I majored in Visual and Environmental Studies. I learned a lot of architectural history, did a lot of drawing and painting and a little design and took a variety of other courses that interested me. I went to grad school in architecture and felt that I didn’t know anything useful at my first job. And despite taking quite a few engineering courses, I still didn’t learn the engineering that you actually need. I was pretty good at the engineering though! There’s a reason you have to work for three years before they’ll let you be registered.
As far as I can tell my older son learned useful CS stuff at CMU.
My younger son’s IR degree got him jobs and he did a lot of writing for some of them. But his most useful skills came from his summer work at Tufts which was organizing conferences and dorm room rentals. He did a lot of scheduling with Excel. I don’t know if any of what he learned was useful for being a Naval Officer.
For me- chemistry then medical school/residency. Yes.
H did the Indian medical route. He says I took a course in everything- true compared to him. Plenty of breadth along with depth before medicine. For him- yes.
For son. Took several physics courses as well as some comp ci but decided on an honors math major. Plenty of other electives. Globally gifted- not tops in any one field but near tops in all. Made it more difficult for top math grad programs with the worldwide competition. Added the rest of the comp sci major (the less theory/math related ones he hadn’t taken) instead of math grad school. He commented to us on his weak programming skills with his job interview testing but got his first software developer job at a major national player in its field. His math skills and therefore thinking skills were likely a reason. On the job practice improved those programming skills. Got recruited to be a software engineer by a major player after a couple of years when he was about to search for a change. He is being intellectually satisfied, self teaches new languages et al, helps team members- and recently had his choice when he wanted to change teams. Yes for him.
Read a long article a year or more ago about the importance of math in computer science. I agree. I suspect his innate abilities plus upper level math courses contribute to his abilities in CS.
Just as important- college gave son a true education and not just job skills. He also doesn’t seem aware of how his highly theoretical (including grad level classes for his honors math) math courses influence his thinking.
Earning a BS or BA should have at least required a student to have done writing, research or analysis, problem solving and certainly not just memorizing and test taking.
A major matters if a student wants a certain career such as engineering, accounting, teaching ( at least in many states). And if a graduate degree is necessary, the major may be important. For instance, medicine.
I personally know that some colleges better prepare students for the job market than others. But the fact of the matter is that the success of a person is a combination of many factors. A college cannot make a successful graduate. It can help prepare. But an individuals drive, ambition, talent and or intellect probably has more of an impact.