Why pick undesirable majors?

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So I've recently seen two articles that got me wondering. The links are below:

Top 10 college majors: http://www.princetonreview.com/college/ ... ajors.aspx
Top 10 most underemployed college majors: http://www.payscale.com/data-packages/u ... mics-major

As you can see...the number 1 major is business administration, the number 1 underemployed major is business administration. Actually the lists seem to have ~6 majors in common between them which is pretty high.

So, why do so many people continue to major in fields that don't have any decent jobs? The only thing I can guess is that they pick their major based purely on their interests rather than on what they actually want to do for a job. I would say that it could be a causal relationship (aka, the reason there aren't any jobs in those fields is because the majors are so popular), but I don't necessarily think that's the case since several popular fields such as nursing and computer science still have an excellent job market.

This is a subject that really matters a lot to me. I see tons of people majoring in things like English, history, business administration...and I seriously cringe inside every time because I know that they're likely to never use their degree at all once they graduate, and will probably be unemployed or underemployed.

People have different interests.My special interest is military history so that is what I'm majoring in.I tried something more practical (economics) and realized that I'm bad with numbers.Why get a degree in something you have no natural talent in?

Because people do things for reasons other than "how will this make me money"?

Why pick undesirable majors? Here's a hint, courtesy of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (June 16, 2013):

[img][612:2900]http://www.smbc-comics.com/comics/20130616.png[/img]

Math is for people who can't master the technique of flipping burgers.

I think that natural talent is given far too much weight a lot of the time. It is my belief that very few people have true natural talents, most of those talents have to be learned and developed over time. However I do agree, you shouldn't go into something that you just aren't interested in or good at despite trying.

But in the end, the sole purpose of a college degree is to help you get a job afterwards (or to continue on for an advanced degree lol). And if that degree doesn't serve that purpose, then it has no use. And college is extremely expensive to spend all of that money on something that could potentially be, in the end, useless. Taking history as an example, really the only thing you can do with a history degree is teach, and for that you have to get your Ph.D. Unless you want to teach, say, high school, in which case majoring in education with a specialization in history would probably make you a better candidate for a job.

LOL Fnord, that picture brings back bad memories.

That's about it.

It's easy to do well in school if you major in something you are passionate about, but you can't afford to do that if you're borrowing to go to school or you expect to make good money upon graduation.

To be fair, most schools do not tell students the real state of the job market when they pick a major. When I was in college, the head of the Mass Communications department came fairly close by admitting that people were spending $40,000 to be able to go out and essentially get a minimum-wage job.

People pick "undesirable" majors because the sciences are too hard for them. Thus, we have more demand for skilled physicians than the supply can meet, and America has to import its engineers and programmers from Europe and China. Further, we have abundances of: Philosophy majors working the phones in Customer Service; English majors taking jobs in Retail; and Sociology majors passing out condoms on Skid Row.

In the meantime, people who dropped out of high school or who never went to college or university whine and cry about how "unfair" the corporations are for not wanting to hire them.

This is a pretty naive question..
The more people take a major, the more competition there is for those jobs, the more people in that field are unemployed.

Anyway, "Business Administration" is something people consider to be a 'real' degree, it teaches you how to be like Donald Trump or some other rich businessman; that seems to be the students' belief anyway. Obviously it's all BS and you really only learn some basic math and accounting, with some 'people skills'.

Most of the degrees listed though, like Liberal Arts, Drama, etc.. these are worthless degrees and anyone who cites "their passion" as a reason for taking these courses is full of s**t. The best artists/actors/musicians/cinematographers etc did not learn their skills 'inside the box' at schools.

This is a major problem in all of society: the avoidance of independent learning.

Overall, the problem is that people are either lazy, or stupid; whichever is the most common human trait.

im not in it for the money either
i could go to med school with my superior memory and earn 500k or so but im going to engineering for a lower salary b/c i like it better

^ Engineering is COOL! Which branch?

cs and ee
cs because in case my sensory issues become unbearable, i can work at home and ee b/c its related to cs and its cool

in this country, higher ed is just a racket that fleeces most students for all they are and ever will be worth. why can't we have a system where the available jobs [projected] are matched with the available American students? importing students is not a good thing when americans can be trained to do the work. business needs to step up to the plate here.

Picking a major based solely on money and ease of employment doesn't always work out... especially in the long run.

When I got out of high school I did not know what I wanted to do... If I'd had my way I would have squandered my parents money getting drunk and flunking out of college. However, since that is pretty much exactly what I did in high school, my dad was on to my game...

When I went to him just a few weeks before graduation and said, "Dad, great news! I've decided to go to college after all!"

He responded, "Well, son, I glad to hear that. It will be hard, working and going to school at the same time, but you're smart and hard working when you choose to be. And I'm sure you'll pull it off if you really want it.... BECAUSE I'LL BE DAMNED IF I'M GOING TO SUBSIDIZE ANOTHER 4 YEAR PARTY FOR YOU!"

So, I went to the local vocational school and signed-up for an 18-month course in electronics and industrial electricity because it was cheaper than college and it was the longest course they had. My mom had convinced my dad to let me live at home, rent free, for as long as I was in school.

I did not particularly like electronics/electricity, but it came easy for me and I got a job right out of school.... For the next twenty years or so, I had my pick of jobs and made more money than I could spend (except when I was married ).

It was fine for a long time because I did like problem solving and building stuff (I used to love building control/PLC panels). I finally burned out because of the stress of working in manufacturing and lack of time off to do things I really liked.

So, I quit, went back to school, at first to study history, and finally settled on a major in social work. I have never been poorer or happier.



Also, in my old life, I spent several years as a control tech for a huge frozen food plant in Kansas. Besides maintaining the plant, as the low man in the shop and one of the few guys not afraid to "share knowledge", I got to take care of all the Pups (interns) and give skills tests to job applicants.

The skills test was in three parts. Part one was a very basic (almost trivial) written test, consisting of about 12 questions. Part two was testing a random selection of good and bad components like SCRs, diodes, and transformers. Part three consisted of building a 555 timing circuit on a board and selecting the proper resisters and caps to produce specific frequencies. This might sound (a bit) hard, but the guys were given a sheet with a diagram and all necessary equations. The test wasn't really about the timer, it was simply to see if the applicant could follow directions.

I must have tested 20 or 30 kids, fresh out of K State (with AAS degrees in electronics) and not one of them could pass our skills test. I don't know how these kids got out of college with degrees, but they were all incompetent. This however, did not surprise me because most of the interns we got from K State did not give a damn about actually working or learning anything. Apparently, the only thing they were ever tested on was their (parents) ability to pay tuition.

The AAS degree was certainly an "in demand" degree (it still is), but the degree is worthless without actual competence... That's why so many entry level jobs these days require a degree plus a year's experience.

Personally, I think you're better off doing something that you're interested in and good at.


The real problem with jobs in America is economic policy that encourages service jobs and low-road employers.

Lots of unsupported claims being thrown around in these posts--"people major in other things because they can't make it in science", "college is only good if it prepares you for a job that already exists", etc.,etc. Those of you who have been to college should know better than to make such generalizations without data to back them up.

+1 (where's the 'Like' button when I need it?)

It's a problem in the US because you don't have a free college education system. In the civilized world, everybody can have a well-rounded education in the humanities, as well as do job-training university courses. The individual as well as society at large benefits.

The trouble is that Humanities and Liberal Arts majors seem to be under-employed more often than engineers and scientists.