# Are all majors equal, or are some clearly better than others?



## Luemas9 (Feb 19, 2011)

Whilst sifting through lists of majors online, trying to figure out how I would approach college, it surprised me that there is such a vast plethora of available fields of study. However, after examining the majors themselves, they began to seem a little... redundant. 

For example:
One school offers a degree in petroleum engineering as well as a degree in chemical engineering. Wouldn't a chemical engineering degree encompass petroleum? What about the petroleum engineering degree is not covered in the chemical engineering degree? How would the petroleum engineering degree benefit me or offer me more opportunities in the work force than a chemical engineering degree?

Also, many schools offer degrees in Neurology, Psychology, Neuropsychology, Neurobiology, and Biopsychology. I get the distinction between Neurology and Psychology, but what in the world do all these other majors entail!? What do you learn in Neurobiology that you don't learn in Neurology? And what are the pros and cons of each in the work force?

There were many such redundant examples like this. So my question is, are some degrees inherently better than others? Can one degree better qualify you for some jobs more than another degree? Should I try to get a more general degree that will qualify me for more jobs and avoid locking myself into too specialized of a major? And of course, this is all only my bachelor’s degree, right? Would it be smarter to get a general bachelor’s degree, and then a specified master’s degree?


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## timeless (Mar 20, 2010)

If you know exactly what you want to go into, the more specific degrees are great. If a student knows for sure that they're going into something involving petroleum, the degree in petroleum engineering is probably going to look better than the degree in chemical engineering, all things considered.


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## HowDareThey (Dec 31, 2010)

Yeah, depends entirely on your goals and how prepared you are up front to specialize.


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## xisnotx (Mar 20, 2014)

no doubt about it.


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## AriesLilith (Jan 6, 2013)

I can use my field as example. There are degrees here in Portugal that are called (translated roughly) Informatics Engineering, Informatics and Organization Management, Informatics of Management and so on. Basically the first one is the traditional one focused on the technical knowledge, while the others incorporate technical knowledge with organizational/management learning.

So if one is more interested in pursuing a technical part in the IT field, like being a programmer/developer/sys admin/DB admin, then it's better to take Informatics Engineering. If one is more interested in the business and management in the IT field, like being a business consultant, analyst who understands what is needed in a project, managers and so on, the other options might be more suitable.


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## Json221 (Aug 9, 2013)

Yes, but you're not screwed if you don't specialize right away. In the example above, a degree in Computer Science is still very useful, and if you don't know exactly what you want to do, you can just get the general degree and specialize later. Like in grad school or on the job.

There's no one answer for all industries, I imagine. Some industries it's probably worth picking a speciality right away, others it's fine being a generalist for a while and then getting deep into things. Talk to profs or grads or people in the industry to get a feel for this.


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## Scrabbletray (Apr 27, 2014)

This is the difference between the two so far starting salary goes. :tongue:


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## Gossip Goat (Nov 19, 2013)

That title was so 'Animal Farm'.



> So my question is, are some degrees inherently better than others?


All degrees offer valuable knowledge, if you define the better degree as holding more opportunity and provides a larger salary (stereotypically) then sure, some degrees are better than others in those aspects.



> Can one degree better qualify you for some jobs more than another degree?


If you look at the job market you will see that most jobs reside in the STEM category, while supposedly you would have a better chance at getting a job in something you actually studied for; alot of the jobs in STEM require PhD's and getting published.

If you mean, can one degree act as a universal degree that encompasses all degrees and make you look like a better employer...no, no such degree exist. Some say Philosophy majors have excellent X, Y, Z skills and its true but if they want to work as a doctor, engineer, lawyer, electrician, teacher, they will need to specialize in those fields because thats just how it is. It's not so much about the degree, its more about the kinds of experiences you have. So, volunteer work, internships, fellowships, work experience related to your desired title, etc.



> Should I try to get a more general degree that will qualify me for more jobs and avoid locking myself into too specialized of a major?


 This is a tough question, if you want to be a petroleum engineer go for the petroleum engineering degree and don't go for the chemical one. I think it will serve you much better. Or you could go for the general one then specialize in grad school, some places require a higher degree.




> And of course, this is all only my bachelor’s degree, right? Would it be smarter to get a general bachelor’s degree, and then a specified master’s degree?


 It wouldn't necessarily be smarter, it depends. If you look at job postings you will see that alot of them are like 

Education: Bachelors degree minimum and/or at least 5 years experience
Can be substituted with Masters degree with 3 years experience

Something like that.

I think that within this day and age a bachelors degree won't get you far. The more qualified you are the better. It's not always like that it depends, every employer is different.


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## Swordsman of Mana (Jan 7, 2011)

even a cursory glance at rates of employment, career satisfaction or salary will quickly make apparent that the notion of "all degrees being equal is _nonsense_


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## Qloshae (May 7, 2014)

Well, one needs to take into account also where you went.
As someone studying game design at Uppsala, I am more likely to get a job than someone with the same degrees studying game design at some minor university because people know what Uppsala university is and it has a strong positive reputation.
Also, the reputation of the program itself also makes you more likely to get a good job if you got a degree from a program with a good reputation. I mean, you could study the exact same things as other people, but if they have shitty professors and small amount of lectures etc. whereas you have really skilled professors and a lot of lectures etc. your program in your university is more likely to reward you with more opportunities.

