Most Valuable / Pointless Fields of Study at College / University (IYO)

[Belldandy]

So I want to become a teacher. I want to teach French and English in Canada, and I'll also be getting a "teachable" in Japanese, but I can't imagine it'll be too useful overall. I'm just interested in the language ☺

I'm also interested in geology, but without the math, I couldn't be admitted. I'm currently in the Honours Bachelor of Arts with Specialization in Geography program at uOttawa and will be acquiring an Advanced Minor in French as a Second Language (the same level as having acquired a Major, but with less credits due to being too proficient for 1000&2000-level courses).

Do you know how many people ask me what the heck I plan to do with a Geography degree? Too many! They think it's the most pointless degree ever. "Only good for teaching," they say. "Waste of money," they say. I hear the same thing about Music and Fine Arts.

But what they don't realize is that geography is required for urban planning. That new hospital you just received? Yeah, a geographer used statistics to encourage the municipality that it is, in fact, needed based on current and near-future needs. That new subdivision? A Geographic Information System analysis with that company as well as with the municipality is involved in zoning-related issues and urban planning.

Not to mention people in the army also heavily require training in Geographic Information Systems to use GPS's, navigate without a GPS, among other things.

So is it pointless? Nope. I won't be using it for my career, but heck it makes university fun ☺

You don't have to specifically comment on what you have experienced yourself with your degree. If you have any stigma about an area of study, which and why? What do you think is a more "valuable" field of study, and why?

It can be university - theoretical institutions - or college - hands-on education - programs you comment on ♥

 

[Kanzler]

Many degrees are useful and I don't think there's a most useful one (or even group).

Least useful?

Communications, film/art history, women's studies, leisure studies etc etc.

bite me.

 

[Belldandy]

I don't even know what Communications is for. Someone enlighten me. A lot of people in it; is it basically like General Arts where "I don't really know what I want to do so I pick this one"?

We have Spanish Film Studies as well as Film Studies here at uOttawa. It's a new program, and I don't know why anyone would want to pursue them lol Just seems so pointless.

Obviously medicine, law, and all those big guys are important. I actually hated Geography as a kid #shiftyeyes Not sure what people do with History degrees. The librarian I work with has one and she's not sure what she can use it for either lol

 

[Nick]

I don't even know what Communications is for. Someone enlighten me. A lot of people in it; is it basically like General Arts where "I don't really know what I want to do so I pick this one"?

It's an umbrella study at most schools I've looked up. Pretty much the parent degree to things like journalism and TV broadcasting. Most schools let communication degree majors choose a focus. At least the ones in the tri-state area do.

 

[Poki]

Women's studies sounds pretty useless. Feminists pls.

 

[Belldandy]

Women's studies sounds pretty useless. Feminists pls.

I think for job prospects, it's pretty pointless. Even for knowledge, everyone knows there's an issue with equality; do you really need to spend 45,000$ to figure it out, is all I'm wondering.

I think it's a pointless focus lol

It's an umbrella study at most schools I've looked up. Pretty much the parent degree to things like journalism and TV broadcasting. Most schools let communication degree majors choose a focus. At least the ones in the tri-state area do.

Ah, OK, thanks for clarifying. I've always been curious. It's so popular at uOttawa alongside psychiatry. Can't imagine all these people want to be journalists lol

 

[Poki]

I think for job prospects, it's pretty pointless. Even for knowledge, everyone knows there's an issue with equality; do you really need to spend 45,000$ to figure it out, is all I'm wondering.

I think it's a pointless focus lol

It's a pretty solid money-making strategy, regardless.

 

[Alfieri]

Graphic design. Basically anything with art. I could be making excellent logos and cartoons with the help of online illustrator and flash tutorials. You don't need to take courses on how to use photoshop, it's self-explanatory. The field doesn't pay well either.

 

[Lycanthropy]

The most useless study I can think of is Celtic. With Latin you can still become a high school teacher, but the only job available with a Celtic study is teaching that study, that's one position in the entire country!

 

[Magic Christmas Lights]

All degrees are inherently valid and worthwhile. What's wrong with teaching your field of study being the only available job? Teaching is an awesome career for some people. Who cares if some degrees make less money than others? The monetary value of different jobs is an arbitrary standard set by society.

 

[Shining Raichu]

Unfortunately it's the useless-to-employment fields of study that I want to learn about lol

 

[greenies]

Most corrupt:
Teaching, they will give any monkey without personality or charisma a teaching job nowadays.

Most valuable:
Business, learning to create a financial empire isn't for the weak.

 

[Powerserge]

Pointless Fields: Anything in the Creative Arts, such as Graphic Design and Music

Most Useful: Anything STEM. Especially engineering fields.

 

[Belldandy]

Most corrupt:
Teaching, they will give any monkey without personality or charisma a teaching job nowadays.

