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If you went to college what did you major

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Fasulye
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 Message 49 of 169
29 September 2009 at 12:07pm | IP Logged 
Jiwon, I would study subjects where you are really interested in, not only think in terms of job prospects. The best would be both, of course.

Fasulye
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Belardur
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 Message 50 of 169
29 September 2009 at 12:14pm | IP Logged 
The way education works now, people have to choose employable majors, or be out-earned by skilled workers who never studied. It's a shame, but that's the way it is. It's part of the reason why there's the theory that the "curse of overspecialization" will eventually damage society.
I didn't choose my field based on income, or employability, and I hope it won't bite me (doesn't look like it). Not everyone can be that fortunate, if you insist on a certain standard of living.
Of course, I'd also hate to spend my life hating 40 (+) hours of my week.
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OneEye
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 Message 51 of 169
29 September 2009 at 6:41pm | IP Logged 
I know plenty of people who have liberal arts degrees who are very successful. I also know several who don't even have a degree and are making upwards of $200,000 per year. It makes no sense to major in something you don't like, to get a job you don't like, just because you think you'll make more money.
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sebngwa3
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 Message 52 of 169
29 September 2009 at 7:05pm | IP Logged 
OneEye wrote:
I know plenty of people who have liberal arts degrees who are very successful. I also know several who don't even have a degree and are making upwards of $200,000 per year. It makes no sense to major in something you don't like, to get a job you don't like, just because you think you'll make more money.


What kind of jobs did the successful liberal arts degree majors get?
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tricoteuse
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 Message 53 of 169
29 September 2009 at 7:16pm | IP Logged 
I know two art majors who have really fancy jobs (one with Microsoft and the other in finance in London), and one person with a business/finance masters degree who has been looking for one for half a year without any luck.

As for how much work going through university is I can at least add some comments about how things work here. For history classes and the like, we have one lecture a week (two hours), for Russian we have 10 hours a week. For a normal student in my program, you either have eight hours a week or 12 hours (depending on what your major is, if it's Russian you have more hours). This is enough to keep you busy. You are not only supposed to attend lectures, you are also supposed to learn the material between lectures since the lecturer only has enough time to deal with some major points.

I don't have anything I would really call free time ;)
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OneEye
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 Message 54 of 169
29 September 2009 at 7:29pm | IP Logged 
sebngwa3 wrote:
OneEye wrote:
I know plenty of people who have liberal arts degrees who are very successful. I also know several who don't even have a degree and are making upwards of $200,000 per year. It makes no sense to major in something you don't like, to get a job you don't like, just because you think you'll make more money.


What kind of jobs did the successful liberal arts degree majors get?


Does it really matter? Is one type of job inherently better than another?

But to answer your question, some of them own their own businesses, some of them are lawyers (many law schools actually prefer a humanities/liberal arts undergrad degree), some of them are museum curators, some are in retail management (which in some companies can pay very well once you reach District or Regional manager level), etc. Some have gone on to advanced degrees in the same field as their undergrad degree, and are now college professors (which can pay quite well depending on the school). One of them does nails and makeup for celebrities and makes over $300,000 per year. She majored in French.

Your success in life has much less to do with your choice of major (especially your choice of undergrad major) than it does with your determination, people skills, intelligence, work ethic, etc. Sometimes you just have to go out and create opportunity. It seems like many people have the mindset that "business" (meaning corporate work) is the only viable career option, and that you must major in business, accounting, finance, or something similar in order to succeed in life. This just simply isn't true.
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sebngwa3
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 Message 55 of 169
29 September 2009 at 7:34pm | IP Logged 
You can start a business without a college degree. All you need is some egg-nest.

90-something percent of lawyers hate their jobs. Museum curators -- not very many jobs.

College professors of language only earns between 30-40k.
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tricoteuse
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 Message 56 of 169
29 September 2009 at 7:49pm | IP Logged 
I really feel sorry for all the people who live in parts of the world where money is *that* important...


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