8 Signs Your College Major Might Not Be A Smart Choice

A college degree or some form of career training is crucial in today's job market. Beyond that, many students still seem mystified by - or resistant to - employment realities, in terms of which fields are hiring and which fields will actually pay well. If you're not sure what you should be studying, check your degree plans against these 8 warning signs. Anything you'd add to the list?

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Comments

[Goldie Treasure]

08:21 PM on 11/01/2011

I learned that doing what will make you happy won't necessarily get you a job or make you good money, that is why I decided teaching was not for me, for a bachelors degree the salary would be fine but there is a hiring freeze so jobs are hard to come by. Also some degrees, the salary is often not worth the time or cost, like social work which was another major I was thinking about. Also nursing was another choice for me but it is over crowded so I am gonna try my hand at being an OT, it is my 4th choice but I honestly would rather make good money at a so so job than make crap at a dream job or not find a job at all. This economy made me realize it is more important to have food, a roof over my head and money than to be completely happy with a job.

[snaggle2th]

02:45 PM on 11/01/2011

I strongly suspect this cretin never had a take-home final exam... as an INSTRUCTOR i treat that as a free opportunity to ask the most demanding, even excruciating questions.... even (especially?) in technical subjects these are unwelcome....

[elgeezr]

05:45 PM on 10/24/2011

Want an easy major with very achievable high grades. Major in teaching. Check out this link. The dumbest of the dumb become teachers.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CCQQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmoneywatch.bnet.com%2Fspending%2Fblog%2Fcollege-solution%2Fheres-the-nations-easiest-college-major%2F5744%2F&ei=iC9oTq7_DcPSiAL2qpDkAQ&usg=AFQjCNEEj2r5ePpFHPiGFMl0271y6jmLnA

[ktpinnacle]

12:45 AM on 11/01/2011

People that want to make a difference become teachers.

BTW - you're not annoying, just not worth very much.

[standish]

12:22 PM on 10/24/2011

So, if you are or were an English major (as I was), Shakespeare, Greek drama, Chaucer, Pope.....oh, forget it. This is just an insipid article. Who writes this junk?

[elgeezr]

05:36 PM on 10/24/2011

Someone in the real world. OWS much?

[standish]

08:33 PM on 10/24/2011

You mean "someone in the real world" like yourself who cynically devalues a liberal arts education? Providing, of course, the distinct possibility that you never had one.

[EssayTask]

01:30 PM on 10/23/2011

Some of the signs are quite funny especially the one about the final exam can be completed as a take-home essay :) Where is that? :) Steve from http://www.essaytask.com

[sempronia]

08:14 AM on 10/23/2011

I'm on a fellowship right now named for a dead person, financed with money set aside in the early part of the 20th C. I'll be planning to apply for another fellowship set up by a woman in the early part of the 20th C to benefit unmarried female scholars. I'm not sure why, if the money exists, being part of the legacy of a fiscally intelligent deceased person should be a sign that one's major is bad.

[guitarguy22]

12:52 AM on 10/21/2011

There should be one thing taught to incoming freshman when choosing a major: do what you love to do kids, but don't expect it to pay the bills. I majored in what I love studying, and I'm not above working my way up the corporate ladder until I can get into something I enjoy doing. Do the menial, low-level jobs suck? Yes. But I, unlike so many of my 2010 classmates, did not expect to be handed my dream job straight out of college. It blows my mind how many of my peers are not willing to pay their dues before they are put into a position of worth. Students also tend to forget something: just because you don't land your dream job right out of graduation doesn't mean you have to stop looking for it. Do what you love, but don't expect it to make you filthy rich right away.

[elgeezr]

05:38 PM on 10/24/2011

Insightful, smart, & realistic. Think you might make there, Guitarguy.

[ktpinnacle]

12:57 AM on 11/01/2011

elgeezer is right [for a change ; )]

Great way to approach the college experience.

