Most regretted majors and least regretted majors

[Anonymous]

When looking at critical thinking, hard work - hard to tease out if this is about the personality being drawn to each major in the first place, or the result of the instruction/teaching of those programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seeing these threads I always think that I would pay for any major but I would never pay for an HR degree or one on construction. I would pay for comms, poly sci, or history — all of which help you think critically and would better serve an HR professional than an HR degree.

I did not even realize you could get a degree in HR or construction. It surprised me to see that.

The degree is Construction Management. Most Superintendents or Safety Managers in Construction make 80-100k to start.

HR Management 80K plus to start.

I'd pay for that instead of Education, Arts or Communication degree.

Teachers start 45K.

[Anonymous]

Indeed and ironically this shows a lack of the critical thinking skills that all the liberal arts worshipers claim they got with muh liberal arts degree.

+1000

I have always found that the best critical thinkers and employees (and the hardest workers) tend to be Physics/Computer Science/Applied Math/Statistics majors. Engineering comes at a close second. Natural sciences at a third.

The vast, vast majority of the humanities majors I see have an awful work ethic and little to no ability to think critically. I am always amused when DCUMers post that their Philosophy degree taught them to "think critically in a way that you can't with STEM."

My experience as well.

I disagree about the "applied Math" - If Philosophy is taught with a real socratic method not the lame version they use in law school it can be rigorous. I found my Philo undergrad degree much more challenging than IVy law school classes. would agree that conceptual math and physics are more difficult but those are some of the most difficult subjects. Applied anything is going to be lame as you are just memorizing the outcomes not learning to manipulate the concepts yourself

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Interesting that criminology is one of the least regretted majors and sociology is one of the most regretted. Almost all of the criminology classes are sociology classes. A criminal justice degree is a waste of 150k because you don't need need the degree to get a job as a police officer. Furthermore, college doesn't give you any of the skills it takes to do the job, so big waste of time/energy/money.

No education is a waste. The belief that college is a trade school is a relic of lower and lower middle class origins of our immigrant forebears.

Sorry that made more sense when you didn’t graduate with 5-6 figure student debt and housing was affordable without a college degreed professional job.

Sorry. You want trade school go to Lincoln Tech. It is possible to go to a decent college and get a real education that changes everything for you without 5-6 figure student debt.

That depends a lot on your individual situation. Is college going to cost you 200k or 50k? You can call it trade school if you want, but if you aren't learning any skills relevant to your job, I'm not so sure it's a good deal. It's an antiquated and elitist view to think that taking a bunch of gen ed classes will make you a good citizen and a well rounded person.

Indeed and ironically this shows a lack of the critical thinking skills that all the liberal arts worshipers claim they got with muh liberal arts degree.

+1000

I have always found that the best critical thinkers and employees (and the hardest workers) tend to be Physics/Computer Science/Applied Math/Statistics majors. Engineering comes at a close second. Natural sciences at a third.

The vast, vast majority of the humanities majors I see have an awful work ethic and little to no ability to think critically. I am always amused when DCUMers post that their Philosophy degree taught them to "think critically in a way that you can't with STEM."

My experience as well.

As a CS major and person with 25 years working in software development, this is emphatically not my experience. What I do see A LOT are entitled white guys who are sure that problems they know nothing about must be easy to solve. Rather the opposite of critical thinking to be honest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seeing these threads I always think that I would pay for any major but I would never pay for an HR degree or one on construction. I would pay for comms, poly sci, or history — all of which help you think critically and would better serve an HR professional than an HR degree.

? don't most degrees teach you to think critically? I always find this comment weird.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't regret my history or English lit degrees. I learned how to read critically, do research and evaluate sources, and how to write well. All skills that have served me well, plus I really enjoyed the subject matter. My sociologist spouse has no regrets, either. Understanding stats and surveys is also a useful skill.

ok, but your experience is anecdotal.

I'll give you another anecdotal data point.

A friend of mine majored in Sociology. After graduating, couldn't find a job. Went to a good public univ. So, they studied accounting and got a job in that area.

