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

[spohara]

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

I mean, even when I say that, people would still try to get degrees in marketing, film, literature, music composition, etc.
They quickly become underpaid and suffer from unemployment or poor employment conditions/terms.

I can tell you now. Please make $100k salary with Computer Science, IT, Medical, Engineering degrees.
Later you can study film, music, performing art, history, archaeology, anthropology, humanities, sociology, dance, english literature as your hobby.

You can pursue these unemployable degrees AFTER you make millions of dollars with employable degrees.

i.e. You can get BS in CS, retire by early 30.  Later, you can decide to do another BA in film studies or history as a hobby.
If your hobby starts making money for you, then it's good. If not, then stop spending too much money on it.

My buddy went to film school.  He only has to work 3 months out of the year to fund his entire life doing lighting on film sets.  His goal was to do camera work, but his path took him a different direction and he has been very successful.  A lot of people with education in social science have gone on to do data science, work in the foreign service or other government jobs and do very well.  I think the major take away is that if you get one of these degrees that generally underperforms, you need to know very specifically what you want to get out of it.  You're probably not going to music school and becoming the next Mozart, and you're not shooting the next Marvel movie straight out of film school.  But these things can make money if you're very intentional about how you go about it.  I got a political science degree and was hired for a very high paying job six months later.  I had a lot of experience which is the main reason I got the job, but a degree was a requirement.  Funny enough, now I'm going back for Computer Science/Data Science, but that's just the bend my career took, and this is a step that should get me to the next level.  But there are lots of paths.

[bjcheung77]

Everyone has their own choice, some don't even need a degree, I would recommend finding what you like to do, be it a trade or not... There are jobs that pay lots without a college degree, some require specific training, not everyone is going to be "computer savvy" or a techie. Again, find more info on career paths, some subjects you're interested in and see if those can be adequate for you...

[sanantone]

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.

Overall average is different from a specific group's average. The average income for someone who has a bachelor's degree is significantly higher than the average income for a licensed counselor with a master's degree, for example. It's important for future college students to look at the ROI for their major. For some people, pursuing their passion is more important than money. If money is important to them, they could earn more as a dental hygienist with an associate's degree than as a counselor with a master's degree.

[vintage_jacket]

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.

I'm really sorry to hear that. That's just lame and frustrating.

----------------------------

Well, I see that the degrees that I'm going for are all on that list (communications, English, marketing) but the smaller skills that I have are not listed on there (front end web dev., graphic design, and excel/data) so it looks like it might be in the interest of people pursing the liberal arts (like myself) to widen their skills.

I know people talk about becoming an expert and yes, that's valuable, but if it's going to take a bit before you get there, having a wide range of skills seems to help.

[LevelUP]

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.

If someone wants a life like Andrew Tate, that's their choice. We shouldn't judge them.

Everyone has their own choice, some don't even need a degree, I would recommend finding what you like to do, be it a trade or not... There are jobs that pay lots without a college degree, some require specific training, not everyone is going to be "computer savvy" or a techie.  Again, find more info on career paths, some subjects you're interested in and see if those can be adequate for you...

I agree explore different subjects. It's free at both Sophia or Study.com to try whatever subjects you want. I recommend doing a few lessons on subjects out of your expertise to see what's it's like. You never know what you might like or be good at.

My buddy went to film school.  He only has to work 3 months out of the year to fund his entire life doing lighting on film sets.  His goal was to do camera work, but his path took him a different direction and he has been very successful.

Traditional film school is geared toward making a feature film which doesn't help if someone lives in a small crappy small town such as Piedmont, North Dakota.

Kids nowadays mostly want to become social influencers. What skills does this require? Artistic skills such as videography, sound, and lightning. Also, IT skills such as video editing and website development. As well as business skills such as digital marketing. And finally, communication and writing skills.

So if a college could develop a social influencer degree program, I imagine it would be pretty popular! 

Those skills could transfer to other jobs even if they don't make it as an influencer.

[Alpha]

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.

If someone wants a life like Andrew Tate, that's their choice. We shouldn't judge them.

Everyone has their own choice, some don't even need a degree, I would recommend finding what you like to do, be it a trade or not... There are jobs that pay lots without a college degree, some require specific training, not everyone is going to be "computer savvy" or a techie.  Again, find more info on career paths, some subjects you're interested in and see if those can be adequate for you...

I agree explore different subjects. It's free at both Sophia or Study.com to try whatever subjects you want. I recommend doing a few lessons on subjects out of your expertise to see what's it's like. You never know what you might like or be good at.

