<p>“Find out which four degrees hold the most potential in the next decade.” Hey, what about liberal arts?</p>
<p>[Best</a> Degrees for the Next Decade - Yahoo! Education](<a href=“Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos”>Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos)</p>
<p>I like how they say tech hot spots need people to run their computer systems, but not to make actual products.</p>
<p>Anecdotally, I can say that S1 who is a sophomore in school of engineering, majoring in CS has his <em>pick</em> of school year jobs and multiple offers for paid summer internships (including freshman summer). Hope that bodes well for post graduation!</p>
<p>Hey, what about liberal arts?"</p>
<p>One of the 4 areas they mentioned was education, and one of the fields under that was teaching, which is classically a field lots of liberal arts grads go into.</p>
<p>Another degree they highlighted was an MBA. Of course its quite possible, and not at all uncommon, for liberal arts grads to get an MBA.</p>
<p>OTOH it does seem like the article is mainly designed to lead you to yahoo’s app for finding colleges.</p>
<p>^^^^^^</p>
<p>I concur 100% and what a c$@$$y college search engine it is. I asked for on-campus engineering programs near Madison WI and Yahoo’s CCSE pulled up mostly on-line or for-profit colleges, including The Art Institutes of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and somehow failed to identify the University of Wisconsin-Madison.</p>
<p>For all the talk about how many nursing & other healthcare professionals are needed, I know that in HI, few are actually being hired upon graduation. Those who hire want folks with experience but won’t train (don’t have the mentors). People have to go away & get trained & then come back in two or more years with their experience if they want a job. Lots of those in healthcare professions can’t afford to retire, so they’re hanging on & hoping their funds will recover so one they they can retire.</p>
<p>“Hey, what about liberal arts?”
“Those who hire want folks with experience but won’t train (don’t have the mentors).”</p>
<p>both questions relate to the same issue about education vs the workplace. ‘education for education’s sake’ ie liberal arts, is about knowing. work is about doing. the more an undergrad degree is focused on knowing about some subject (sociology, psychology, philosophy, etc etc) rather than on doing (engineering, health care, business functions, etc) the harder it will be to find a job. </p>
<p>once upon a time, companies hired generalists out of college and trained them to do whatever their business required. not these days. if your family has plenty of money go ahead and encourage your kid to study whatever they want, then pay for that master’s as well. but if the first four years will be their best shot, encourage a more functional major. they can minor in an ‘-ology’.</p>
<p>liberal arts wasn’t there because it said BEST degress for the next decade</p>
<p>Gee, I think all our kids would be wise to choose their life path by reading a yahoo article! lol. Just kidding. It is interesting. </p>
<p>The problem with this is they work backwards from some easy to define occupational titles then try to do some sort of match up with degrees. It’s why a lot seem quite pragmatic. It is much easier to tie a ‘practical’ or ‘vocational’ kind of diploma to a particular job, but it overlooks the fact that many have much broader degrees and can go into these posts or other ones as well.</p>
<p>What I’d like to know is what one does after hooking one of these ‘prime’ jobs. To me a lot of these seem rather dead-end and not exactly fulfilling after say 5 or 10 years. Does one really want to spend 4 years of university and $100-200k for it, to be a medical technician or do technology support? Is it even necessary to get a degree for these?</p>
<p>“It is much easier to tie a ‘practical’ or ‘vocational’ kind of diploma to a particular job, but it overlooks the fact that many have much broader degrees and can go into these posts or other ones as well.”</p>
<p>that’s the point of the article - if it isn’t practical you are less likely to be able to use your college degree to make a living in the years ahead. of course if that doesn’t matter to you…</p>
<p>“What I’d like to know is what one does after hooking one of these ‘prime’ jobs.”</p>
<p>what does anybody do? get a life, pay your bills, take creative writing courses at the local cc</p>
<p>“Does one really want to spend 4 years of university and $100-200k for it, to be a medical technician or do technology support? Is it even necessary to get a degree for these?” </p>
<p>guess you’ve never been hospitalized in mexico, have you?</p>
<p>At the local CCs, you can indeed get both your license/training in those technical fields and your BA/BS. Getting both takes about 4 years BUT you can start hiring yourself out as one of those technical types as soon as you meet licensing requirements, while completing your BA/BS coursework. Some kids go back to CC to get one of these two year degrees/licenses so they can job that pays enough to make a dent on their loans & other expenses. Some of these other fields don’t help much with actual salary!</p>
<p>Ultrasound techs, respiratory therapists, xray tech and others can be paid pretty decent wages (about $35/hour plus benefits around here). You can also get your RN + BS in 4 years. Med techs & the support staff are going to be a growing part of healthcare as we age as a society. There is a LOT of equipment that folks need to understand and use properly.</p>
<p>Teachers are being laid off left and right in California. I don’t see the big increase in need for education majors, leaders, etc. I hope it is so, but it seems that the opposite is happening.</p>
