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Useless College Degrees?
I recently received a link to a slide show gallery from The Daily Beast, an aggregator news website affiliated with Newsweek. The title of this gallery was “20 Most Useless Degrees” and No. 1 was Journalism, No 4 was Advertising, No. 14 was Photography, and No. 16 was Art. The gallery does not explain why they are the most useless degrees, but you can draw conclusions based on the statistics that were provided for each occupation.
In the areas below, there is a decline in available jobs, and more students graduating with the degree each year.
1, Journalism
Median starting salary: $35,800
Median mid-career salary: $66,600
Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -4,400
Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -6.32
Undergraduate field of study: Communications
Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 78,009
4, Advertising
Median starting salary: $37,800
Median mid-career salary: $73,200
Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -800
Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: -1.71
Undergraduate field of study: Communications
Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 78,009
Adversely, in areas where there is demand, there still aren't enough opportunities to provide everyone with a job.
14, Photography
Median starting salary: $35,100
Median mid-career salary: $61,200
Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +17,500
Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +11.54
Undergraduate field of study: Visual and performing arts
Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 89,140
16, Art
Median starting salary: $33,500
Median mid-career salary: $54,800
Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +88,100
Percentage Change in number of jobs, 2008-2018: +10.57
Undergraduate field of study: Visual and performing arts
Number of students awarded degrees 2008-2009:: 89,140
With more students graduating each year seeking employment than there are available jobs, it would be very hard to justify the cost of the tuition to earn these degrees. However, while completing the petition for HPO, I learned that there are many jobs that are not accounted for when the majority of these labor and industry statistics are calculated.
For instance, many jobs in our related field are freelance based. Everyone from artists, to web designers, to camera operators work on a per project (large scale) or per day (small scale) basis. These jobs are not considered to be viable employment making a sustainable wage. I explained in the "HPO in PA" article that the sustainable wage in PA is $26,922 annually. It is unfortunate because I know plenty of people who are employed on a freelance basis making more than $27,000 annually.
However, what message does this send to the students who are graduating high school hoping to attend college to major in one of these fields, and hoping to land a related job when they get out of college? Work hard! Be the best! Make connections! Get experience! Get recommendations!
My "useless" degree in Communications has provided me the opportunity to switch careers from my passion to produce media, to what I love to do, which is teach. That "useless" degree provided me the credentials I needed to get in the door. Although, that seems to be the bigger problem. Why should it cost me $60,000 - $120,000 to become credible? Why do I need a piece of paper saying that I went to college? Does it really make me smarter, more capable, well-rounded, happier?