For the most part, sociology is a useless degree. Don't get me wrong.. I find some of these types of studies very interesting.. anthropology, history, etc.. all very interesting fields, but as far as job prospects go, it's pretty much useless in and of itself. You need really good connections to get a good paying job with just those undergrad degrees.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that criminology is one of the least regretted majors and sociology is one of the most regretted. Almost all of the criminology classes are sociology classes. A criminal justice degree is a waste of 150k because you don't need need the degree to get a job as a police officer. Furthermore, college doesn't give you any of the skills it takes to do the job, so big waste of time/energy/money.

No education is a waste. The belief that college is a trade school is a relic of lower and lower middle class origins of our immigrant forebears.

Sorry that made more sense when you didn’t graduate with 5-6 figure student debt and housing was affordable without a college degreed professional job.

Sorry. You want trade school go to Lincoln Tech. It is possible to go to a decent college and get a real education that changes everything for you without 5-6 figure student debt.

That depends a lot on your individual situation. Is college going to cost you 200k or 50k? You can call it trade school if you want, but if you aren't learning any skills relevant to your job, I'm not so sure it's a good deal. It's an antiquated and elitist view to think that taking a bunch of gen ed classes will make you a good citizen and a well rounded person.

Indeed and ironically this shows a lack of the critical thinking skills that all the liberal arts worshipers claim they got with muh liberal arts degree.

+1000

I have always found that the best critical thinkers and employees (and the hardest workers) tend to be Physics/Computer Science/Applied Math/Statistics majors. Engineering comes at a close second. Natural sciences at a third.

The vast, vast majority of the humanities majors I see have an awful work ethic and little to no ability to think critically. I am always amused when DCUMers post that their Philosophy degree taught them to "think critically in a way that you can't with STEM."

My experience as well.

As a CS major and person with 25 years working in software development, this is emphatically not my experience. What I do see A LOT are entitled white guys who are sure that problems they know nothing about must be easy to solve. Rather the opposite of critical thinking to be honest.

DP.. I've worked with programmers for 20 years, and the issue with those guys is that they are arrogant, not that they can't think critically. They think they are so smart that they can understand any business problem easily. I once had to explain to very smart software programmers about the complexity of US tax laws. They just thought they could do a zip code/rate data dump and build an API in like two weeks to calculate sales tax. I had to explain to them that it's not as easy as that, and that's why we have tax solution software out there to manage taxability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that criminology is one of the least regretted majors and sociology is one of the most regretted. Almost all of the criminology classes are sociology classes. A criminal justice degree is a waste of 150k because you don't need need the degree to get a job as a police officer. Furthermore, college doesn't give you any of the skills it takes to do the job, so big waste of time/energy/money.

No education is a waste. The belief that college is a trade school is a relic of lower and lower middle class origins of our immigrant forebears.

Sorry that made more sense when you didn’t graduate with 5-6 figure student debt and housing was affordable without a college degreed professional job.

Sorry. You want trade school go to Lincoln Tech. It is possible to go to a decent college and get a real education that changes everything for you without 5-6 figure student debt.

That depends a lot on your individual situation. Is college going to cost you 200k or 50k? You can call it trade school if you want, but if you aren't learning any skills relevant to your job, I'm not so sure it's a good deal. It's an antiquated and elitist view to think that taking a bunch of gen ed classes will make you a good citizen and a well rounded person.

Indeed and ironically this shows a lack of the critical thinking skills that all the liberal arts worshipers claim they got with muh liberal arts degree.

+1000

I have always found that the best critical thinkers and employees (and the hardest workers) tend to be Physics/Computer Science/Applied Math/Statistics majors. Engineering comes at a close second. Natural sciences at a third.

The vast, vast majority of the humanities majors I see have an awful work ethic and little to no ability to think critically. I am always amused when DCUMers post that their Philosophy degree taught them to "think critically in a way that you can't with STEM."

My experience as well.

As a CS major and person with 25 years working in software development, this is emphatically not my experience. What I do see A LOT are entitled white guys who are sure that problems they know nothing about must be easy to solve. Rather the opposite of critical thinking to be honest.

DP.. I've worked with programmers for 20 years, and the issue with those guys is that they are arrogant, not that they can't think critically. They think they are so smart that they can understand any business problem easily. I once had to explain to very smart software programmers about the complexity of US tax laws. They just thought they could do a zip code/rate data dump and build an API in like two weeks to calculate sales tax. I had to explain to them that it's not as easy as that, and that's why we have tax solution software out there to manage taxability.

