Colleges removing useless majors

[Anonymous]

Some of us didn’t have to go to college to succeed, but chose to. And we got to choose a major that wasn’t a grind, because we have freedom. You people are jealous that you couldn’t major in Generational Wealth, and it shows. Have fun learning the skills I require my help to have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of us didn’t have to go to college to succeed, but chose to. And we got to choose a major that wasn’t a grind, because we have freedom. You people are jealous that you couldn’t major in Generational Wealth, and it shows. Have fun learning the skills I require my help to have.

Oh be quiet. The poors can make it with an English major as can the genny wealthies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They are t “useless” majors -they are those with low enrollment. Read first link on Marymount

Enrollment is low because students view them as useless

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I was an English major. Now I’m a lawyer and I write a lot. I don’t think my major was useless but I guess wtf do I know?

+1. Political science and philosophy double major. I am a practicing attorney. My undergrad degrees, more so than my law school experience, shaped me into the lawyer and human being I am today.

My DD wants to be an English major. She's also a singer. So Voice and English. You English majors are fantatically interesting people who can communicate well. Half the people I work with cannot communicate clearly..writing, speaking. And they are college graduates.

Also, my DD has friends going off to these fancy schools for engineering and computer science. When she works with them on group projects, they can't spell or write good sentences.

Hooray for English and other liberal arts majors!!

yes, but the CS folks are the ones who created the machine your DD and you are using to post your drivel.

It’s almost like the economy is interdependent or something. There would be little use for the machines without the content.

AI will create contents as well. Essays, reports, research papers, poems, lyrics, blogs etc. etc.

OMG. I guess you don’t understand anything about large language models. Good luck to you.

[Anonymous]

Humanities major who went into a STEM field. I think my humanities background is invaluable. I think we need more humanity majors given the current state of affairs, not less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We will end up in a society with technology that we cant control or regulate and diplomats that cant talk to each other and teachers that cant teach needed skills to our kids.

My business major kid and CS+Design major kid get plenty of education in communication and writing.o
They do a lot of group work for collaboration and teamwork, presentation, critique, etc.

I don’t think you are qualified to judge the quality of the education your kids are receiving based on those sentences you just wrote.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ChatGpt replaces the need for english majors, except for them to work on the chatgpt engine

You just wrote that illiterate sentence above and think you are equipped to opine on anything? It’s like saying, “who needs forks” while shoveling spaghetti into your mouth with your hands.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I was an English major. Now I’m a lawyer and I write a lot. I don’t think my major was useless but I guess wtf do I know?

+1. Political science and philosophy double major. I am a practicing attorney. My undergrad degrees, more so than my law school experience, shaped me into the lawyer and human being I am today.

My DD wants to be an English major. She's also a singer. So Voice and English. You English majors are fantatically interesting people who can communicate well. Half the people I work with cannot communicate clearly..writing, speaking. And they are college graduates.

Also, my DD has friends going off to these fancy schools for engineering and computer science. When she works with them on group projects, they can't spell or write good sentences.

Hooray for English and other liberal arts majors!!

Those are actually the most well rounded of our employees, and fine writers, but perhaps it depends where you work. I am sorry for your contempt.

I agree---my Engineering major kid has to take a freshman writing course along with 2 engineering writing courses to graduate, along with 2 project courses. Add in the outside of class research they are doing and they have the opportunity to develop their writing/communication skills. Gone are the days when engineers do not take writing courses.

When was that? I graduated with an engineering degree in 1989, and had to take tons of writing (and other core humanities) classes.

Attended a T10 university around same time and got an engineering degree and an art degree. For engineering I took the basic English writing course taught by 1st year grad students---it was required to be P/F. I used my APUSH for credits and took two Econ courses and a freshman Speech course (P/F required). That was it. I knew how to write and learned it thru my research documentation. But my "freshman writing course" was a joke. I took it year 4 (of my 5) so the "teacher" was only 1 year older than me. Basically as long as you made some changes with each draft of your assignment you passed. I recall one essay, I got 2nd or 3rd draft back with tons of red ink/markups. The comments were making suggestions that had been in my draft 2 almost word for word, but I had changed because of the comments on draft 2. So I took both drafts into the Teacher/TA and ask them which they would like me to use, because I only made the changes based on their comments. They didn't know quite what to say----I had already learned how to write at college level, but would have enjoyed a course more targeted specifically for STEM/engineering writing, like my kid is getting.

