Most underemployed majors according to the U.S. Census American Community Survey

[nomaduser]

Check this link!
https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job...eer/Salary

Obviously, this can happen only when you have amazing math & programming skills with a BS in CS degree from relatively known university.

All other unemployable degree holders make under $40k unless they're lucky... i.e. become youtube stars, get celebrity connections, or somehow wealthy people help them, etc.

They can try to get PhD and become college professors to make better salaries.. but I'm not a big fan of that career.

[sanantone]

AFAIK, "underemployed" means "being in a job unrelated to your major and/or employed at a job that pays less than what you should be getting if you were in your correct field of work". Under those circumstances, paying a ton for those degrees is silly. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't get the degree you want. There is a huge, huge difference between going to a Liberal Arts college for $100k and getting a Liberal Arts degree from UMPI for less than $5k.

On the first half - job unrelated to major - that describes my wife, but I think her degree was somewhat worth it.  She did work in her field for a short time, which was criminal justice.  Then she moved into project management and was hired partly because she worked for a police department at one point and the company was tired of PMs doing unethical things (or outright theft) like giving inflated contracts to their buddies and taking cuts under the table.  Hiring manager just thought he could trust her and train her up on her knowledge gaps.  Second half of the definition doesn't fit at all, because there is no money in CJ and she's doing pretty well now.  There are also jobs out there where they just want someone with the critical thinking associated with a degree (whether true or not, it is an easy signal), and the major isn't all that important.

According to PayScale, the most common underemployed jobs for criminal justice majors include security and paralegal work. Also, almost no corrections officer jobs require a college degree, and the majority of state and local law enforcement jobs don't require a bachelor's degree. 

If you become a parole or probation officer, which usually does require a bachelor's degree, the pay is typically higher than that of a security guard or correctional officer. If you get into a federal law enforcement position that requires a degree, the pay is generally higher than what you'll find in CJ jobs that don't require a degree. 

There are jobs that will accept any degree, but that also means more competition for applicants.

[Jonathan Whatley]

One of the most common things to happen on DegreeForum is that someone chooses a bachelor's major like liberal studies instead of a major like computer science, in whole or in part to reduce time to completion.

We shouldn't be surprised that the general public will often choose much the same.

For a given student, their time to completion in their less hot major might be be x years whereas with levelling learning and prerequisite structures, it could easily take the same student x plus 1 year or even more to completion in a more hot major such as computer science. Consider the direct lost income in that extra time, and the downstream effects of the later start on career progression. The more demanding hot major might also reduce time available for employment while a student.

[freeloader]

It's very obvious now.

If you want to get a job, get one of these degrees:

1. Computer Science, Data Science
2. Information Systems / IT / Information Science
3. Engineering
4. Medical
5. Business Administration (top universities only)
6. Law (top universities only)

Other majors will suffer greatly unless they're lucky.
It could be that other majors were created to torture your life and steal your money.

95% of people should go to college to get these "employable" degrees.
95% of people shouldn't go to college to get other degrees that make them unemployable.

The problem with your argument is that a number of the fields you referenced actually have the most UNEMPLOYED people of any degree fields. CS, Info Systems, Math, and General/Misc engineering all have around 5% unemployment. 

I have actually had to purposely avoid a couple of subreddits that I was previously active in because of the number of posts that were exactly the same: degree in CS/IT, CE or related field, hundreds of applications sent off, few/no interviews, no job offers for months. Some experience people, some brand new. 

I think your whole argument, Nomaduser, is built on a fallacy. I earned a history degree and went back for a second degree in accounting. I have tried CS/programming courses. I am terrible at them.  I was a very good historian and am a decent accountant. If I moved to CS, I can guarantee you that I would be a terrible programmer.  This would likely be the case for many/most other people coming from other disciplines/degrees. 

A terrible computer programmer or IT person is actually less likely to be employed than people who are bad at other job areas. Why should I move from accounting, a field that I am decent at, to one where I would be bad?  So that I can go from making a reasonable wage to drawing unemployment?  I would posit that most people who end up with less profitable jobs/degrees self-select or have their path dictated to them (by school or employer).  Your assumption that every tech-related degree magically opens doors to six figure salaries is simply and objectively false. 

Put this a different way: many computer/IT jobs have practical tests that must be completed to be hired. Clearly, there are people who can pass a university class in these areas who cannot pass the practical test in industry. Given that CS professors, taken together, make more money than, say, English professors, it actually would be a TERRIBLE misallocation of resources to increase the output of CS major who cannot pass practical tests at the expense (ha!) of cheaper English majors. 

We get it, you like CS, engineering, and related fields. And that’s great. I hope you retire at 30 with millions of dollars and have fancy watches and lots of women.

[nomaduser]

One of the most common things to happen on DegreeForum is that someone chooses a bachelor's major like liberal studies instead of a major like computer science, in whole or in part to reduce time to completion.

In the worst case scenario, you'll have to re-do your bachelor in CS to get a job.

At my previous company, they fired nearly everyone who doesn't hold a CS degree. That includes me.

[Alpha]

It's very obvious now.

If you want to get a job, get one of these degrees:

1. Computer Science, Data Science
2. Information Systems / IT / Information Science
3. Engineering
4. Medical
5. Business Administration (top universities only)
6. Law (top universities only)

Other majors will suffer greatly unless they're lucky.
It could be that other majors were created to torture your life and steal your money.