So they're so smart, they're actually dumb. Nice argument.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that criminology is one of the least regretted majors and sociology is one of the most regretted. Almost all of the criminology classes are sociology classes. A criminal justice degree is a waste of 150k because you don't need need the degree to get a job as a police officer. Furthermore, college doesn't give you any of the skills it takes to do the job, so big waste of time/energy/money.

No education is a waste. The belief that college is a trade school is a relic of lower and lower middle class origins of our immigrant forebears.

Sorry that made more sense when you didn’t graduate with 5-6 figure student debt and housing was affordable without a college degreed professional job.

Sorry. You want trade school go to Lincoln Tech. It is possible to go to a decent college and get a real education that changes everything for you without 5-6 figure student debt.

That depends a lot on your individual situation. Is college going to cost you 200k or 50k? You can call it trade school if you want, but if you aren't learning any skills relevant to your job, I'm not so sure it's a good deal. It's an antiquated and elitist view to think that taking a bunch of gen ed classes will make you a good citizen and a well rounded person.

Indeed and ironically this shows a lack of the critical thinking skills that all the liberal arts worshipers claim they got with muh liberal arts degree.

+1000

I have always found that the best critical thinkers and employees (and the hardest workers) tend to be Physics/Computer Science/Applied Math/Statistics majors. Engineering comes at a close second. Natural sciences at a third.

The vast, vast majority of the humanities majors I see have an awful work ethic and little to no ability to think critically. I am always amused when DCUMers post that their Philosophy degree taught them to "think critically in a way that you can't with STEM."

My experience as well.

As a CS major and person with 25 years working in software development, this is emphatically not my experience. What I do see A LOT are entitled white guys who are sure that problems they know nothing about must be easy to solve. Rather the opposite of critical thinking to be honest.

DP.. I've worked with programmers for 20 years, and the issue with those guys is that they are arrogant, not that they can't think critically. They think they are so smart that they can understand any business problem easily. I once had to explain to very smart software programmers about the complexity of US tax laws. They just thought they could do a zip code/rate data dump and build an API in like two weeks to calculate sales tax. I had to explain to them that it's not as easy as that, and that's why we have tax solution software out there to manage taxability.

So they're so smart, they're actually dumb. Nice argument.

Presumably, you are smart in your field, but not smart in every field, right? You probably don't understand the complexities in tax laws either, and that's ok. You're not an expert in taxes, and neither are the programmers.

I'm no expert, either, but I just happen to have worked on tax software for many years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that criminology is one of the least regretted majors and sociology is one of the most regretted. Almost all of the criminology classes are sociology classes. A criminal justice degree is a waste of 150k because you don't need need the degree to get a job as a police officer. Furthermore, college doesn't give you any of the skills it takes to do the job, so big waste of time/energy/money.

No this is absurd.

A criminology degree = law school, DOJ, CIA, FBI, CYBER SECURITY and many more.

Grades are more important here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that criminology is one of the least regretted majors and sociology is one of the most regretted. Almost all of the criminology classes are sociology classes. A criminal justice degree is a waste of 150k because you don't need need the degree to get a job as a police officer. Furthermore, college doesn't give you any of the skills it takes to do the job, so big waste of time/energy/money.

many places require a degree to become a police officer and if you wan to advance past a patrol cop, you need a degree if not a master's/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that criminology is one of the least regretted majors and sociology is one of the most regretted. Almost all of the criminology classes are sociology classes. A criminal justice degree is a waste of 150k because you don't need need the degree to get a job as a police officer. Furthermore, college doesn't give you any of the skills it takes to do the job, so big waste of time/energy/money.

No education is a waste. The belief that college is a trade school is a relic of lower and lower middle class origins of our immigrant forebears.

Sorry that made more sense when you didn’t graduate with 5-6 figure student debt and housing was affordable without a college degreed professional job.

Sorry. You want trade school go to Lincoln Tech. It is possible to go to a decent college and get a real education that changes everything for you without 5-6 figure student debt.

That depends a lot on your individual situation. Is college going to cost you 200k or 50k? You can call it trade school if you want, but if you aren't learning any skills relevant to your job, I'm not so sure it's a good deal. It's an antiquated and elitist view to think that taking a bunch of gen ed classes will make you a good citizen and a well rounded person.