Mmm, you say that with a lot of confidence. I might beg to differ.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:College is becoming a modern-day vocational school.

It can't continue to remain like a country club after charging $200K $300K

Well I wouldn't recommend someone get an English Lit major and pay $300k+ unless the money is easy to pay. There are more affordable ways to get a degree.
But if you like English, major in it, develop critical thinking/analyzing and writing skills. And genuinely learn

A smart person can go far with an English degree

I think the real issue is that college didn't used to be for everyone. This college for all model is failing our society. Not everyone is suited to and has the goal of being on law review at duke. A higher education isn't a requirement to building a good life and academia being overrun with people who think in terms of education being a "return on investment" is ruinng both the higher education world and not serving those cost conscious worker bee types well. Al of teh women in my family had higher education degrees and practically 90% of them never held any sort of paid position- they deserved to be there just as much as anyone else bc they loved getting an education and scholarship for its own sake, not necessarily as a meal ticket since hey were independently wealthy. If you need a return on investment the state universities and community college and vocational schools are where you belong, and some places of higher learning can pivot to serving those communities but higher education was founded way back in order to serve a population that wanted to increase human knowledge and be preoccupied with scholarly pursuits. People who just want to learn how to code or whatever dont actually belong there. Industry has changed and many jobs require one to sit at a desk but the people who occupy themselves with such tasks aren't scholars or "gentlemen" and honesly- the flattening of the class divide that happened during the 20th century is an aberration, we have reverted to the mean of a highly unequal society and some people have the money to sit around studying crystals and some ppl will use the knowledge in industry- there has to be roofer both. I mean look at bill gates- he wasn't a great scholar, he's a businessman and so he left academia to pursue that, its preposterous to claim that he should have twiddled his thumbs at university getting a degree he neither wanted nor needed. people should get the sort of training they need in order to live the sort of life that they want to build and its silly for people who are primarily concerned wit learning CS to land a job at amazon to be gunning for pincer- they should be gunning for Carnegie-mellon. people should know wether they are aspiring to be the F Scott Fitzgeralds of the world or the Thomas Edisons and choose accordingly

This.
College isn't for everyone.
The traditional notion of college as a place to hone critical thinking skills and expand on scholarly research has been conflated with vocational schooling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are t “useless” majors -they are those with low enrollment. Read first link on Marymount

Enrollment is low because students view them as useless

Let's take a step back and realize we're talking about Marymount here. Their students, save for their nursing students, aren't exactly the sharpest knives in the drawer. Most of them probably come from public school systems and were barely taught to read or write at a high level. Top students just aren't picking, and matriculating to, Marymount. I wouldn't put too much stock into how they view the liberal arts.

But you can listen to the voluminous examples in this thread as to why the liberal arts aren't useless, because those examples are coming from a lived experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They are t “useless” majors -they are those with low enrollment. Read first link on Marymount

These people don't feel the need to read the link, it's a useless skill after all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:We will end up in a society with technology that we cant control or regulate and diplomats that cant talk to each other and teachers that cant teach needed skills to our kids.

My business major kid and CS+Design major kid get plenty of education in communication and writing.o
They do a lot of group work for collaboration and teamwork, presentation, critique, etc.

That is fine. There is also nothing wrong with a talented writer choosing a major where they can really advance and emphasis their writing and communication skills beyond areas like presentation and critique.

+1 Someone has to generate the nuanced writing that business majors turn into mush. (I have an MBA so I know firsthand).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are t “useless” majors -they are those with low enrollment. Read first link on Marymount

Enrollment is low because students view them as useless

+1 Times have changed, both for college admissions and college majors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We will end up in a society with technology that we cant control or regulate and diplomats that cant talk to each other and teachers that cant teach needed skills to our kids.

My business major kid and CS+Design major kid get plenty of education in communication and writing.o
They do a lot of group work for collaboration and teamwork, presentation, critique, etc.

That is fine. There is also nothing wrong with a talented writer choosing a major where they can really advance and emphasis their writing and communication skills beyond areas like presentation and critique.

+1 Someone has to generate the nuanced writing that business majors turn into mush. (I have an MBA so I know firsthand).

snort.. that must include you, too, right, MBA person? And your limited experience means it must be true for the majority, right?

[Anonymous]

Useless might be a strong wording.

It's much less valuable in the society, industry and market.