I think the main point of college is to prepare yourself for having a good career, so maybe don’t pay as much attention to my advice if you don’t feel like that is true. I partially feel this way because I have a bit of an EA mindset, and partially feel this way because I think that having skills which are relevant to the job market gives you more power to pick jobs that you like.
As a general heuristic, STEM disciplines are more relevant to the job market than humanities and the social sciences, though it is worth remembering that not all STEM disciplines are equal. I feel like CS, operations research, and math majors have the best job prospects, followed by engineering, and then biology majors. Chemistry and physics majors don’t have quite as good job prospects as other STEM majors. I don’t have a great idea of where geology majors fit into the spectrum, but I hear that the petroleum industry pays quite well.
Economics is often categorized as a social science, rather than a STEM field, though I get the impression that math-heavy economics programs probably prepare individuals for finance related jobs reasonably well.
Also, I know that some universities require all students to take a couple of humanities courses, to ensure that students are “well-rounded”. I think that e.g. familiarity with Joyce or Homer might be useful to students for signaling purposes, but that the opportunity cost of taking humanities courses is high enough that it would be better for most students if these sorts of courses weren’t required.
About Homer. There was a post (in Russian) that compared the mythology of Greeks (safely seen as ‘huh, the guys had it wrong so many times, there are no apples to make you eternally young etc.’) and contemporaries (‘there are miracle formulae that will get you to be in just as great physical shape as you were at 20 years old.) The main idea was that the same visions still are percolated under different names. So if you teach ancient texts in the ‘recognizing myths in your own thinking’ context, it might be a real help.
In many cases people get more confident about their own beliefs if they see errors in other peoples reasoning. That’s why smarter Republicans who are better at spotting errors are more likely to be climate skeptics than dumber Republicans.
Payscale tracks good data on degree payoff, but they don’t adjust for selection bias. I would recommend sorting by starting salary instead of mid-career salary to reduce that bias. SE and CS majors start at pretty much the same spot, but CS majors end up making a lot more probably because of that selection bias. Petroleum Engineering is indeed ridiculously lucrative right now, but this is in constant flux. Engineering degrees are riding high right now, but this could change a lot in 4 years. I would guess all the degrees below $40,000 probably have a negative ROI, and the ones between $40-45,000 could go either way. The only real surprises to me are Industrial Design and Food Science. I didn’t even know food science was something you could major in.
I think the main point of college is to prepare yourself for having a good career, so maybe don’t pay as much attention to my advice if you don’t feel like that is true. I partially feel this way because I have a bit of an EA mindset, and partially feel this way because I think that having skills which are relevant to the job market gives you more power to pick jobs that you like.
As a general heuristic, STEM disciplines are more relevant to the job market than humanities and the social sciences, though it is worth remembering that not all STEM disciplines are equal. I feel like CS, operations research, and math majors have the best job prospects, followed by engineering, and then biology majors. Chemistry and physics majors don’t have quite as good job prospects as other STEM majors. I don’t have a great idea of where geology majors fit into the spectrum, but I hear that the petroleum industry pays quite well.
Economics is often categorized as a social science, rather than a STEM field, though I get the impression that math-heavy economics programs probably prepare individuals for finance related jobs reasonably well.
Also, I know that some universities require all students to take a couple of humanities courses, to ensure that students are “well-rounded”. I think that e.g. familiarity with Joyce or Homer might be useful to students for signaling purposes, but that the opportunity cost of taking humanities courses is high enough that it would be better for most students if these sorts of courses weren’t required.
About Homer. There was a post (in Russian) that compared the mythology of Greeks (safely seen as ‘huh, the guys had it wrong so many times, there are no apples to make you eternally young etc.’) and contemporaries (‘there are miracle formulae that will get you to be in just as great physical shape as you were at 20 years old.) The main idea was that the same visions still are percolated under different names. So if you teach ancient texts in the ‘recognizing myths in your own thinking’ context, it might be a real help.
Unfortuantely seeing errors in other peoples thinking often doesn’t transfer to seeing them in your own thinking.
But seeing errors in others is often the first step
In many cases people get more confident about their own beliefs if they see errors in other peoples reasoning. That’s why smarter Republicans who are better at spotting errors are more likely to be climate skeptics than dumber Republicans.
Payscale tracks good data on degree payoff, but they don’t adjust for selection bias. I would recommend sorting by starting salary instead of mid-career salary to reduce that bias. SE and CS majors start at pretty much the same spot, but CS majors end up making a lot more probably because of that selection bias. Petroleum Engineering is indeed ridiculously lucrative right now, but this is in constant flux. Engineering degrees are riding high right now, but this could change a lot in 4 years. I would guess all the degrees below $40,000 probably have a negative ROI, and the ones between $40-45,000 could go either way. The only real surprises to me are Industrial Design and Food Science. I didn’t even know food science was something you could major in.