Indeed and ironically this shows a lack of the critical thinking skills that all the liberal arts worshipers claim they got with muh liberal arts degree.

+1000

I have always found that the best critical thinkers and employees (and the hardest workers) tend to be Physics/Computer Science/Applied Math/Statistics majors. Engineering comes at a close second. Natural sciences at a third.

The vast, vast majority of the humanities majors I see have an awful work ethic and little to no ability to think critically. I am always amused when DCUMers post that their Philosophy degree taught them to "think critically in a way that you can't with STEM."

My experience as well.

As a CS major and person with 25 years working in software development, this is emphatically not my experience. What I do see A LOT are entitled white guys who are sure that problems they know nothing about must be easy to solve. Rather the opposite of critical thinking to be honest.

DP.. I've worked with programmers for 20 years, and the issue with those guys is that they are arrogant, not that they can't think critically. They think they are so smart that they can understand any business problem easily. I once had to explain to very smart software programmers about the complexity of US tax laws. They just thought they could do a zip code/rate data dump and build an API in like two weeks to calculate sales tax. I had to explain to them that it's not as easy as that, and that's why we have tax solution software out there to manage taxability.

So they're so smart, they're actually dumb. Nice argument.

Presumably, you are smart in your field, but not smart in every field, right? You probably don't understand the complexities in tax laws either, and that's ok. You're not an expert in taxes, and neither are the programmers.

I'm no expert, either, but I just happen to have worked on tax software for many years.

right - and i actually realize that I don't know anything about software. Isn't part of being smart that you know what you don't know?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that criminology is one of the least regretted majors and sociology is one of the most regretted. Almost all of the criminology classes are sociology classes. A criminal justice degree is a waste of 150k because you don't need need the degree to get a job as a police officer. Furthermore, college doesn't give you any of the skills it takes to do the job, so big waste of time/energy/money.

No education is a waste. The belief that college is a trade school is a relic of lower and lower middle class origins of our immigrant forebears.

Sorry that made more sense when you didn’t graduate with 5-6 figure student debt and housing was affordable without a college degreed professional job.

Sorry. You want trade school go to Lincoln Tech. It is possible to go to a decent college and get a real education that changes everything for you without 5-6 figure student debt.

That depends a lot on your individual situation. Is college going to cost you 200k or 50k? You can call it trade school if you want, but if you aren't learning any skills relevant to your job, I'm not so sure it's a good deal. It's an antiquated and elitist view to think that taking a bunch of gen ed classes will make you a good citizen and a well rounded person.

Indeed and ironically this shows a lack of the critical thinking skills that all the liberal arts worshipers claim they got with muh liberal arts degree.

+1000

I have always found that the best critical thinkers and employees (and the hardest workers) tend to be Physics/Computer Science/Applied Math/Statistics majors. Engineering comes at a close second. Natural sciences at a third.

The vast, vast majority of the humanities majors I see have an awful work ethic and little to no ability to think critically. I am always amused when DCUMers post that their Philosophy degree taught them to "think critically in a way that you can't with STEM."

My experience as well.

As a CS major and person with 25 years working in software development, this is emphatically not my experience. What I do see A LOT are entitled white guys who are sure that problems they know nothing about must be easy to solve. Rather the opposite of critical thinking to be honest.

DP.. I've worked with programmers for 20 years, and the issue with those guys is that they are arrogant, not that they can't think critically. They think they are so smart that they can understand any business problem easily. I once had to explain to very smart software programmers about the complexity of US tax laws. They just thought they could do a zip code/rate data dump and build an API in like two weeks to calculate sales tax. I had to explain to them that it's not as easy as that, and that's why we have tax solution software out there to manage taxability.

So they're so smart, they're actually dumb. Nice argument.

Presumably, you are smart in your field, but not smart in every field, right? You probably don't understand the complexities in tax laws either, and that's ok. You're not an expert in taxes, and neither are the programmers.

I'm no expert, either, but I just happen to have worked on tax software for many years.

right - and i actually realize that I don't know anything about software. Isn't part of being smart that you know what you don't know?

IMO, that's arrogance (which is what I stated). Those guys are smart. They work for FAANG. But, "smart" in one field doesn't mean "smart" broadly. That was my point. Smart + arrogance = problem.

