List of worthless college degrees

joepistole said:
I have been always impressed by the number of worthless college degrees. Reciepients of them cannot easily get jobs, and some I really have to think are a complete waste of time. For example, what is the value of an education degree? Why cann't others with degrees in English or Business teach without having a degree in education. Archeology is another worthless degree, in my opinion.
When I was in college, it was a belief that those who were academically challenged found their way into education degrees. Is this so?
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What we are seeing is a gradual shift in the function of universities. Originally they were established to unite all fields of study (hence the word "universal"). The shift is now moving towards simply decking people out with padding for their employment viability.
Small wonder that the arts/humanities are on the slide ....
 
camilus said:
you're fuckin crazy, sociology is not only interesting, its useful! there is a sociologist for every goddamn thing in the world, they basically collect data about any human behavior, and interpret it to get results, make predictions, and so forth. A sociologist IS different from the social worker though, that was like the first thing my sociology instructor said.

AND, you study Karl Marx in sociology, only math and physics are more fun than that.
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Sociologists are equivalent to crystal ball readers. For one, they lack the background in statistical training and often are guilty of induction errors. So you cannot really believe their studies unless you take the time to properly proof them assuming you have the time, training and inclination to do so.

Second, is not that what psychologist do…study human behavior but with a more rigorous application of scientific principal?
 
again joe, sociology goes hand in hand with epidemology and i would LOVE to see you make an argument that an epidemologist cant deal with statistics
 
Asguard said:
again joe, sociology goes hand in hand with epidemology and i would LOVE to see you make an argument that an epidemologist cant deal with statistics
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It is easy, I went through college and statistics. And we used published sociology papers to identify errors. Sociology is a broad field Asguard. Most sociologist do not work in epidemology. Can you quantify the value those few sociologist who may work in epidemology? They do not do anything any person with a secondary education could do.

I would LOVE to see you show in a quantative fashion, what value sociologist add in any given circumstance.
 
you dont think reduction in smoking? anti traffic crash campains (legisative, policy and public infomation) ect have value?

What about aids campaines?
safe sex campaines?
anit obesity campaines?

Yes all of these come out of parliment but before they ever reach minsters desks they are formulated by sociologists and epidemologists (possably cross trained but not always)

Even distribution of health resorces are formulated not just by epidimological data but by sociologists as well. Its not just the WHAT but the WHY which is important

For instance let me put a question to you (you are going to have to pretend that this is 20-30 years ago)
You work in the department of health, a trend is identifided that lung cancer is highest amongst smokers. Further more its identifided that these diseases are identifided as being higest amongst people where the income is under 25,000 a year (i pulled that figure out of my ass, if im wrong you get the idea low income families).

The minster askes you what they should do to reduce the incidence of these diseases. What do you do?
 
The problems you cited; AIDS, Obesity and Smoking are all health problems. The key to mitigating these problems is education. For that you need a good ad man/woman not a sociologist.

And you have not shown what unique value a sociologist adds to the equation.
 
really, you think that anyone with a maths degree can work out how to put together public policy which will reach its target and have the disired effect?

Where enforcement is nessary and where public infomation will work?
where to best spend the money?

I have done ONE unit of sociology and epidemology as part of my degree, there is no way in HELL i would concider myself in ANYWAY qualifided to be able to forumlate public policy in this area
 
Asguard said:
really, you think that anyone with a maths degree can work out how to put together public policy which will reach its target and have the disired effect?

Where enforcement is nessary and where public infomation will work?
where to best spend the money?

I have done ONE unit of sociology and epidemology as part of my degree, there is no way in HELL i would concider myself in ANYWAY qualifided to be able to forumlate public policy in this area
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Did you get an A?

Nobody says that you need a degree in math. A psychologist would be a better choice as they have more training and a better background in statistics. Psychologists are far less likely to make induction errors as their training is more science based. Sociologist get into trouble when they get in to causality. In human sciences there are a lot of factors that one has to control and account for in any study. This is not a sociologists strong point.
 
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i got a dististintion (i cant rember the exact grade but for a D its aprox 80-90%, HD is 90-100% credit is 70-80% pass is 50-70%)
 
I think distinction = A

That goes to my point, it is an easy A....not academically challenging.
 
actually i compleatly disagree with that, it was one of the hardest subjects i have done. Much harder than even the legal section and FAR harder than the clinical portion of my course
 
joe, sociology is basically psychology of masses, or societies. As for any human science, some mistakes are inevitable. that doesnt make it useless. Just look at the basic theories of sociology. How are you going to say functionalism or conflict theory dont describe a wide range of human behavior..?
 
Camilus im assuming you have studied it
did you study marx in relation to health care? most specifically the confession section (sorry i did this 2 years ago so if i get it slightly wrong excuse my mestake)

I was left thinking, ok but how else can you actually DO it. If you dont tell the people what you want or need wether its buying a TV or reciving health care, how can the people help you
 
sorry man its 8:27, and I got an 8:30 physics class to go to so I'll get back to ya at 10:30.
 
Camilus I am not saying human social behavior is not worthy of study. But I am saying that the training of a sociologist is inadequate to the task at hand and would be better server by someone with a background in psychology.
 
The method of obtaining knowledge in psychology is almost identical to that of sociology. They're like sister disciplines, except one deals with individuals and the other with groups of individuals all the way to entire societies. What's the big problem with that?
 
This whole topic needs to be elaborated on. worthless in what sense? money-making? then yes, philosophy graduates arent gonna make as much money. But the knowledge acquired is priceless, and even some modern philosophers like Peter Singer are world famous, the NY Times begs this guy to write articles for them. so I dont think his philosophy degree is worthless.
 
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