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Current Events => The DUmpster => Topic started by: GOBUCKS on January 30, 2010, 11:41:03 AM

Title: DUmmies Discuss Useless Degrees
Post by: GOBUCKS on January 30, 2010, 11:41:03 AM
DUmmy asdjrocky has a daugher who's a budding moonbat, apparently on her way to an unmarketable education:
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asdjrocky (1000+ posts)        Sat Jan-30-10 12:28 AM
Original message
My daughter has to pick a major at the end of the year. Anthropology?
I don't need to say how proud I am of her, but I will. She likes science, she loves reading, she's a liberal and she's a beauty and she has a kind heart. She also has a dad that didn't quite make it through high school. I need help.

She's already light years ahead of me on brain cells and how to use them, she's a sophomore and at the end of the year she is supposed to declare.

Any anthropologists in the house? Anyone that can point me in the right direction so when she asks me about it again I don't sound like the blubbering idiot that I am?

What jobs? What's the best field of anthropology? She's good with Latin, and she's full on great at ASL, don't ask me how she got this smart, so I was thinking maybe Linguistics?

I know DU has the smartest people in the world, please help.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x9230886
ASL whiz? She could get $8/hr. doing hand signals for moonbat campaign speeches. Great career.


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EFerrari  (1000+ posts)        Sat Jan-30-10 12:33 AM
Response to Original message
1. I read a long time ago that most college students change their majors
a few times. So remember, her choice won't imprison her. She can always switch.

You lucky dad! 
Yeah, lucky. An extra three or four years of tuition checks.


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asdjrocky (1000+ posts)        Sat Jan-30-10 12:36 AM
Response to Reply #1
3. Yeah. I was thinking the same thing when she went to college.
I told he I didn't care what she got her degree in, and I expected her to change her mind many, many times.
Good advice: What you do doesn't matter, and there's no need to be committed to anything.
 

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EFerrari  (1000+ posts)        Sat Jan-30-10 01:18 AM
Response to Reply #3
8. I doubled in English and Antrho and finally went with English.
It was the mid 80s but I had two kids and there was no daycare at Gombe. Also, the English faculty seemed to more genuinely enjoy teaching as opposed to dealing with us as an unfortunate chore. Where she is makes a difference.

Gombe?? Africa?? Anyway, poor, stupid Beth is a good resource. Her plan led her, after many years of struggle, to living in a little camping trailer out in the California desert, crammed in with her mother, two big dogs, and a hostile, mentally unbalanced brother. But in all fairness, she combined her English degree with an almost total lack of intelligence.


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Kali  (1000+ posts)      Sat Jan-30-10 12:34 AM
Response to Original message
2. genteel poverty
Anthro is good for travel, teaching - not so much for financial success. If she is really good with hard science physical anthropology/bioarcheaology may be more satisfying than cultural.

Need a masters for sure, PhD is better.

With a masters in anthropology, if she's really cute, she can get a job making coffee somewhere. With a PhD, she may be able to teach the next generation of moonbat kids.


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asdjrocky (1000+ posts)        Sat Jan-30-10 12:39 AM
Response to Reply #2
4. Thanks.
I've always told her to go after a passion (I know it's a cliche) and that really is what I want for her.

I also told her it sounded like she was walking into more school, and she was okay with that.

As far as genteel poverty goes, she's been with me all her life, so she can hang with that.

"Going after a passion" in college usually means "easy courses with no math". It also means nearly perpetual unemployment, or low paid hourly work after graduation. Lots of B.A. baristas.


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Lex  (1000+ posts)        Sat Jan-30-10 12:49 AM
Response to Original message
5. Biotechnology?
Working on the human genome project and stuff like that?
Right. That would be like getting a useless degree in film, and then directing a Brad Pitt movie immediately after graduation.

 
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asdjrocky (1000+ posts)        Sat Jan-30-10 01:52 AM
Response to Reply #5
10. Wow, I'll send that to her.
Maybe she'll be able to make heads or tails of it.



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EastTennesseeDem  (1000+ posts)      Sat Jan-30-10 01:16 AM
Response to Original message
7. One of my anthro TA's is studying internet anthropology
I don't know what it entails but it sounds awesome.

"Internet anthropology" is more commonly known as "pornography".


Advice from a disillusioned moonbat:
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Haole Girl  (1000+ posts)      Sat Jan-30-10 11:53 AM
Response to Reply #13
14. BA in Anthropology here 
If I had it to do over again, honestly, I wouldn't.