My buddy went to film school.  He only has to work 3 months out of the year to fund his entire life doing lighting on film sets.  His goal was to do camera work, but his path took him a different direction and he has been very successful.

Traditional film school is geared toward making a feature film which doesn't help if someone lives in a small crappy town such as Piedmont, North Dakota.

Kids nowadays mostly want to become social influencers. What skills does this require? Artistic skills such as videography, sound, and lightning. Also, IT skills such as video editing and website development. As well as business skills such as digital marketing. And finally, communication and writing skills.

So if a college could develop a social influencer degree program, I imagine it would be pretty popular! 

Even if that wasn't your career, those skills could transfer to other jobs.

---

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.

If someone wants a life like Andrew Tate, that's their choice. We shouldn't judge them.

Everyone has their own choice, some don't even need a degree, I would recommend finding what you like to do, be it a trade or not... There are jobs that pay lots without a college degree, some require specific training, not everyone is going to be "computer savvy" or a techie.  Again, find more info on career paths, some subjects you're interested in and see if those can be adequate for you...

I agree explore different subjects. It's free at both Sophia or Study.com to try whatever subjects you want. I recommend doing a few lessons on subjects out of your expertise to see what's it's like. You never know what you might like or be good at.

My buddy went to film school.  He only has to work 3 months out of the year to fund his entire life doing lighting on film sets.  His goal was to do camera work, but his path took him a different direction and he has been very successful.

Traditional film school is geared toward making a feature film which doesn't help if someone lives in a small crappy town such as Piedmont, North Dakota.

Kids nowadays mostly want to become social influencers. What skills does this require? Artistic skills such as videography, sound, and lightning. Also, IT skills such as video editing and website development. As well as business skills such as digital marketing. And finally, communication and writing skills.

So if a college could develop a social influencer degree program, I imagine it would be pretty popular! 

Even if that wasn't your career, those skills could transfer to other jobs.

Andrew Tate is a violent, misogynistic asshole and if someone wants to emulate him then I will definitely judge them.  Beyond that, I will only point out that there are a number of Social Media degree programs around.
https://successfulstudent.org/best-onlin...-colleges/

[LevelUP]

Andrew Tate is a violent, misogynistic asshole and if someone wants to emulate him then I will definitely judge them.  Beyond that, I will only point out that there are a number of Social Media degree programs around.
https://successfulstudent.org/best-onlin...-colleges/

Like Andrew Tate or not, he is a role model to millions of youths. They have recently begun kicking Andrew Tate off social media despite his millions of followers.

A Social Media degree is similar to a Digital Marketing degree. It does, however, leave out how to produce and edit video.

https://successfulstudent.org/best-degre...nfluencer/

[MNomadic]

Andrew Tate is a violent, misogynistic asshole and if someone wants to emulate him then I will definitely judge them.  Beyond that, I will only point out that there are a number of Social Media degree programs around.
https://successfulstudent.org/best-onlin...-colleges/

Like Andrew Tate or not, he is a role model to millions of youths. They have recently begun kicking Andrew Tate off social media despite his millions of followers.

A Social Media degree is similar to a Digital Marketing degree. It does, however, leave out how to produce and edit video.

https://successfulstudent.org/best-degre...nfluencer/

When I first saw one of his videos months ago, I assumed it was just a skit parodying the red-pill, alpha, type influencers and that no one took him seriously. I didn't realize his entire online presence was built around that persona and that people actually looked up to and wanted to emulate him...

[vintage_jacket]

Andrew Tate is a violent, misogynistic asshole and if someone wants to emulate him then I will definitely judge them.  Beyond that, I will only point out that there are a number of Social Media degree programs around.
https://successfulstudent.org/best-onlin...-colleges/

Like Andrew Tate or not, he is a role model to millions of youths. They have recently begun kicking Andrew Tate off social media despite his millions of followers.

A Social Media degree is similar to a Digital Marketing degree. It does, however, leave out how to produce and edit video.

https://successfulstudent.org/best-degre...nfluencer/

When I was younger, I was so sure I'd never see social media become an academic study. However, its just another form of media.

I've come across people wanting to personnel who can do social media and create proper videos for YouTube/internal company purposes. I'd recommend learning to produce and edit videos.

[sanantone]

I watched a documentary a few months ago on Zoomers skipping college to go to this social media influencer house. It was kind of like a training and networking camp. Social media degrees are more geared toward those who want to manage social media accounts for organizations.