[kerriberri]

11:59 AM on 11/01/2011

Careful; you're starting to sound like a Liberal : )

[kerriberri]

12:01 PM on 11/01/2011

Great advice & a brilliant approach to achieving a happy life. I've never understood how people could neglect to realize just how high a percentage of their life will be spent at work. Do what you love, love what you do.

Newest fan!

[methodman]

04:08 PM on 10/17/2011

Diversity in Education is good. Many things categorically are antagonistic. Most Graphic Artists hate to think in linear constructs. I am trying to be an artist with no BiSymmetry controls. So I have no draw from center command. I have no anti-aliasing controls. All this is philosophy but together I improve over the years significantly. But my state cut the number of classes for college majors so now I do my schooling with Safari Online and Rhapsody.

[mendodnem]

09:42 AM on 10/17/2011

I know of a fellow who spent 5 years at an expensive private college, funded by
family. Since graduating he has excelled in beer drinking parties, hanging out with the guys, computer games and sleeping during the day and other such beneficial activities. I won't mention his major, but it was not anything in the sciences, or arts. No literature, history. No sports, either. Wants to go to get a master's degree. Go figure.

[brokenleoheart]

03:38 PM on 10/17/2011

people like him are the ones protesting down at wall street. and you wonder why he cant get a job

[jstagynjax]

10:50 PM on 10/17/2011

Oh, of course. It's all the young people who are finding out the real world sucks, who have no jobs, living with mommy and/or daddy, with nothing else to do with their time.

[CDL1]

04:29 PM on 10/16/2011

You should be able to major in whatever you want as long as you minor in something marketable, or vice versa. You can always double major as well. If you want to major in dance or drama you'd be wise to at least minor in business admin and do a business related internship. You might not become a highly paid dancer in a fancy troop on boradway, but you'll at least have a chance to work in the business side of industry until an opportunity opens up.

[brokenleoheart]

03:41 PM on 10/17/2011

i think more importantly, how to trasfer the skills you learned from a particular major into the real world. college is less about technical skills, but more about teaching us how to think critically, analyze problems, and research for solutions. i majored in politcs, which i can say is fairly useless, and nothing to do with what i do now. since no one really use political science, beside if you were to teach it again or be a political consultant. but the paper writing, the game theories, and the debates help prepare me for the real world.

[nhcrawf]

12:55 PM on 10/16/2011

College majors don't make sense to me. Everybody should be forced to learn everything, whether like it or not. Math geniuses should do art, and artists should do physics, and physicists should study language. It's the only way they'll ever be able to think in more than one, narrow way.

[CDL1]

04:25 PM on 10/16/2011

Students are forced to study a little bit of everything during their first two yrs of school. Everyone needs their gen ed requirements in order to pick a major and get accepted into a school's program within a university. after the first couple yrs all your classes are geard around your major.

[kerriberri]

12:04 PM on 11/01/2011

Depends, I guess, on where the school's located. In my state (Texas) those graduating with a BS had absolutely NO foreign language requirement.

[Nate35]

01:09 PM on 10/17/2011

Have you not heard of core requirements? The idea is that everyone should learn something about everything, but it would be impossible to learn enough to be an engineer or a Med student in four years if you had to write as many English papers as lab reports.

Students spend their entire life learning about everything, the last two years of college at least should be spent preparing for the rest of their life.

[HonkyTonkMan]

10:01 AM on 10/16/2011

It ends in "studies".

[Nick Franco]

09:34 PM on 10/15/2011

"Your final exam can be completed in the form of a take-home essay."

Yeah, Righting.....................Who,Needs,it?

[DanSc]

12:55 PM on 10/15/2011

If no math is required.

[Antoinette Anderson]

10:26 PM on 10/14/2011

A friend of mine has a BA in English and was just hired by a newspaper to work in Advertising. It kinda gives me hope (I have a BA as well), but I keep remembering that my friend is the opposite of what I am: white, extremely attractive, has a decade of experience in another field, in good shape, doesn't owe 25k in student loans, etc..

[corwin]

03:55 PM on 10/15/2011

Smart?