I work at the Education Centre (basically the private library for bED students) and I learnt a few things:

1) To teach at college or university in Canada, you only need a Masters (for part-time) or a Ph.D (for full-time). You don't even need to attend teacher's college or do a two-year extra program like for highschool or elementary school teachers. Honestly, I don't understand this. Basically, they want you to be knowledgeable in your field, but don't make you learn how to properly convey the information!
2) Because teaching became a default job due to only the extra year, Canada is bumping it to a two-year extra program starting in September 2015 to discourage individuals from going into teaching because it's the easiest venue. This should help with the over-saturation and the quality issues.

I'm going for a bED eventually, but it's because I want to teach and have people learn, not because it's an easy post-program ☺

 

[Lotus the Cat]

1) To teach at college or university in Canada, you only need a Masters (for part-time) or a Ph.D (for full-time). You don't even need to attend teacher's college or do a two-year extra program like for highschool or elementary school teachers. Honestly, I don't understand this. Basically, they want you to be knowledgeable in your field, but don't make you learn how to properly convey the information!

It's the same in Australia and I expect in many universities. For the sciences, at least (I can't comment on other faculties), the best people to teach are those doing the active research, which itself doesn't require a teaching qualification. To be honest I don't think lecturers at university have ever required a teaching qualification (unless teaching education, obviously).

 

[Castaigne]

One of the things I've noticed is that there aren't useless degrees, there are useless people. A communications degree isn't inherently useless. People who get their degrees in communications because they're really passionate about it get full value out of it. Maybe they become researchers in new media trends, or how people consume media, or intercultural communication, or whatever. Maybe they don't even use the communications degree directly in their jobs, they just use it as a way to ground their thinking.
Whereas if you got your communications degree because "lol Facebook is cool" and you could pass the classes easily, then of course it's worthless. And I think that's why a lot of people confuse a STEM degree as inherently more valuable than a more general degree. There are definitely people out there who blew it even though they had a valuable degree. STEM is naturally valuable of course, but the competition is occurring in university to weed out the people that don't succeed.

Anyways personally I'm getting my Bachelor's in Earth Science with a concentration in GIS, and a minor in math and chemistry. Once I graduate, I'll work a couple odd jobs and build up some experience before I apply for grad schools. I'm probably going to go the MBA route, since enterprise is where it's at.

 

[Belldandy]

Anyways personally I'm getting my Bachelor's in Earth Science with a concentration in GIS, and a minor in math and chemistry. Once I graduate, I'll work a couple odd jobs and build up some experience before I apply for grad schools. I'm probably going to go the MBA route, since enterprise is where it's at.

Interesting! I wanted to go for a BSc in Geology, but I would've had to repeat a math course and also acquired two 12U courses - Calculus + Vectors - and I wasn't willing to go back and do it.

That said, Geography has some similar themes. Still very different, but here and there something will remind me of my Earth & Space class. We had a whole week on space and geomorphology in my first year Geography class.

My boyfriend has his BA in Geography and is getting a post-grad in GIS. Do you find that a lot of people don't know what GIS is? We have to explain it all the time...

x

Med School is very competitive up here in Canada. Even nursing: some people wait years to be accepted to the Algonquin College nursing program. We have such a huge demand for family doctors and practioners across Canada, you'd think we'd be letting people in every which way and that! but it's probably best to weed 'em out for quality purposes. Exactly what they're starting to do now with bED applications.

 

[Sir Codin]

Most Useful: Any science degree except maybe Math (and even then, majoring in math makes you better than most people)

Least Useful: Anything else except probably Business.

Unless your degree has "Bachelor of Science" on it, it most likely isn't worth shit.

 

[Castaigne]

Interesting! I wanted to go for a BSc in Geology, but I would've had to repeat a math course and also acquired two 12U courses - Calculus + Vectors - and I wasn't willing to go back and do it.

That said, Geography has some similar themes. Still very different, but here and there something will remind me of my Earth & Space class. We had a whole week on space and geomorphology in my first year Geography class.

My boyfriend has his BA in Geography and is getting a post-grad in GIS. Do you find that a lot of people don't know what GIS is? We have to explain it all the time...

I actually switched from a math degree to earth science, so I had all my courses and then extra completed (hence the minor).

I've taken a couple of the human geography classes just out of interest, and I do think the overlap is pretty interesting. But I feel like that's something I can learn on my own, while something like geodetics or soil chemistry I definitely need a professor for.

And absolutely, I barely meet people who know what GIS is lol. I'd say probably 1 in 7 know what I'm talking about, 5 in 7 know what I'm talking about with minimal prompting, and 1 in 7 actually needs me to sit down and explain the entire concept.

 

[Sir Codin]

And absolutely, I barely meet people who know what GIS is lol. I'd say probably 1 in 7 know what I'm talking about, 5 in 7 know what I'm talking about with minimal prompting, and 1 in 7 actually needs me to sit down and explain the entire concept.

Where's the category for "taking a class on it right now"?

Because I belong there.