Imo. just look at schools and say "all schools are equal", lol. I come from a small town where I was publicly humiliated by the teacher for being ahead of the other students. Whereas I know of many who were allowed to move up a few years because they were ahead of the other students in their class.

*TL;DR:* Obviously then not all majors or educations in general are the same.

It's also my experience that if you are unsure about specializing then you should maybe wait with that until you feel more sure. Not everyone wants to specialize in any particular field.
I mean, basically you could specialize so much that you were only really able to do a single job or you would have wasted a few years of study or you don't specialize that much and get less paid but haven't wasted a few years studying towards something you might not even want in a decade.

*TL;DR:* You can always specialize later imo.


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## HAL (May 10, 2014)

Depends what you want to do.

I advise you don't pick one just for the sake of it, however.

The time and expense of university study is not a social obligation. These days people seem to think it is though.

"_Oh which one should I study, there are so many to choose from, someone help me decide_!" It's absurd.

EDIT: Hang on, this is an ooooooooooooooooold thread.
@HowDareThey ... How very dare you.


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## Json221 (Aug 9, 2013)

HAL said:


> EDIT: Hang on, this is an ooooooooooooooooold thread.


LOL good catch. We were all fooled.


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## feel like an alien (Jan 4, 2015)

all majors are equal (but some are more equal than others(stem), best not end up with a framed piece of toilet paper).


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## S33K3RZ (Oct 18, 2014)

Luemas9 said:


> Whilst sifting through lists of majors online, trying to figure out how I would approach college, it surprised me that there is such a vast plethora of available fields of study. However, after examining the majors themselves, they began to seem a little... redundant.
> 
> For example:
> One school offers a degree in petroleum engineering as well as a degree in chemical engineering. Wouldn't a chemical engineering degree encompass petroleum? What about the petroleum engineering degree is not covered in the chemical engineering degree? How would the petroleum engineering degree benefit me or offer me more opportunities in the work force than a chemical engineering degree?
> ...


Don't focus on the degree, focus on the career you want. Once you find out the career you want, you can do a job hunt and find out what degree best serves people of that career choice. Bad degrees are once that don't turn into productive jobs such as philosophy, history, story telling, women's studies/ethnic studies, etc. Degree's that require a Phd. to have any value that do not pay well are also questionable. This is not to say they don't have other types of value, but they do have reduced value for most people since people expect to get a job after the work of getting a degree is completed. Personally if I was independently wealthy and never needed to work I would probably be a life long student getting those interesting but mostly useless degree's.

The 10 Worst College Majors - Forbes


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## Persephone (Nov 14, 2009)

Luemas9 said:


> ...


I will respond to your title question, and I believe some majors are clearly better than some others, _regardless of what you plan to do with your major_.

The following example only pertains to America. It is well known that in America, an applicant to Law School can _theoretically major in anything_ in their undergraduate years. LSAT is one of the most common metrics to determine the success of a law school applicant. Major in question: Pre-Law. It is well known and well documented that Mathematics, Philosophy and Physics majors are the HIGHEST scorers on this test, followed by English majors, etc. making them some of the most successful applicants. And where does the Pre-Law major fall in this ranking? No. 28 according to one list. Ie. One of the lowest. What accounts for the success of these majors on the LSAT? Note that the LSAT is a reasoning test. Granted, I don't know much about Pre-Law, but here's what I know about the three listed majors.

All are reasoning-heavy. Most math majors take Naive Set Theory and Elementary Logic. Some take Modal Logic and Mathematical Logic. Modal Logic is almost incomprehensibly difficult. They are used to writing proofs entirely in abstraction, sometimes lasting pages. The longest proof I had written is 6 pages long, and it's not even long compared to "industry standard". Physics majors are also highly analytical. They must be able to extract workable information from the circumstances given and the level of complexity it reaches is staggering. A good physics solution reads very much like a math proof. Mostly abstract. Numbers only when strictly necessary. There is almost nothing in Philosophy that is _not_ reasoning, and on top of that, the kind of arguments you are expected to make are about subjects that are fiendishly headache inducing.

And as if these challenges aren't enough, Math/Physics majors typically know:

1. Computer programming
2. Industry-standard computational packages

If they don't go to Law School, the jobs and fields open to them are:

1. Finance/actuarial work- all highly lucrative
2. Investment banking/hedge fund managing
3. Engineering- all varieties
4. Cryptography
5. Operations Research
6. Biostatistics or Biophysics- again, highly lucrative fields
7. Data-mining: think Google
8. Economics
9. Academia-Professorship or Researcher
10. Most things you can think of.

I'm not sure what pre-law really enables you to do if you don't go to law school. Maybe just number 9/10. Certainly not 1-8, unless you already have the skills. Long story short, Mathematics and Physics are superior to Pre-Law in all ways. Intellectually, they train your brain more. Career-wise, you can do anything a Pre-Law can do, and much more. If you are equally talented for all three, don't go for Pre-Law. Thus I have demonstrated that there exists some majors clearly superior to some other majors.


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## Morpheus83 (Oct 17, 2008)

Any major is 'useful' only as long as it suits your values, interests and long/short-term priorities. Who am I to argue that a degree is 'useful' if it directly leads to a job or career you don't care about?


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