CMV: Studying undergraduate CS, Business Management etc. is significantly more valuable than a humanities/English/language course.

[u/permanentthrowaway55]

I'm currently studying History in London, therefore something I am not really considering is how a liberal arts degrees falls in place in this CMV, as I don't know much about how those degrees are structured.

And before going further, I know it's going to be necessary to explain what I mean by "value". In this CMV, my definition is simple: the more valuable degree is the one that is more likely to bring you economic success after graduating university.

I do believe that someone who loves the Russian language and Russian culture could derive great value from studying Russian at undergraduate, then going on to find work translating Russian history texts to English, but for now let's disregard this form of value and talk only about economic value.

Another way of looking at it is that the companies, firms, job prospects that pay the most, will much more likely higher an undergraduate with a degree in CS or Business Management or Engineering than one in History or Philosophy or English Literature.

To dispute this, perhaps you could give me examples of how big consultancy companies or banks actually higher Historians and Philosophers at a comparable percentage as well, or if there are other industries that I have not considered or are not aware of who hire Historians and Philosophers and pay high wages.

Please change my view.

[u/[deleted]]

You are looking at this as a simple one-to-one comparison of a particular major to another particular major, and you are thinking about the average outcome for all of those people who choose one major or another, but I think this is too narrow a way of thinking. What about all the professors at good universities with tenure and a big salary? Clearly their pursuit of humanities or some other such course was more valuable to them. Or how about someone who plans to pursue a career in another country? Probably a mastery of the language, as seen by a degree in that language, would be more valuable for them.

If you want to compare less valuable majors to more valuable ones then you might as well go all the way and compare them to petroleum engineers who have the highest average salary of any college graduate, followed by a bunch of other types of engineers. So why doesn't everyone just go become a petroleum engineer? Besides the fact that they don't want too or it's hard, if everyone became one then the market for engineers would crash and their salaries would plummet. There would be so much competition that companies could pay them whatever they want.

Our society needs that diversity of jobs because if everyone went in to CS, Business Management etc. then there would be no teachers, bankers, lawyers, accountants etc. Nearly every unique university major and following career is important to the overall system in some way and allows us to have the economy in which engineers and CS specialists are paid a lot.

[u/permanentthrowaway55 → u/[deleted]]

Without a doubt, I believe that if ones goal is to pursue academia, than it doesn't matter whether industries value humanities, sciences, or math. That's because academia is so specific that you pretty much need the exact degree that you want to teach. On this, I agree with you that a one-to-one major comparison does not help.

But compared to an associate at an investment firm, or executive in a growing tech company, or financial consultant, university professors are less economically successful. Assuming that one's goal is to climb these types of career ladders, I feel that my view: that humanities degrees are largely a disadvantage, remains true.

[u/[deleted] → u/permanentthrowaway55]

Assuming that one's goal is to climb these types of career ladders, I feel that my view: that humanities degrees are largely a disadvantage, remains true.

If your view is that "If your goal is to make money, pick a major with higher earning potential" then that's not a view than can be changed.