Ah, your college major. There’s a weird sort of elitism some people seem to associate with certain ones. Business, economics, and marketing… those can be seen as more “practical” than something like history, or underwater basket weaving.
Now personally, I’m a writing major and a theater arts minor. Which means to the trained eye, I’m pretty much unemployable. But the good news? None of that matters, because it’s going to be freaking hard for anyone I’m graduating with to get a job.
The class of 2015 graduated into 7.2% unemployment, and 14.9% underemployment, meaning they held a job that didn’t require them to have a college degree. That’s higher than 19.5% of high school grads who are unemployed, but it’s not really an inspiring thought. And of course, these unemployment numbers are even higher for non-white college grads.
Not to mention that student debt is on the rise. In 2014, more than 40 million Americans had student debt from loans. Combine that with the difficulties in just finding a college level job, and you’re looking at a pretty upsetting future.
I promise I’m not here to depress you. The job market has actually been improving, albeit slowly, in the last few years. College is still a worthwhile investment for those interested. But these facts still suggest something to me: it’s pretty ridiculous to argue over which majors are “important” and which ones aren’t.
I know that it’s going to be hard to find a job as a fiction writing major. Most of the “good” jobs I would be able to find in the writing field would be nonfiction. Heck, I signed up to write for the Odyssey because I know that experience is going to be important when sifting through piles of internship resumes for a position involving sitting at a desk and answering phones.
But I like writing, I want to take classes on it. The same goes for theater. And in a perfect world I would be able to get a job as a writer, or an actor. I’d be able to do the kinds of things that interest me, and I’d make a bunch of money and own a nice house with 50 dogs and life would be perfect.
Granted, we don’t live in a perfect world, and when I graduate, I’m likely looking at going back to my summer ice cream store job for a while. But what’s the point in making myself bored or miserable in college and studying something I don’t care about, if I’m more than likely going to struggle to find a career in that field anyway?
I could be an econ major, but I’d dislike my classes and not be interested in the work. And I would face the same problems of finding a job when I graduate. Don’t waste your time on something you don’t like just because you think it’s “practical”; you’re only going to be disappointed in the long run.
Truthfully, I’d rather enjoy my college classes and graduate to scooping ice cream than have a shot at doing whatever political science majors do (I feel like at this point it’s too late for me to ask). If you’re passionate about business, go into business. If you love weaving baskets underwater, well, then…. You get my point.
Davis, Alyssa, Elise Gould, and Will Kimball. "The Class of 2015: Despite an Improving Economy, Young Grads Still Face an Uphill Climb." Economic Policy Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Sept. 2015.
McCarthy, Kyle. "10 Fun Facts About the Student Debt Crisis." The Huffington Post. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Sept. 2015. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kyle-mccarthy/10-fun...>.
