cause I would right good. Lol.

[Starboard]

Rational analysis, scorned

*************

Indeed it is. Emotions, tribalism and self-interest rule the day. Facts, logic and the lessons of history are unwanted distractions.

Eventually something will break down in a spectacular way. There's always a price to be paid for stupidity and the longer it takes for the bill to arrive the worse it will be.

[SaxxonWoods]

I got a ‘useless’ Sociology degree in ‘75. Never worked in the field but was able to apply some of what I learned to real estate (statistics and mass movements in society) so it all worked out. The diploma itself never mattered at all.

[Vermont Lt]

There will be a lot of comments on this thread (and on the original) from people making judgements about the value of a particular degree.

I am going to point out that degrees simply tell me that someone has “studied” a particular field. In most cases, what they learn is not applicable to every day work in a specific job. I would argue that most of what any of us “learned” in college 30 years ago stopped being “useful” many years ago.

Here is what I DO know: I had a great career as a CATV Executive, Banking Executive, and small business owner. With the exception of Statistics and some business tax classes, very little of what I learned in college mattered. Throughout my careers I was self taught or sent to specialty training.

I worked hard, studied my craft hard, and was able to apply external information to a situation.

My point is that the person is key, not the degree. If you can find your “place” in the world and you are motivated, the “degree” is not relevant.

These kinds of studies/stories are examples of the types of writing at places like American Thinker that employ no editors or editorial discretion.

[Deplorable American1776]

Useless degrees: 1) Transgender Underwater Basketweaving!

2)LGBTQ Business History

3)LGBTQ Sanitization engineering 🤓

[Fiji Hill]

I disagree that these subjects, except for maybe the “studies,” are “useless,” although photography, dance and astronomy would likely be better as minors. Yes, there are few jobs in these fields, but when properly taught, English, literature, art history and other subjects in the humanities can enrich one's life beyond one's chosen profession. When not taught by some wokester bent on indoctrination, these subjects provide insight into humanity and human nature as well as a body of knowledge that will facilitate one's ability to make choices in life and avoid being caught up in group think or herd opinions.

On the other hand, career-oriented curricula can limit the student's insight outside of his profession. As Everett Dean Martin wrote in The Meaning of a Liberal Education (1926), a career-oriented curriculum “may give one the means to make a living” but "liberal education gives living a meaning.”

[shotgun]

17th Century French Poetry, what an incredible waste of time!

[know.your.why]

Thermometers have degrees. You know where they put those?

[Churchillspirit]

My husband's son has a degree in Zoology. His specialty - contaminated water.

He works in a shoe store.....

[Rummyfan]

The libertarian view on this question has typically been along the lines of… if people are foolish enough to waste money on worthless degrees, the world will soon enough teach them another lesson.

While valid, that view ran aground on the Democrat vote-buying scheme to insulate those with useless degrees from the consequences of their poor choices and indebtedness, with our tax money.

Not to mention the unemployment of all those studies professors and DIE administrators that would result if kids wised up and just got either trade training or certifications that would allow them entry to professions.

[rellic]

my family insisted on us kids learning a trade before getting a university degree.
Thus
#1 I’m a journey man shipwright, I worked as a professional boat builder at a yacht manufacturing company before going in the military.
#2 Electronics technician, USAF educated. I worked as an Electronics tech at two different aerospace corporations.
#3 earned a degree, BS Computer Science and became a software engineer at one of those corporations. Most big companies will pay for most if not all of your tuition.
#4 Electroncis engineer at a world class Observatory in Hawaii.
Degrees do work. If it is combined with other skill sets.