LogFAQs > #886377399

GreatEvilEmpire posted...

The idea to to find a major worth investing in

I already said I don't disagree with you on that. We just have different goal-posts as to what is worth it. If we're talking remaining at the undergraduate level, sure. Not all degrees are equal. But I have a feeling my list of "majors worth investing" is a bit wider because it's more so what you do with the degree, rather than expecting society to hand you an assembly-line job right at graduation.

GreatEvilEmpire posted...

But as I said, those degrees have very little practicality if you're looking for a job

Take two people with identical backgrounds and self-taught specialized knowledge appropriate for a job position. The one with the college degree, any degree, will be given more weight. And it's for reasons I stated before--when dealing with a large application pool at some point the decisions will be arbitrary. For reasons you may or may not agree with, a college degree will be perceived at having a higher problem solving capacity or work ethic.

This does not reflect reality in 100% of cases. But the reality is that more people with a college education will meet that minimum standard, so if you're taking a gamble on an applicant, it only makes sense to take the one with a degree.

This changes if the applicant pool is small, or necessarily skewed. Obviously a person with no education, but a lot of industry-specific experience will be taken over a fresh graduate. But barring two people of relatively similar experience, it's no contest.

Of course, some people will be more creative than others. I know plenty of my cohorts who stopped at the undergrad level with their psych degree and are lost as to the next step. That's going in without a plan. But I've met just as many premeds with a biology or a chemistry degree but didn't make it into medical school and aren't really in that much different of a situation.

A driven individual with a plan will open more doors with a degree, any degree, than a person without it. A person without a plan can be just as fucked with a degree than someone without a degree.

Hence, a degree is a very personalized decision that needs to be hedged. But it's really too complex to generalize.
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"He has two neurons held together by a spirochete."