Whats your major in?
- Thread starter WIB
- Start date
I work in business intelligence for a large corporation. Lots of research, anything with research you can do, it's also a great base degree for law school. Don't listen to these yahoos, you can do whatever you want if you are intelligent and have a good personality armed with a degree. Finding a job is more about who you are than what you know unless you are in to the super technical stuff like IT or Engineering.
Basically somebody with a history degree can teach, go to grad school, or go to law school. Outside of that it's not all that beneficial of a degree.
Now I just gave a real life example and I don't/didn't do any of the things you say.
I'm not sure it matters at this point. You'll most likely change your major along the way a time or two. I think there my be an "open option" degree. Btw, switching from business to journalism really screws up your graduation date...
I can give real world examples of people with lots of degrees who don't have jobs in those fields. That doesn't mean it's something that will be a legitimate opportunity for everyone. Chris Berman has a history degree and Bill Simmons has a political science degree, but that doesn't mean ESPN is looking for guys with those degrees.
Yeah, pretty much any degree that allows you to better understand our history, social structures, and government; do a substantial amount of difficult writing; do critical policy analysis; etc is pretty much worthless.
Friends of mine with degrees in history (the hardest classes I have ever taken are upper division history courses), political science, comm studies, anthro, etc have jobs in advertising, marketing, IT, sales, policy analysis, non-profit development, and consulting.
While the job prospects for applied STEM fields like engineering, CS, agronomy, MIS, etc are strong; the job prospects for basic sciences like biology and chemistry (per PayScale research and other research), for those with only an undergrad biology and chem degrees are really no better than those for history, etc.
I would much rather graduate with a 3.5 gpa in History than a 2.70 in chem or biology.
I have an undergrad degree in social policy/urban studies and graduates degrees in public policy and MIS. For many people, what you end up doing career wise has little to do with undergraduate major.
Friends of mine with degrees in history (the hardest classes I have ever taken are upper division history courses), political science, comm studies, anthro, etc have jobs in advertising, marketing, IT, sales, policy analysis, non-profit development, and consulting.
While the job prospects for applied STEM fields like engineering, CS, agronomy, MIS, etc are strong; the job prospects for basic sciences like biology and chemistry (per PayScale research and other research), for those with only an undergrad biology and chem degrees are really no better than those for history, etc.
I would much rather graduate with a 3.5 gpa in History than a 2.70 in chem or biology.
I have an undergrad degree in social policy/urban studies and graduates degrees in public policy and MIS. For many people, what you end up doing career wise has little to do with undergraduate major.
Your assertion that a degree in history won't be very useful except to move on to grad school or combining it with teaching is pretty dubm. I'm not sure if the examples you provided along with my example is helping you back up your assertion.
It's not necessarily that it won't be useful, but a lot of times it would be more useful to get another degree. Some companies don't care what the degree is in, but their will be more possibilities for jobs for somebody who has a business or finance degree opposed to a history degree.
I know several officers currently serving in the military who have history degrees.
"Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
...Winston Churchill
:smile:
"Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
...Winston Churchill
:smile:
I don't think there's anything wrong with a history/any of the liberal arts degrees. In this case though, the OP doesn't know what he wants to do, so I think it makes more sense to first look into the fields that have a higher level of job placement/salary and see if any of those spark his interest. It's one thing to do something you love for less money than you would like - it's something completely different to be in a field that you don't get paid well for and don't have a passion for.
I was just being funny. I know Melvin is planning on getting a law degree after basketball for money is over.
Like anything, majors can be a means to an end or a tool. As another poster mentioned, it may not be to be a history teacher, but the ability to learn/process information (such as history) can be beneficial in many industries or graduate programs.
That's one thing many haven't mentioned, wish so many getting advanced degrees, sometimes it's good to get a degree in something that will serve either a graduate degree or supplement it. I have a friend who is a lawyer and he got his undergrad in Biology...he now works as a lawyer in a company that deals with biological issues.
Oh, you can do this as a history major, too.
This. This was about exactly what i did, except I declared mechanical fall of my soph. year and then switched to Aero that spring. While Aero seems like it would be more "specialized" than ME, it really isn't. That said, I loved it. I now work in structural engineering for off-road equipment. An ME industry for sure, but my specific responsibilities are actually closer to my curriculum in Aero.
