Why do schools offer so many useless degrees?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Off the top of my head, I can think of multiple schools that offer 4+1 MBA programs (right after undergrad!!). Then, there’s stand-alone majors offered at many schools like criminology, cybersecurity, criminal justice, entrepreneurship, pharmacology, and insurance.

Go back to the basics, people.

That's how colleges and universities make money from people who don't know what they are doing, but whose parents say they have to major in something "practical."
It's better to major in something that won't date as quickly (English, Mathematics, Economics, History) but you will make less in short run and more in the long run.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Off the top of my head, I can think of multiple schools that offer 4+1 MBA programs (right after undergrad!!). Then, there’s stand-alone majors offered at many schools like criminology, cybersecurity, criminal justice, entrepreneurship, pharmacology, and insurance.

Go back to the basics, people.

So you don't think getting training in how to parry hackers, or how to conduct secure servers is important?

Hugely important. And I'd rather have someone who went to college working on this problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Off the top of my head, I can think of multiple schools that offer 4+1 MBA programs (right after undergrad!!). Then, there’s stand-alone majors offered at many schools like criminology, cybersecurity, criminal justice, entrepreneurship, pharmacology, and insurance.

Go back to the basics, people.

That's how colleges and universities make money from people who don't know what they are doing, but whose parents say they have to major in something "practical."
It's better to major in something that won't date as quickly (English, Mathematics, Economics, History) but you will make less in short run and more in the long run.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh come on. Most people on here would never let their kids major in these.

I'd be pretty proud if my kid went to St Louis for Pharmacy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh come on. Most people on here would never let their kids major in these.

I'd be pretty proud if my kid went to St Louis for Pharmacy

OP means a pharmacology undergrad degree.

[Anonymous]

Wouldn’t want my kid to major in “health sciences” or “publishing,” either.

[Anonymous]

Sports management is a popular one

[Anonymous]

As my father once told me, if the major isn’t offered at Harvard, don’t major in it anywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sports management is a popular one

For a kid going pro, at least they'll understand the business and not be quire as naive

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Off the top of my head, I can think of multiple schools that offer 4+1 MBA programs (right after undergrad!!). Then, there’s stand-alone majors offered at many schools like criminology, cybersecurity, criminal justice, entrepreneurship, pharmacology, and insurance.

Go back to the basics, people.

I think you're in the extreme minority on this -- many of those you named are extremely valuable to have, both in terms of income and importance to the country.

OP here. I consider liberal arts degrees in subjects like history, English, psychology, mathematics , biology etc to be useful.

Yeah, fine -- but you said those others you named are "useless." I consider that pretty ill-informed.

Don't feed the troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As my father once told me, if the major isn’t offered at Harvard, don’t major in it anywhere.

That's pretty bad advice.

A kid at Harvard can major in anything he or she wants and still do reasonably well. Those at "lesser" schools should generally focus on much more practical majors (and there's nothing wrong with that).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Off the top of my head, I can think of multiple schools that offer 4+1 MBA programs (right after undergrad!!). Then, there’s stand-alone majors offered at many schools like criminology, cybersecurity, criminal justice, entrepreneurship, pharmacology, and insurance.

Go back to the basics, people.

The 4+1 MBA scams are some of the absolute worst deals in higher education.

[Anonymous]

I teach (in a totally different subject) at a school that offers a lot of these majors, and actually, these specific majors are really tapped into local/regional hiring contacts, which is kind of the goal after college, right?

As for the MBA right after school, yeah, I agree with you. Work first for a MBA that employers will recognize as really attractive.

[Anonymous]

Maybe some people use a criminology degree for something that requires a degree - but my cousin has a BA in criminology from a state school and she is a part time security guard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I teach (in a totally different subject) at a school that offers a lot of these majors, and actually, these specific majors are really tapped into local/regional hiring contacts, which is kind of the goal after college, right?

As for the MBA right after school, yeah, I agree with you. Work first for a MBA that employers will recognize as really attractive.

It's just such a shame that more people don't understand the problems with the 4+1 MBA.

1. After you graduate, you compete with undergrads (not MBAs) for jobs. Post-MBA roles are not open to you as a 4+1 MBA grad.

2. You have now shut yourself out of actually going to a good MBA program and ever competing for those post-MBA jobs.