Why do Communications majors get a bad rap?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's a good degree that gives you flexibility and freedom to chart your own path rather than be pigeon holed into whatever you were thinking of majoring in when you were 18 years old.

so good for people who don't know where they're going then?

[Anonymous]

I think communications, combined with something else (undergrad/grad combo) that is viewed as more technical, isn't bad.

Of course, you could say the same about any major.

[Anonymous]

Any men who majored in communications? Or is it traditionally a women's field? The few communications majors I knew were women who weren't especially career oriented.

[Anonymous]

Because it's a mainly female major and any profession dominated by women gets degraded and viewed as less difficult/important- studies have been done that prove this.

[Anonymous]

Communications isn't a degree that specifically prepares for any "profession."

[Anonymous]

Because, for B-school, it's a soft major, and for liberal arts programs, it's a soft major. It's just a soft major.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because it's a mainly female major and any profession dominated by women gets degraded and viewed as less difficult/important- studies have been done that prove this.

+1

This is spot on!

[Anonymous]

Can someone please define "communications" to me? It strikes me as similar to when someone is a "consultant", whatever the fuck that means besides "I hold a boring office job that requires basic literacy and generates no actual tangible anything but sounds like something real on LinkedIn."

[Anonymous]

Ah, this OP brings up old wounds. I've got a degree in Communication Studies from UCLA. At UCLA, it was one of the hardest majors to get into. I worked like a dog to get in, and then had to deal with all these intense students who were graded on a curve. Only to find out that outside of the entertainment industry and at other colleges, it was considered "the joke major." GRRR!

[Anonymous]

Communications majors have a low percentage going on to earn a graduate or professional degree - only about 20%, compared to more than a third of all college grads.

https://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/acs-18.pdf

It generally attracts the weaker students than those in other humanities and social science disciplines. And since it isn't a vocational degree either, they often end up in non-professional office and sales jobs.

[Anonymous]

It is really stupid when people criticize one degree over another. I know people of all degree types who have done well and others have done poorly. It really depends on the person and the school as to how they "parlay" their degree into something. For example, I know communications degree people who work in the press, in social media, on Capitol Hill, on Wall Street, wherever. Others are waiting tables or working retail. People need to do internships in their area of expertise to make something of themselves and their degrees. Stop the hating/shaming.

[Anonymous]

I remember when the occupy movement was in full swing and students were posing with their posters for how much student debt they had, what they earned and the likelihood that they could ever pay it back. Something like half of them were communications majors! Hard to forget that!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone please define "communications" to me? It strikes me as similar to when someone is a "consultant", whatever the fuck that means besides "I hold a boring office job that requires basic literacy and generates no actual tangible anything but sounds like something real on LinkedIn."

At my college, it meant Journalism, PR, Marketing, TV/Radio, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is really stupid when people criticize one degree over another. I know people of all degree types who have done well and others have done poorly. It really depends on the person and the school as to how they "parlay" their degree into something. For example, I know communications degree people who work in the press, in social media, on Capitol Hill, on Wall Street, wherever. Others are waiting tables or working retail. People need to do internships in their area of expertise to make something of themselves and their degrees. Stop the hating/shaming.

No hate/shaming, just the facts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In the past it was the classic MRS degree. The communications majors seemed to be mostly very pretty girls with no specific career goal except maybe newscasting or other on-camera announcing jobs.

However, the world has caught up with the field and now there is much more to communications than TV and radio. I would say that it is a valid career field now when it wasn't 25 years ago.

Beauty pageant contestants always seem to be communications majors!