Why do schools offer so many useless degrees?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm an art/dance major. A lot of people think my degrees are useless, yet I raise a family doing what I love. One person's idea of uselessness is another person's means of living and happiness.

Dance major at college doesn't sound right at all.

Dance should be an extra club activity.

And who will teach dance as this “extra club activity”? Arts should be part of any core curriculum.

Professional ballet dancers rarely are dance majors. They simply teach because they can (and often poor and can do only one thing when the body gives out)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm an art/dance major. A lot of people think my degrees are useless, yet I raise a family doing what I love. One person's idea of uselessness is another person's means of living and happiness.

I have a child who might major in dance. It is the one thing she truly enjoys. School has never been easy for her (ADHD and anxiety).

Now, I'm not sending her to Julliard or NYU full pay like some will (I LOL at a lot of the tuition pages on the college websites I have visited), but all I want is for her to get a 4 year degree. We're mostly looking at the VA state schools - Radford and ODU are likely her top contenders.

She's not really planning to be a professional dancer, but she may go into some sort of OT/PT type job eventually (some of those need higher degrees/certifications) OR teach/open her own business.

I've changed direction 3 times in my 20-ish years out of school. My husband got an engineering degree pt as an adult after spending time in the military. Your decisions in your late teens/early 20s are not necessarily who you will become.

A friend of mine from high school teaches dance at a magnet arts high school in Ohio. She was a dance major in college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm an art/dance major. A lot of people think my degrees are useless, yet I raise a family doing what I love. One person's idea of uselessness is another person's means of living and happiness.

I have a child who might major in dance. It is the one thing she truly enjoys. School has never been easy for her (ADHD and anxiety).

Now, I'm not sending her to Julliard or NYU full pay like some will (I LOL at a lot of the tuition pages on the college websites I have visited), but all I want is for her to get a 4 year degree. We're mostly looking at the VA state schools - Radford and ODU are likely her top contenders.

She's not really planning to be a professional dancer, but she may go into some sort of OT/PT type job eventually (some of those need higher degrees/certifications) OR teach/open her own business.

I've changed direction 3 times in my 20-ish years out of school. My husband got an engineering degree pt as an adult after spending time in the military. Your decisions in your late teens/early 20s are not necessarily who you will become.

A friend of mine from high school teaches dance at a magnet arts high school in Ohio. She was a dance major in college.

this might be where my daughter winds up - who knows? There are several places in this area that offer dance in school (she already takes classes at Fairfax Academy through FCPS)

[Anonymous]

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.

Those are all super useful-but some schools have a special major for "athletes" and gpa-pads for grad school. At my school "African-american Studies", "Women's Studies", "Communications", and "Art History" were the ones with recs of "Construction Management" and "Symphonic Masterworks". Ironically, "Construction Management" was one of the best classes there if you were one of the few that showed up and listened.

The UW-Madison school of Human Ecology:

Offers a “personal finance” major

great major. r

[Anonymous]

You don't think we need cybersecurity professionals?

Mmm'k.

Also, the 4+1 degrees are fantastic, IMO. I did that program for my B.S. & Masters. I then went back years later to get my PhD and it was so much harder to get back into the swing of things after being out of school for a few years.

I have several friends who failed to complete their Masters because they went back a few years after being out of school and couldn't get back into the groove.

[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.

Those are all super useful-but some schools have a special major for "athletes" and gpa-pads for grad school. At my school "African-american Studies", "Women's Studies", "Communications", and "Art History" were the ones with recs of "Construction Management" and "Symphonic Masterworks". Ironically, "Construction Management" was one of the best classes there if you were one of the few that showed up and listened.

The UW-Madison school of Human Ecology:

Offers a “personal finance” major

great major. r

As a college degree?

[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.

Lots of people in some of these majors go onto grad school and research.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don't think we need cybersecurity professionals?

Mmm'k.

Also, the 4+1 degrees are fantastic, IMO. I did that program for my B.S. & Masters. I then went back years later to get my PhD and it was so much harder to get back into the swing of things after being out of school for a few years.

I have several friends who failed to complete their Masters because they went back a few years after being out of school and couldn't get back into the groove.

It’s different for professional master’s degrees vs research ones

[Anonymous]

OP, I think you are mistaken

[Anonymous]

Other silly bachelors degrees:
-Legal studies
-general studies
-photography

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don't think we need cybersecurity professionals?

Mmm'k.

Also, the 4+1 degrees are fantastic, IMO. I did that program for my B.S. & Masters. I then went back years later to get my PhD and it was so much harder to get back into the swing of things after being out of school for a few years.

I have several friends who failed to complete their Masters because they went back a few years after being out of school and couldn't get back into the groove.

If you're responding to me, my comments decrying 4+1 programs as useless were specifically referring to MBA programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of those are acually not examples of useless degrees.

However yes there are tons of useless degrees
Ahteletes, Legacies, URMs, First Gen, LGBTQ, etc. all need a major, too.

Excuse me? I have no idea what this even means.

Ah yes gay people and minorities aren’t smart enough for “real” majors. DCUM keeps sinking lower and lower.

I think there is literally one person on this forum who posts this crap over and over and seems to be under the delusion that there is ANY preferential treatment for LGBTQ+ in admissions.

Yup. Totally recognize this person from other threads.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Those are all super useful-but some schools have a special major for "athletes" and gpa-pads for grad school. At my school "African-american Studies", "Women's Studies", "Communications", and "Art History" were the ones with recs of "Construction Management" and "Symphonic Masterworks". Ironically, "Construction Management" was one of the best classes there if you were one of the few that showed up and listened.

The UW-Madison school of Human Ecology:

Offers a “personal finance” major

great major. r

As a college degree?

They meant to type /s for sarcasm I believe. Don’t waste your money in a dance major. Dance teachers make so little money…. signed professional ballet dancer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Don’t waste your money in a dance major. Dance teachers make so little money…. signed professional ballet dancer.

professional dancers don't make big bucks, either, do they? I mean, unless you're misty copeland level with books and such

my daughter might take the major, try to work in some exercise science and/or business classes at the same time, then pursue athletic training or some other certification

teaching would be a side income most likely

she's a sophomore, so we still have time to figure it all out

[Anonymous]

There are tons of worthless college majors. History is pretty useless if you’re not going to teach history. All these people end up employed somewhere regardless because employers want to see the BA/BS.