Unless your daughter goes all the way with it
she will have a difficult time finding employment .
Especially in today's job market.
Title: Re: DUmmies Discuss Useless Degrees
Post by: Vagabond on January 30, 2010, 11:44:20 AM
My wife's BA is anthropology. She realized she didn't want to spen the next twenty years digging in the dirt with someone else getting credit.
Title: Re: DUmmies Discuss Useless Degrees
Post by: NHSparky on January 30, 2010, 11:44:58 AM
Unless there is some engineering or pure science (i.e., Physics, Chem, Bio) involved, she better get used to running the fryolator for a while after graduation.  Even the engineering grads are having a tough time getting jobs--I don't even want to imagine what the people with degrees in underwater basket weaving are having to do.
Title: Re: DUmmies Discuss Useless Degrees
Post by: Tucker on January 30, 2010, 11:51:53 AM
Maybe the Moonbat's daughter can answer the question; if man came from Apes, why are there still Apes?
Title: Re: DUmmies Discuss Useless Degrees
Post by: Lord Undies on January 30, 2010, 11:56:47 AM
Maybe the Moonbat's daughter can answer the question; if man came from Apes, why are there still Apes?

If dinosaurs turned into today's birds, where did the birds come from back in the time of the dinosaurs?
Title: Re: DUmmies Discuss Useless Degrees
Post by: Splashdown on January 30, 2010, 11:59:20 AM
A nursing degree or a degree in the medical field would allow her to walk into a job and actually help people. Libs love to help people, don't they?

Title: Re: DUmmies Discuss Useless Degrees
Post by: The Village Idiot on January 30, 2010, 12:04:32 PM
If dinosaurs turned into today's birds, where did the birds come from back in the time of the dinosaurs?

lol

Her favorite show on TV is BONES, right? She thinks it must be "cool" to do that. I have a 15-year old niece who thinks like that, I help her with science homework. lol.
Title: Re: DUmmies Discuss Useless Degrees
Post by: Lord Undies on January 30, 2010, 12:06:58 PM
A nursing degree or a degree in the medical field would allow her to walk into a job and actually help people. Libs love to help people, don't they?



No, they don't.  But they love to be dishonest about it.  They especially hate individuals, which is how the medical profession works - treat the individual.  

The lefty's loathing of the individual is why most of their propaganda and lies spotlight faceless groups and imaginary collectives.  They can tolerate humanity only as long as it is being represented by lefty myths.
Title: Re: DUmmies Discuss Useless Degrees
Post by: Mike220 on January 30, 2010, 12:22:45 PM
Unless there is some engineering or pure science (i.e., Physics, Chem, Bio) involved, she better get used to running the fryolator for a while after graduation.  Even the engineering grads are having a tough time getting jobs--I don't even want to imagine what the people with degrees in underwater basket weaving are having to do.

Architecture here (for grad school). The job market has 4 years to get better...
Title: Re: DUmmies Discuss Useless Degrees
Post by: Specbid on January 30, 2010, 12:26:48 PM
Quote
she's a liberal and she's a beauty and she has a kind heart. She also has a dad that didn't quite make it through high school. I need help.

You need help huh? Well, here we go...tell her to get a tramp stamp and start practicing her lap dances. At least she'll have work for a decade.
Title: Re: DUmmies Discuss Useless Degrees
Post by: NHSparky on January 30, 2010, 12:38:07 PM
Yep--the ultimate goal of most DUmmies:

(http://a6.vox.com/6a00c2251fd3adf21900c2251fe78e8fdb-500pi)
Title: Re: DUmmies Discuss Useless Degrees
Post by: franksolich on January 30, 2010, 03:02:01 PM
Gombe?? Africa?? Anyway, poor, stupid Beth is a good resource. Her plan led her, after many years of struggle, to living in a little camping trailer out in the California desert, crammed in with her mother, two big dogs, and a hostile, mentally unbalanced brother.

Doug's ex-wife does lead a rather, uh, interesting fantasy life, doesn't she?

The invention of ancestors--including one who hobnobbed with Leon Trotsky in Mexico--half a world away from her real ancestors, her "struggles" among the suppressed of the lettuce fields, her "intimate friendship" with a one-dimensional internet personality, and now this, her studies in Africa.

Which, oddly, Doug's ex-wife has never mentioned before, in her tens of thousands of campfires and comments on Skins's island.

