Let's Stop Determining The "Worst Degrees"

By Shaina Eldredge on September 12, 2016

I am a college student and one of my absolute favorite things is when people tell me that my major, which is fine arts, is one of the worst degrees to procure.

Not just my major, though — maybe they think that my whole school, which includes such majors as interior design, graphic design, film, and photography, is completely pointless. They might even think that they are some of the “worst degrees” to obtain.

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Some lists, such as a Snapchat article from Brother so professionally entitled “People with these majors will be broke af,” include my sister’s current major of communications as one of the worst degrees. Many lists from sources including Forbes and even Huffington Post list several different types of education as some of the worst degrees.

Let me tell you something as a self-appointed representative of underappreciated majors of the “worst degrees”: we’re tired of hearing about it. We know, we get it.

As a server, the easiest joke I make when I’m working is: “I’m a fine arts major, which means I’ll be doing this for the rest of my life.” (A joke which I’m sure my biggest supporter would probably scold me for as harshly as she scolded me for not signing a piece I sold to her. Aunt Becky, art history is on a lot of these lists so just know you have one of the worst degrees, too).

We get it. Our majors are more likely to be less useful financially, which is why you think they are the worst degrees. When I first uploaded a YouTube channel and told someone close to me that I didn’t expect the channel to go anywhere, that person said “Well what else can you do with this?”

Lots of things, but that’s another discussion. My grandmother has been teaching for pretty much my entire life, and she’s done so with the so “worthless” educator’s degree. We choose our majors because it makes us happy and, at least for me, it’s pretty much the only thing I know how to do. People are always saying things along the lines of “do what makes you happy!” and then criticize people when they choose to do things that are less practical than they approve of.

It’s exhausting to hear over and over again how useless my degree will be, and being judged for studying what I study. You might be better off with that engineering degree, but how are you going to decorate your living room or have fun-colored furniture in your house if no one majored in art or design?

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