<p>The issue in California with education, and some other states, is short-term, because of the sucky economy. A huge number of baby-boom teachers will be retiring in coming years. There will be opportunity, especially for driven, talented and well-educated teachers.</p>
<p>On the value of a liberal arts education:[Arts</a> and Science Magazine What Employers Want](<a href=“http://www.vanderbilt.edu/magazines/arts-and-science/2010-11/what-employers-want/?utm_source=vuhomepage&utm_medium=vuhomeslider&utm_campaign=AandSmag]Arts”>http://www.vanderbilt.edu/magazines/arts-and-science/2010-11/what-employers-want/?utm_source=vuhomepage&utm_medium=vuhomeslider&utm_campaign=AandSmag)</p>
<p>liberal arts education is nothing but a remnant of irrelevant and outdated traditional education concepts. a criminal waste of 1-2 years of college education and tuition that could have gone towards preparing young people for a STEM century.</p>
<p>@screwitlah</p>
<p>I disagree with you completely that liberal arts is a waste of money and time. Some hold more value than others, but discrediting all liberal art degree is ridiculous. </p>
<p>For example, individuals interested in pursuing law will typically major in English or History to enhance their proficiency in English, so that they do well on the LSATs. </p>
<p>That said it really depends on what career path the student would like to follow. It wouldn’t make any sense for a communication major to pursue investing banking. People who are interested in that should stick to business degrees such as Finance or Accounting. </p>
<p>Personally as globalization continues to expand in the global business arena, the need for language and internationally focused degrees should increase, so I would expect international business/affairs, political science (NGOs and civil service) and language (Obv. Chinese, Spanish/Portuguese and Arabic) degrees to be sought after by MNCs. </p>
<p>Bryant U.</p>
<p>Yahoo posts another one of these every other week, usually listing healthcare, technology, and then a seemingly random mixture of everything that’s left. It’s really hardly worth discussing unless you’re just looking for an opportunity to complain about liberal arts-- which I really would have thought we’ve done enough of by now.</p>
<p>This article represents the usual distortion of the job market presented to young people. The “best major” categories pertain to the most easily identifiable categories of jobs. The reality is that many good jobs do not fit in a neat category, and the huge variety of jobs in the marketplace resists this easy categorization.</p>
<p>Having good writing, research, analysis, and communication skills will still get a graduate a long way, especially if combined with some intern experience during or after college.</p>
<p>What in your opinion is the best major for your undergrad in these uncertain times? This article says business is down and the sciences are up. One of my students is thinking engineering not sure what kind. The other is keeping options open for now - taking premed requirements but not sure yet. I’ve talked to many professionals and most say they would NOT do it over again if given the chance. Any ideas? What are you advising your kids? [News:</a> Souring on Business? - Inside Higher Ed](<a href=“http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/12/13/business]News:”>http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/12/13/business)</p>
<p>The Lib/Arts question is interesting.</p>
<p>On one hand there is the idea that they constitute little more than a
“Bachelors Degree in Unemployment” …inasmuch as there is rarely a direct correlation between the field of study and the job/career path (unless one chooses to teach the same subject). </p>
<p>Hence, politicians rarely have a degree in Politics, most holders of a BA in History don’t become professional Historians, and whereas professional Philosophers will have a degree in Philosophy, most people with a BA in Philosophy will not become professional Philosophers.</p>
<p>On the other hand a degree in Engineering, Chemistry, Computer Sciences, or Medicine usually leads to a career within those delineated fields… I mean I should imagine that the majority of those who complete a degree in Medicine go on to the Medical profession in some way?</p>
<p>The difference is when one looks outside of narrow career paths and choices.
What does a good degree in Structural Engineering tell a possible employer about the degree holder outside the confines of that narrow field?..One could argue not much.</p>
<p>What can a possible employer derive from a good degree holder in say Politics or perhaps Philosophy?
Interpersonal Communication skills, verbal presentation,
Written Communication (essay) skills.
Problem solving through abstract thought and reasoning processes.
The ability to reason through various options in the absence of any absolute answer.
Broad based as opposed to acute specific problem solving skills.</p>
<p>Lib Arts should never be discounted as a worthy academic path.
While the Lib Arts does not usually allow for a clearly defined (but narrow) career trajectory, the skills acquired in Lib Arts degrees are arguably more broadly useful and thus more attractive to a broader range of employment opportunities.</p>
<p>So If you know you want to be an Engineer, get a degree in Engineering.
Your degree in Political Science could get you more than a job teaching PoliSci.
How about being…
A Risk Analyst for an Investment Bank?
Management at a major NGO?
Country Analyst at International Institution (UN WB IMF)
Media/Communications Consultant?
PR Consultant?
Civil Service/Government Service.
Intelligence Operative/Analyst.
Political Media Analyst.
…the list goes on</p>
<p>A Lib Arts degree might lead to a job you had never even considered…Unlike an Engineering Degree.</p>