"Least Practical" Degrees In America

Dave_Berry · 07-15-2008, 01:59 PM

Okay, Moms and Dads, has your about-to-be college freshman (freshperson?) made any rumblings about any of these majors? If so . . . hmmm.

Comparitive Studies in Race & Ethnicity (Stanford)
Medieval and Renaissance Studies (Vassar)
Victorian Studies (Vassar)
Celtic Languages and Literature (Harvard)
Classical Civilization (Duke or Kenyon)
“Romance Linguistics and Literature” (UCLA)
Southwest Folk Art (Northern New Mexico College)
History of Consciousness (UC Santa Cruz)
Folklore (UC Berkeley)
Peace and Conflict Studies (UC Berkeley)
Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies (University of Richmond)
Socio-Cultural Studies (Wesleyan)
Agrarian Studies (Yale)

I'd like to see a study on what the graduates from these majors are doing these days. I think we would be surprised.

Anyone out there hold any of these degrees? If so, what line of work are you in now?

Source: Some Of The Least Practical Degrees In America - Should I Go To College - Value of College

Angry Dad · 07-15-2008, 02:07 PM

Guilty. Classical Civilization. Homemaker.

atrophicwhisper · 07-15-2008, 02:23 PM

Just out of curiosity, why is UCLA's Romance Linguistics and Literature major on that list? And why is it in quotation marks?

To me, that sounds just like getting a degree in French or Italian, but broader.

kmzizzle · 07-15-2008, 02:31 PM

all those people are now ibankers so follow them ! :P

musicamusica · 07-15-2008, 02:37 PM

Yah "Peace and Conflict Studies" is a pretty useless major (at least during the current administration in Washington DC.

Stringtheory · 07-15-2008, 02:41 PM

Notice most of those schools are name brand.

woody · 07-15-2008, 02:41 PM

I, too, was a classical civilization major....then i went to nursing school so I could get a job!

Angry Dad · 07-15-2008, 02:52 PM

Quote:

I, too, was a classical civilization major....then i went to nursing school so I could get a job!

Lol. I worked in finance for a few years after college, and never saw my degree as much of a drawback. My horrible personal qualities, yes, but not my major. ;-)

DD and DS are, inexplicably, science freaks, so -- even though I don't understand a word they say -- I doubt I'll have to steer them away from Classics.

gadad · 07-15-2008, 03:51 PM

Consider that the criteria for what our parents thought were "practical" degrees have shifted dramatically. A practical degree used to be an entry to a job and a career. But many of the jobs today's students will hold do not yet exist and few baccalaureate degrees provide a stable career. The shelf life of today's job-related skills is often only a few years.

The value of communication skills, global citizenship, cross-cultural literacy, and group facilitation are permanent and cut across all fields. Even in fields that are clearly pre-professional, graduates with the requisite technical skills may get entry-level jobs but it will be the professionals with the broad-based liberal arts skills who will be promoted into leadership.

Today, in my opinion as a college administrator, "practical" undergraduate majors help to develop those universal skills which students can then augment with technical skills. Communication-intensive majors which force students out of their own cultural bounds and require that they view the world from differing perspectives are ideal, and most of those that Dave listed above look great to me.

And yes, my Depression-raised parents would choke and sputter if they read this, but they were citizens of a different world.

COlsen573 · 07-15-2008, 03:54 PM

dude. Agrarian studies is no joke. I went to my sister's graduation from Cornell, some dude got a PhD in Corn. I swear to God thats what they announced. Corn.

VeryHappy · 07-15-2008, 03:54 PM

None of the above, but "Comparative Literature." I read Proust in French -- such a skill!! Now I'm an Employee Benefits Director.

BeKindRewind · 07-15-2008, 03:56 PM

Quote:

Guilty. Classical Civilization. Homemaker.

Quote:

I, too, was a classical civilization major....then i went to nursing school so I could get a job!

Lol at least you guys can joke about it. And I hope you at least enjoyed learning the subject!

johnwesley · 07-15-2008, 04:03 PM

"socio cultural studies", so far as I can tell, is just a fancy way of saying, anthropology.

Anonagron · 07-15-2008, 04:56 PM

To COlsen573: That PhD in "Corn" from Cornell is actually a very highly technical degree. PhD's in agricultural plant science fields today usually involve an indepth understanding of plant breeding and genetics, gene mapping, biotechnology, crop physiology, crop production and utilization, research statistics, ...you get the picture. Think medical degree, only the patients can't talk to you! Ag scientists probably have more diverse science backgrounds than engineers (I am one who married one!). Cornell is one of the most respected Agricultural schools in the nation. No, that is not my alma mater, but I know Cornell grads in this field. I'd say this person's thesis research involved an aspect of corn production, but not an actual *degree* in corn!

As for Agrarian Studies, that is probably the equivalent of Rural Sociology- the best and most practical course I ever took in science and humanities. Worthless? Absolutely not!

My BS degree: Crop Science with Emphasis on Crop Production/Crop Protection. What do I do now? Work for my Civil Engineer husband in a small family business! Someday, however, I'll go back to my "worthless" degree field ;-).

kwijiborjt · 07-15-2008, 05:21 PM

Yale doesn't have a major in agrarian studies... or anything remotely close to it.
That's 100% made up.

We do have Classical Civilization and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies... both of which are pretty good departments. Yale's classics department is more or less the best you're going to find in the country.