Money Is a Terrible Way to Measure the Value of a College Major

The Atlantic ^ | 1/24/2014 | JORDAN WEISSMANN

[Borges]

The cliche about majoring in humanities is that it's a lovely way to spend four years of college and poor way to land a lucrative job. To some extent, that cliche may be true. On the whole, humanities grads earn less than students who study disciplines like business or engineering. So sayeth the statistics.

But the Association of American Colleges and Universities would like you to know that getting a degree in English or History, while perhaps not the most financially rewarding choice, doesn't require an oath of poverty either. Over a lifetime, they note, typical humanities and social science majors earn similarly to graduates who study practical, pre-professional fields such as education or nursing.

[SgtHooper]

I took Leather Craft 101 one time for a quick credit. It was fun!

[OldPossum]

Articles like this are analogous to throwing hunks of red meat to starving dogs. You see, many Freepers worship at the feet of the Great God, Engineering. And you don’t get a degree in said subject, you’re just a pathetic loser.

They concede that degrees in some other disciplines, all of which must be in the “hard sciences” category may be worthwhile. But that’s about it.

[Slyfox]

In our Founding Father’s days, the only bachelors degree you could get was in philosophy. Men were trained so that they understood human nature, because the roles they were working towards were in law and divinity. Everything else was considered a trade.

[CowboyJay]

"I don’t really buy either of these theories."

IMO, it's about forced dependency and control. Someone with a huge student loan they're paying on isn't as likely to walk off the job or raise a fuss. And they've no capital to set up shop down the street. $50 thousand in debt makes people into the nice pliant little debt/tax slaves.

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

At least English and history majors can teach, which doesn’t pay that well (at least at the beginning) but makes for steady work with benefits the rest of us don’t get (like 3 months off and tenure). It’s the “studies” majors that are really screwed - hate to be someone with a shiny new degree in lesbian bondage studies and $150K debt working at the burger joint for minimum wage.

[crazycatlady]

I’ll pray for strength.

[Hot Tabasco]

One of my closest friends majored in history and now holds a very high paying internet security position for a major bank, putting him in the Top .5% salary-wise.

Good for him! Had lunch today with a softball buddy and his 40+ year old son has a degree in history from Notre Dame........He's a postal worker in Alaska......go figure.

[Jan_Sobieski]

I am an adjunct professor with the University of Iowa. I tell every new class I get, "Why do you need a guru like me to inculcate my great knowledge to you? You have the Internet!!!"

The most distraught student I have spoken with was a girl who went to Michigan State for 5 years, accrued 165k in debt for a Hospitality Management degree. Her wage out of college? $8/hr. She is considering the French Foreign Legion to obtain a new identity.

The College bubble is starting to burst. It will collapse first in the Small Private College sector (example: 23 Jan 2014 Iowa Wesleyan College announced it is laying off a large percentage of its staff and dropping 17 programs.

Best advice for kids, "work your way through school. Do some type of online program that gives a technical skill while starting your own business!!!!

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

“You see, many Freepers worship at the feet of the Great God, Engineering.”

I have a liberal arts degree, BA-Chemistry, and I have a science degree, BS-Chemical Engineering. Both have served me well.

Recently I had cataract surgery...my MD Ophthalmoligist got a BS-Electrical Engineering before going the MD route. The Optometrist (Doctor of Optometry) in the clinic got a BS-Mechanical Engineering, didn’t care that much for it, and went on for O.D. Her husband also got a BS-Mech Engr, then went on to get his M.D. and did a residency in Neurology.

Point is an Engineering degree can be the ticket to an interesting and rewarding career in industry, with or without practicing Engineering. It can also be just an ‘undergraduate degree’ that eventually leads to other things. In the three examples cited above, they happened to be the ‘foundation’ for rewarding careers in Medicine.

Now I am in ‘retirement’, after 40 years in manufacturing industry. Today I am busy helping people with natural solutions to health concerns...not to supplement retirement income, but to help people. Been doing this now for nearly 10 years, and consider myself a researcher and a consultant, teaching treatment remedies.

And btw, I do not ‘worship at the Great God, Engineering’. Your comment regarding that has the ring of some disappointment, or sour grapes or a bitterness toward ‘Engineering’ or ‘Engineers’.

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

“...they would like to give people I Q tests...”

In 1959 when I was drafted into the U.S. Army they were giving I Q tests to all new recruits. Don’t know if that is still the case, but it was then. (And I know my score...). As a result of that and my BA-Chemistry I was assigned to the Army Medical Research Lab at Ft Knox. Work-wise there I reported to two civilian PhD’s. It was a great experience.

[OldPossum]

Many decades ago I earned two bachelors degrees, one in economics and one in political science (if I had picked my parents more carefully I would have gone on to law school). Nevertheless, I had a nice career and am very comfortably “fixed” in my retirement. No regrets there.

What irks me is the continual bleating of those who have engineering degrees to the effect that that is the only degree worth having. These pompous buttheads just seem to want to gloat.

I have a grand nephew who has a bachelors and a masters in engineering and will get his Phd in said discipline in three months. Him I applaud. I never hear any of that crap from him. The Freepers engineers? Well, in a word: no!