Was just wondering today, why in the face of the Great Recession, the American education system was able to survive, even though it it's been obvious in the almost 8 years since, that college degrees, and liberal arts degrees in particular, are less than worthless in their current form.
Why do people young people still sign up to get BAs in psychology, anthropology, sociology, political science, and gender studies when 1) they know it won't get them a job 2) they can find more in depth information about these subjects online for free?
It doesn't seem a coincidence that the moment when schools could no longer lie about making their students money was the same moment schools decided to push hard the idea that their students were collectively possessed by a demon called privilege and the only way to exorcise it is to "get educated"/pay a school lots of money.
I'll be sure to let my fellow Political Science majors know that they don't actually have jobs (or job offers) since their degree precludes it. Sure, the school may help, as may the popularity of the joint Economics-Political Science major program I'm in, as well as the (possibly) more quantitative nature of our Political Science major program in general, but to equate it with gender studies is over-the-top.
While I can definitely see how some course programs (especially those oriented towards American politics) can end up being largely critical theory-based and not particularly dissimilar to an Africasn-American/Latino/Women's/Gender Studies major, a more typical program is sufficiently similar to the apparent "super-major" of Economics that it'd be illogical to expect a completely different outcome.
Ultimately, I think someone who would find a job with an Economics major would be likely to find a job had they majored in Political Science, and vice versa. This largely applies to most of the other majors you mention-- and this ignores the fact that, to a large degree, these are the most popular majors for people who intend to go on to law school-- although you forgot to mention philosophy.
Almost all of the sociology, philosophy, and history majors I know plan on going to law school.
According to
this list, the most common majors amongst LSAT takers in 2008, excluding "pre-professional majors" were:
1. Political Science
2. English
3. History
4. "Liberal Arts"
5. Journalism
6. Sociology/Social Work (shouldn't really be lumped together)
7. Economics
8. Philosophy/Theology
9. Finance
10. Engineering
This also brings up the question of "pre-professional majors". They, and not the abstract liberal arts programs, are many times associated with the poorest employment/income options. A B.S. from Wharton in Business is one thing, a major in Business Management from Podunk State U. is another. If you look at that list of LSAT takers again, you'll see that Pre-Law majors, in fact, have the second-lowest scores of any group, above only Criminal Justice. All ten of the lowest-scoring majors, in fact, are pre-professional majors (if we disregard Sociology). We see a similar pattern looking at
GMAT scores and
GRE scores.
It should be clear by now, then, that "major in something
practical" does not constitute particularly comprehensive advice. As for STEM, I have only this to say-- we cannot all be engineers.