I suspect Doug's ex-wife just got done reading a biography of il Duce Bo's late mother, or something like that.
Title: Re: DUmmies Discuss Useless Degrees
Post by: Ralph Wiggum on January 30, 2010, 03:13:51 PM
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I know DU has the smartest people in the world, please help.

 :lmao: :lmao: :lmao: :lmao:
Title: Re: DUmmies Discuss Useless Degrees
Post by: ScubaGuy on January 30, 2010, 04:27:28 PM
Look at the bright side.  In 4 to 6 years we'll have a new primitive on the island pissing and moaning about her advanced degree and her minimum wage job.
Title: Re: DUmmies Discuss Useless Degrees
Post by: diesel driver on January 30, 2010, 04:42:42 PM
A nursing degree or a degree in the medical field would allow her to walk into a job and actually help people. Libs love to help people, don't they?


Libs only like to help the people that help THEM....

Or at least SAY they will help....
Title: Re: DUmmies Discuss Useless Degrees
Post by: Celtic Rose on January 30, 2010, 05:33:14 PM
lol

Her favorite show on TV is BONES, right? She thinks it must be "cool" to do that. I have a 15-year old niece who thinks like that, I help her with science homework. lol.

I wanted to be Dana Scully when I was in high school. I sometimes still wish I'd gone that route, or nursing. 

However, I have a "useless" BA in History, and I'm employed with a really good job that allows me to use my writing skills.  BA's aren't useless, but you have to be willing to take an entry level job and prove yourself at it.  That said, I'm currently studying for the GMAT and considering applying to Graduate Schools for an MBA.
Title: Re: DUmmies Discuss Useless Degrees
Post by: zeitgeist on January 30, 2010, 06:10:33 PM
I wanted to be Dana Scully when I was in high school. I sometimes still wish I'd gone that route, or nursing. 

However, I have a "useless" BA in History, and I'm employed with a really good job that allows me to use my writing skills.  BA's aren't useless, but you have to be willing to take an entry level job and prove yourself at it.  That said, I'm currently studying for the GMAT and considering applying to Graduate Schools for an MBA.

Why an MBA?  Would it assist in your current profession or an entrepreneurial endeavor?   I agree with your premise that BA's are not useless but MBA's seem to have become a dime a dozen with lots of people getting them with no real end use in mind. (I know one teacher who got one because she needed a masters to get a raise, didn't matter in what.  The district was paying and she found a fast pace executive course near by.)
Title: Re: DUmmies Discuss Useless Degrees
Post by: jukin on January 30, 2010, 06:10:59 PM
Get a B*S degree and not a B*A and things will be much better.
Title: Re: DUmmies Discuss Useless Degrees
Post by: AllosaursRus on January 31, 2010, 12:07:24 AM
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I doubled in English and Antrho

Huh? WTF is anthro????????????????????????????

Sorry, someone else has 'probly asked this question, but I just started reading this BS!

ETA: Okay, now I understand. How the hell are the 2 connected? Anthropology and English???????
Title: Re: DUmmies Discuss Useless Degrees
Post by: Celtic Rose on January 31, 2010, 12:18:39 AM
Huh? WTF is anthro????????????????????????????

Sorry, someone else has 'probly asked this question, but I just started reading this BS!

Anthropology. 
Title: Re: DUmmies Discuss Useless Degrees
Post by: AllosaursRus on January 31, 2010, 12:27:48 AM
Anthropology. 

Yeah, I figured it out farther down the thread. Still I don't see any correlation. How do the two complement each other? You would think you would try to be some how close, wouldn't ya? After all, don't ya want your classes to be somewhat aiming for the same goal?

I must be missin' sumpin'.
Title: Re: DUmmies Discuss Useless Degrees
Post by: BlueStateSaint on January 31, 2010, 08:32:41 AM
I wanted to be Dana Scully when I was in high school. I sometimes still wish I'd gone that route, or nursing.  

However, I have a "useless" BA in History, and I'm employed with a really good job that allows me to use my writing skills.  BA's aren't useless, but you have to be willing to take an entry level job and prove yourself at it.  That said, I'm currently studying for the GMAT and considering applying to Graduate Schools for an MBA.

And therin lies the problem.  Today's mentality is, "I studied for all this time; I deserve that $65,000 a year starting salary."  The DUmpster is rife with this 'tude.
Title: Re: DUmmies Discuss Useless Degrees
Post by: Splashdown on January 31, 2010, 09:03:30 AM
And therin lies the problem.  Today's mentality is, "I studied for all this time; I deserve that $65,000 a year starting salary."  The DUmpster is rife with this 'tude.