As to critical thinking skills, the whole point of higher ed is about teaching more advanced critical thinking skills. The vast majority of any major will teach that skill, so all these "history majors learn critical thinking skills" post is ridiculous. BTW, I love history; I think it's fascinating, but I would never major in it unless I was going to go into policy or something like that, or get a masters. Otherwise, IMO, it is a pointless degree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seeing these threads I always think that I would pay for any major but I would never pay for an HR degree or one on construction. I would pay for comms, poly sci, or history — all of which help you think critically and would better serve an HR professional than an HR degree.

I did not even realize you could get a degree in HR or construction. It surprised me to see that.

The degree is Construction Management. Most Superintendents or Safety Managers in Construction make 80-100k to start.

HR Management 80K plus to start.

I'd pay for that instead of Education, Arts or Communication degree.

Teachers start 45K.

Yep. My son is a construction management major at Purdue (will graduate in spring). 100% placement rate with an average starting salary of somewhere around $80k and many managing global projects within a few years. He already has multiple job offers- he's looking mostly in Chicago and says you can't swing a dead cat in that city without hitting a PM or GC with a construction management degree from Purdue.

Great degree!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that criminology is one of the least regretted majors and sociology is one of the most regretted. Almost all of the criminology classes are sociology classes. A criminal justice degree is a waste of 150k because you don't need need the degree to get a job as a police officer. Furthermore, college doesn't give you any of the skills it takes to do the job, so big waste of time/energy/money.

No education is a waste. The belief that college is a trade school is a relic of lower and lower middle class origins of our immigrant forebears.

Sorry that made more sense when you didn’t graduate with 5-6 figure student debt and housing was affordable without a college degreed professional job.

Sorry. You want trade school go to Lincoln Tech. It is possible to go to a decent college and get a real education that changes everything for you without 5-6 figure student debt.

That depends a lot on your individual situation. Is college going to cost you 200k or 50k? You can call it trade school if you want, but if you aren't learning any skills relevant to your job, I'm not so sure it's a good deal. It's an antiquated and elitist view to think that taking a bunch of gen ed classes will make you a good citizen and a well rounded person.

Indeed and ironically this shows a lack of the critical thinking skills that all the liberal arts worshipers claim they got with muh liberal arts degree.

+1000

I have always found that the best critical thinkers and employees (and the hardest workers) tend to be Physics/Computer Science/Applied Math/Statistics majors. Engineering comes at a close second. Natural sciences at a third.

The vast, vast majority of the humanities majors I see have an awful work ethic and little to no ability to think critically. I am always amused when DCUMers post that their Philosophy degree taught them to "think critically in a way that you can't with STEM."

My experience as well.

As a CS major and person with 25 years working in software development, this is emphatically not my experience. What I do see A LOT are entitled white guys who are sure that problems they know nothing about must be easy to solve. Rather the opposite of critical thinking to be honest.

DP.. I've worked with programmers for 20 years, and the issue with those guys is that they are arrogant, not that they can't think critically. They think they are so smart that they can understand any business problem easily. I once had to explain to very smart software programmers about the complexity of US tax laws. They just thought they could do a zip code/rate data dump and build an API in like two weeks to calculate sales tax. I had to explain to them that it's not as easy as that, and that's why we have tax solution software out there to manage taxability.

So they're so smart, they're actually dumb. Nice argument.

Presumably, you are smart in your field, but not smart in every field, right? You probably don't understand the complexities in tax laws either, and that's ok. You're not an expert in taxes, and neither are the programmers.

I'm no expert, either, but I just happen to have worked on tax software for many years.

right - and i actually realize that I don't know anything about software. Isn't part of being smart that you know what you don't know?

IMO, that's arrogance (which is what I stated). Those guys are smart. They work for FAANG. But, "smart" in one field doesn't mean "smart" broadly. That was my point. Smart + arrogance = problem.

As to critical thinking skills, the whole point of higher ed is about teaching more advanced critical thinking skills. The vast majority of any major will teach that skill, so all these "history majors learn critical thinking skills" post is ridiculous. BTW, I love history; I think it's fascinating, but I would never major in it unless I was going to go into policy or something like that, or get a masters. Otherwise, IMO, it is a pointless degree.

while you want to characterize it as arrogance, it can be equally described as a lack of critical thinking.