95% of people should go to college to get these "employable" degrees.
95% of people shouldn't go to college to get other degrees that make them unemployable.

If 95% of college students only pursued those options those fields would quickly become oversaturated and no longer be as employable/high paying.

Also, while I agree those are great options to study, they are not realistic options for the majority of college students. Medical school and top law schools are notoriously difficult even for the best/smartest students and also notoriously difficult to even get admitted to. Traditional engineering and CS programs(though alt credits and some online options have made CS more attainable) are generally very difficult even for people with a good attitude for those fields. The advanced math alone is not realistic for the majority of students to learn(which isn't to say people can't achieve things if they put their mind to it.) IT and business programs generally have options at both ends of the spectrum as far as difficulty and career prospects. 

Believe it or not, the world runs on more than just doctors, lawyers, engineers, and technologists.

I think it's important to point out that most people are not cut out to be programmers or engineers.  Pretending that people simply need to get engineering degrees and then all problems are solved is naive.

[sanantone]

I don't think the issue is always whether you can or cannot use your degree. Sometimes, the issue is whether you can use your degree for the occupation you want.

Social services has an underemployment rate below 50%. Psychology is at 50%, and sociology and criminal justice are above 50%. Why is that? All of these majors are applicable to social services, and social services organizations are always hiring. My educated guess is that people who choose these majors often don't want social services jobs. Many psychology majors want to be research assistants, or they planned to become licensed psychologists and changed their minds or couldn't get into a PhD program. Many criminal justice majors want to become special agents or crime scene analysts, but they didn't research the skills employers are looking for or how many job openings there are.

[Pats20]

Ok most careers you can major in what ever you want. Sure there are some that your major will dictate your career but not for most.
The big three for career placement is career planning , experiential learning and networking. There are history majors that are software engineers and computer science majors that are bankers.

---

It's very obvious now.

If you want to get a job, get one of these degrees:

1. Computer Science, Data Science
2. Information Systems / IT / Information Science
3. Engineering
4. Medical
5. Business Administration (top universities only)
6. Law (top universities only)

Other majors will suffer greatly unless they're lucky.
It could be that other majors were created to torture your life and steal your money.

95% of people should go to college to get these "employable" degrees.
95% of people shouldn't go to college to get other degrees that make them unemployable.

If 95% of college students only pursued those options those fields would quickly become oversaturated and no longer be as employable/high paying.

Also, while I agree those are great options to study, they are not realistic options for the majority of college students. Medical school and top law schools are notoriously difficult even for the best/smartest students and also notoriously difficult to even get admitted to. Traditional engineering and CS programs(though alt credits and some online options have made CS more attainable) are generally very difficult even for people with a good attitude for those fields. The advanced math alone is not realistic for the majority of students to learn(which isn't to say people can't achieve things if they put their mind to it.) IT and business programs generally have options at both ends of the spectrum as far as difficulty and career prospects. 

Believe it or not, the world runs on more than just doctors, lawyers, engineers, and technologists.

I think it's important to point out that most people are not cut out to be programmers or engineers.  Pretending that people simply need to get engineering degrees and then all problems are solved is naive.

And even if it were possible  , who would want a world of  nothing but engineers and programmers? No arts , no music , not to mention can you imagine how boring parties would be ? 

[dfrecore]

It's very obvious now.

If you want to get a job, get one of these degrees:

1. Computer Science, Data Science
2. Information Systems / IT / Information Science
3. Engineering
4. Medical
5. Business Administration (top universities only)
6. Law (top universities only)

Other majors will suffer greatly unless they're lucky.
It could be that other majors were created to torture your life and steal your money.

95% of people should go to college to get these "employable" degrees.
95% of people shouldn't go to college to get other degrees that make them unemployable.

Most people don't want to do these majors, or these jobs.  I have zero interest or aptitude in CompSci, DataSci, IS/IT, Engineering, Medical or Law.  I also have no interest in getting a master's degree if it's required for my job (I MAY want to get one in the future, but because I want one or think it will benefit me in some way).

I also never had an interest in going to a "top university" - I hated going to college.  If I was at a top university with a bunch of rich privileged people, I'd have loathed it even more.

But, even if you get one of the less "useful" degrees, you still have a better job outlook than someone without a bachelor's degree.  The average college-educated bachelor's degree holder earns 1.75x more than the average non-college-educated person over a lifetime.

[Alpha]

It's very obvious now.

If you want to get a job, get one of these degrees:

1. Computer Science, Data Science
2. Information Systems / IT / Information Science
3. Engineering
4. Medical
5. Business Administration (top universities only)
6. Law (top universities only)

Other majors will suffer greatly unless they're lucky.
It could be that other majors were created to torture your life and steal your money.

95% of people should go to college to get these "employable" degrees.
95% of people shouldn't go to college to get other degrees that make them unemployable.

...

But, even if you get one of the less "useful" degrees, you still have a better job outlook than someone without a bachelor's degree.  The average college-educated bachelor's degree holder earns 1.75x more than the average non-college-educated person over a lifetime.

I have seen these numbers from multiple sources and I think it's a key reason for earning a degree.