That's the key right there.

I also have a "useless" degree (MA English); but I also enjoy WORKING! That's the key. Also, my BA is almost 20 years old; it was a different time back then.
Title: Re: DUmmies Discuss Useless Degrees
Post by: Celtic Rose on January 31, 2010, 09:35:11 AM
Why an MBA?  Would it assist in your current profession or an entrepreneurial endeavor?   I agree with your premise that BA's are not useless but MBA's seem to have become a dime a dozen with lots of people getting them with no real end use in mind. (I know one teacher who got one because she needed a masters to get a raise, didn't matter in what.  The district was paying and she found a fast pace executive course near by.)

Honestly, I guess I've been looking at the income potential as I look at my job.  Eventually I could make some very good money, but that would be quite a ways down the road as far as I can tell.  Nothing I study would increase my income potential in my current job, and I don't particularly want to be a lawyer. 

I enjoy finance and economics, and looking at what MBA's make (assuming they can find a related job) I could make significantly more once I have one.  Also, I'm considering focusing on Accounting and getting a CPA because it seems like it would give me options.  I have a friend who is a CPA, and she has been able to stay home with her kids, but serve as an accountant for several small businesses to bring in some extra money. 

Plus, I have a dream of someday owning my own business, and an MBA would help with that. 
Title: Re: DUmmies Discuss Useless Degrees
Post by: GOBUCKS on January 31, 2010, 11:43:17 AM
Why an MBA?  Would it assist in your current profession or an entrepreneurial endeavor?   I agree with your premise that BA's are not useless but MBA's seem to have become a dime a dozen with lots of people getting them with no real end use in mind. (I know one teacher who got one because she needed a masters to get a raise, didn't matter in what.  The district was paying and she found a fast pace executive course near by.)

MBAs are a dime a dozen only if you're reading about them in Time or Newsweek. If you're an entrepreneur, an MBA may or may not be valuable, depending on what you're doing. If you're straight out of school, and MBA still just about guarantees you will be able to get a job, and you will not be starting at the absolute ground level. Unemployed new MBAs that are constantly being interviewed for news articles are looking for a certain location, a certain industry, or a certain company. If you're already in a big corporation, regardless of the line of business, an MBA is worth its weight in gold. Success still depends on the quality of your work, but the MBA confers instant credibility and the opportunity to demonstrate your ability. It can accelerate career progress by years.
Title: Re: DUmmies Discuss Useless Degrees
Post by: zeitgeist on February 01, 2010, 07:35:51 AM
Honestly, I guess I've been looking at the income potential as I look at my job.  Eventually I could make some very good money, but that would be quite a ways down the road as far as I can tell.  Nothing I study would increase my income potential in my current job, and I don't particularly want to be a lawyer. 

I enjoy finance and economics, and looking at what MBA's make (assuming they can find a related job) I could make significantly more once I have one.  Also, I'm considering focusing on Accounting and getting a CPA because it seems like it would give me options.  I have a friend who is a CPA, and she has been able to stay home with her kids, but serve as an accountant for several small businesses to bring in some extra money. 

Plus, I have a dream of someday owning my own business, and an MBA would help with that. 

Sounds like you might benefit from an MBA program.  I was fortunate to be accepted into an "Executive" program in 1986.  I had major in English and minor in Business but still ended up having to front load a bunch of under-grad accounting stuff before I could begin.  As Gobucks points out an MBA can open doors.  I spent every weekend in class and weeknights studying or attending group meetings. Very fast paced and competitive ( one could almost say cut throat ).  I was one of the older participants.  As I pointed out up thread I ran across people who were just there to "punch their ticket",  others fresh out of college with no real world experience, career changers, and more than a few accountants.  All in all for me personally it was a great and profitable experience.  One thing, I usually ended up writing the group papers, most accountants can crunch numbers but can't write for $hit. :whatever:
Title: Re: DUmmies Discuss Useless Degrees
Post by: Ralph Wiggum on February 01, 2010, 09:01:03 AM
One thing, I usually ended up writing the group papers, most accountants can crunch numbers but can't write for $hit. :whatever:

Me badly too type. :-)
Title: Re: DUmmies Discuss Useless Degrees
Post by: zeitgeist on February 01, 2010, 09:38:13 AM
Me badly too type. :-)

I still have the electric typewriter I used in a closet somewhere. It was a Smith Corona with correction ribbon. I went through lots of correction ribbons. :lmao: 
Title: Re: DUmmies Discuss Useless Degrees
Post by: Karin on February 01, 2010, 10:27:42 AM
Quote
most accountants can crunch numbers but can't write for $hit.
  Hey!  I can do both.

