"Bad" Majors: 5 Principles to Understand (and how to make them work)

I tend to keep my career advice moderate:

"choose a profitable career, make good money and do great things, while keeping a life balance that provides personal satisfaction and time for family life and hobbies."

But I have a range.

I don't advise students to follow grind-set start-up militant lifestyles with 12-hour adderall-fueled workdays and Wolf of Wall Street posters on the wall.

I advise balance.

However: if that's the life someone's dedicated to living, power to them: my job then becomes channeling that extreme energy in a direction that helps the world, not hurts it.

Likewise: if a student wants a "soft girl life" with nannies for the kids, where majors duties involve pilates and mimosas, I'd advise them to aim higher (at least a bit).

But again: if that's your dream, I'm here to support it. Let's make sure you find a great path towards your dreams.

And so it is with college majors:

I recommend professional majors like engineering, nursing, accounting or computer science.

My second-tier is hard sciences like biology, chemistry, physics, math, or softer professional majors like education, marketing, or graphic design.

And my third-tier is cross-applicable but general majors like business, design and communications.

Some conventional pre-law majors like philosophy and Classics get an honorable mention, but only if you're off to Law school afterwards.

I do not recommend anything else.

However, some students want to do other majors.

And again: if that's your dream and I can't dissuade you, the onus is on me to minimize damage.

Let's see how.

1. First, the majors in question: Performing Arts, Fine Arts, Creative Writing, Film, English. Psychology, Sociology and Anthropology. Anything with 'studies' after it: Religious Studies, African American Studies, Gender Studies.

2. Second, money: Jobs in these fields pay poorly and are in low demand. What this means is that the trope of 'working at Starbucks' is your likely future. Plan on $15-25 per hour, forever, and the lifestyle that goes along with those wages (roommates, no vacations, humble living).

   
   

Is this bad? Absolutely not. Humble lives can be dignified and noble and happy and admirable. But they will be humble.

And a side note: if you're already rich, these concerns about low wages obviously don't apply to you. You're all set.

3. Third, there's exceptions: Can you great a high-paid job with these degrees? Sure. Is it likely? No. So perhaps you know someone who majored in Gender Studies and makes 500k at a non-profit doing good work—they exist—but it's a bad bet to count on it.

4. Fourth: how to make it work: These studies are all important to the world, and especially to those who study them. So how can you make it work if you're dead-set on Anthropology?

Three ways:

• First, self-study: these skills, or knowledge can all be learned outside of a college. Music & Art are mostly about the practice that you put into it. World-class Sociology and Psychology lectures are all on Youtube, for free.

• Second, a minor: picking a higher-ROI major, like business, accounting or CS, can leave you with a minor on the side to learn about your low-ROI passion. This does add more to your collegiate workload, but can strike a good balance between practicality and interest.

• Third, projects: you can meld your simpler passions with a solid skill.

  
  

In CS, for example, you'll build software that solves a range of problems. Instead of majoring in psychology or African American studies, you might apply your CS knowledge to build applications relating to those interests.

Likewise, pursuing nursing gives you a solid skill you can use to tangibly help dispossessed people, rather than just studying them academically.

5. Fifth: walk in clear-eyed. Perhaps you're dead-set on a Classics Major. You want to read Homer at a college, write Dante essays for a professor, and come up with Brontë-related pickup lines for coeds at the local bar.

Again: power to you.

The one assignment I'll give you before making that choice is to investigate cost of living, determine your likely post-graduation salary, factor in whatever debt you'll accrue by paying thousands of dollars to read books, and meditate on the lifestyle that you'll be locking yourself into.

And if you're still not dissuaded? Read away, fair student.

I wish you only the best.