The OP reminded me of my stepdaughter.  Great grades in high school, A's in math and science.  Starting out her first semester of comm coll, I asked her what classes she had signed up for.  Psychology, Sociology, and ASL.  I didn't say anything to her face, but I inwardly groaned.  Later I gave her dad an earful, but there's not much he could do. 

If I were to reach my old age quite rich, and wanted to set up a scholarship, I would stipulate that they must major in something useful, like medical-related anything, accounting/finance, engineering, or science.  No gender or ethnic studies, no political "science" and absolutely NO law school.  And I'm sorry, but none of the arts either.  You study that stuff on your free time.  Hardass?  I don't care, it's my scholarship.   :-)
Title: Re: DUmmies Discuss Useless Degrees
Post by: DumbAss Tanker on February 01, 2010, 11:55:53 AM
I wanted to be Dana Scully when I was in high school. I sometimes still wish I'd gone that route, or nursing. 

However, I have a "useless" BA in History, and I'm employed with a really good job that allows me to use my writing skills.  BA's aren't useless, but you have to be willing to take an entry level job and prove yourself at it.  That said, I'm currently studying for the GMAT and considering applying to Graduate Schools for an MBA.

Well said, Rose.  In a lot of fields it's not so important what kind of undergrad degree you have, the fact that you had the perseverance and resources to see it through is the basic thing they are looking for (And I'm obviously not talking about the credentialed science or engineering community here).  It all depends on the person involved - you can become an unemployed anthropologist, or you can become a highly successful person with an undergrad degree in anthropology, the choice is entirely up to you.
Title: Re: DUmmies Discuss Useless Degrees
Post by: GOBUCKS on February 01, 2010, 12:52:22 PM
Well said, Rose.  In a lot of fields it's not so important what kind of undergrad degree you have, the fact that you had the perseverance and resources to see it through is the basic thing they are looking for
That is 100% exactly right. Unless the degree is something really, really silly, like African-American Studies, or some of the things they create for scholarship athletes, the mere fact of having a four-year degree tells employers a lot about the holder. The degree may not be immediately "marketable", but over a lifetime the holder will usually make a lot more money than he would have without it.

Liberal arts courses are also good for the young women who attend college to get their Mrs. degree. Contrary to popular opinion, they're still out there in great numbers.
Title: Re: DUmmies Discuss Useless Degrees
Post by: MarshallLaw on February 01, 2010, 01:27:09 PM
If dinosaurs turned into today's birds, where did the birds come from back in the time of the dinosaurs?


They came from apes.


Duh.
Title: Re: DUmmies Discuss Useless Degrees
Post by: debk on February 01, 2010, 01:52:06 PM
Well said, Rose.  In a lot of fields it's not so important what kind of undergrad degree you have, the fact that you had the perseverance and resources to see it through is the basic thing they are looking for (And I'm obviously not talking about the credentialed science or engineering community here).  It all depends on the person involved - you can become an unemployed anthropologist, or you can become a highly successful person with an undergrad degree in anthropology, the choice is entirely up to you.


I was in college '70-'74. Graduated with a BA in Sociology with a concentration in Criminal Justice and minors in Psych and Antropology. I started out in Medical Technology and couldn't do the math. 40+ years later, I still have a very hard time with math.

I worked retail for a little over a year, from buyer's assistant to dept manager, learning some business management, adverstising and marketing. Then worked for Xerox for 2 years...learning more about management. Worked in a dentist office (due to moving away from Omaha) as an "everything outside of sticking my fingers in someone's mouth was my job".

Took several years off of paid employment to raise my kids and ....on the Boards of Directors for The City Ballet, Junior League, PTA, art museum guild, women's group at church, home for unwed mother's, and a halfway house for women. Nothing like being on the boards of non-profit organizations to learn business.

Have been a Realtor for 13 years.

I have never used my degree, if I had known that I never would....I would have majored in Antropology, because I liked it better!

However...having a degree also opened a lot of doors for me, that not having one would have made a difference.

Still....I encouraged my daughter to make sure that she obtained a degree in something that she could always have a job. She has an AA and is a radiology technician. She needs a couple of courses to have her BS, whether she will or not, I don't know. But she will always be able to find a job in her field....which is the most important thing.