[Dat ass]

I have to make clear that i'm based in Argentina and aming for a public school in Europe, so school tuition is not so big deal, living would be, but i'm paying for that here too anyway.

After taking into consideration and reading a lot of the STEM and career advice topics i landed the conclusion that even if IT or Mechanical enginering seems the best options, i don't wish that kind of lifestyle, and i don't think i have the patience to do that for life, in fact i recently landed some gigs in web development and i don't like it at all, i just learned it for the money and the desire to live independently, i would still do it to save and live confortable for now, but being infront of a screen is not something that i really enjoy. I'm more a people person, i would rather to be in sales, teaching or the hospitality industry, of course money is an issue, i don't want to be fucking broke, but i wouldn't force myself to learn something that i don't have any interest about, to get more money

I know i would like to start a company in some particular areas that i enjoyed a lot when i had the oportunity to work in, and i will try to make that real. But i know i have also a high probability to fail, so i would like to know which humanities degree would be good to make while i try to hustle in the niches i'm interested in?

I readed here about how sociology/political sience with an MA Statistics is valuable. I also saw a degree route that was a modern languages degree that leads to a MA in international business. I spent a lot of my free time and money learning languages so getting a formal education for almost free on this area seems like a great idea.

Probably with an international business MA i can get some options in import/export industries. Or with the advantage that it is a foreign and well valued degree, and a couple of years of experience i can be able to teach in Latin America/Developing world, i had a high class girlfriend who was studying in a private college, getting an arts degree. One time she told me thad she had to see a teacher to help her with her graduation thesis, i asked her the qualifications and she told me that he had just a BA in arts, but studied in Italy. I was like no shit, i'm studying arts in a mediterranean country and becoming a teacher to bang girls like my actual girlfriend while being paid, though i guess there would be more competence, the more bullshit and easy the degree is, the more lazy high class kids would study it and try to teach.

Any suggestion? opinions?

[ElBorrachoInfamoso]

In humanities you either become an academic or you leave the field and it sounds like you don't want to become an academic. So choose the degree that will train your mind the best. My vote is for philosophy or linguistics.

[VolandoVengoVolandoVoy]

Work is a way to get money. Drop this idea that it is a passion or something you should find interesting.
That's what you do in non work time with the money that people pay you to do something that is not fun.
The smarter you work and the more added value you provide, the more control you have over where and how you work, and how much money you get for that work.
You would be much better off working a blue collar job than wasting 4 years or more of your life getting a humanities degree.

[Americas]

Well, let's classify something first: typically the 'humanities' encompasses history, philosophy, languages, religion, and the classics. Social sciences are economics, sociology, political science, criminology, geography, and psychology. Humanities are typically qualitative methods, while social sciences use both qualitative and quantitative approaches.

In my opinion, social science degrees can actually be quite fruitful for job prospects and developing skills IF played right. Humanities I don't suggest people follow unless they are really interested in them.

What do I mean by played right? Well most people do social science degrees and do the bare minimum and often don't develop skills that they can while in university. I think social science degrees are one of the best methods of developing your analytic and writing skills you can find. You can especially do well if you do a minor or do heavy streams of statistics and quantitative methods. Getting involved with research and really working hard on your studies can give you a lot of skills that you can take with you after you graduate. A lot of people just run through college as a 'requirement' and don't actually think about what skills and resources they can extract from university.

In this vein, I think a major in economics or politic science + a minor in statistics is just as value as many STEM degrees. Economics is probably the cream of the crop. Political science is also a good degree. Sociology and geography aren't bad either.

I also think that being from/living in a developing country, even a fairly developed one like Argentina can have one distinct advantage for people: if you are able to go get a degree in a renowned school abroad, you can push yourself above 80% of the competition quite easily. If you have some connections in LA countries + have a degree from a good international school, you could catapult yourself into a great public sector or private sector job quite quickly.

That being said, you got to like what you study. I think if you decide to do this you should read about all the disciplines and get a good feel for what you want to study. Because the more you like it, the better you will do.

[Dat ass]

Thanks to all you guys.

ElborrachoInfamoso: I don't mind being an academic, i spent a lof of time reading about the topics that interest me.

VolandoVengoVolandovoy: I already have a job, you have the right to believe that, but i don't agree. You are in the forum of a men who makes a living by writting books about sleeping with foreign women, i have met guys who manage dance schools, who get as much money as those who went into medicine.

Americas: You are right, i tend to hear non sciences/management named as humanities, i have spent some time in different cities and met a lot of people in south america, that is the reason i mentioned the example teacher of my exgirlfriend, i'm sure a foreign degree can open many doors, even with a not so marketeable major. I'm looking to see wich one is valuable, i guess the title of the post should have been: best career options with a non stem/management degree.

[Brodiaga]

A word about a degree in international business: it's bullshit. An empty subject.

You become "international" by living and traveling across the world, learning a new language, working and studying with people from other countries and banging international chicks, not by wasting your time and money on an education in international business.

Even a business/business administration degree is not really worth it in my opinion. Study accounting or finance if you want a business degree.

If you are good with numbers, just get a degree in math, statistics of physics. It will become your stamp of quality, evidence that you are smart and hard working. Many companies would rather hire a math or physics major than a business major for a business job.

[monster]

I don't get the hate for Humanities.

Yes, humanities will not get you a high paying job, but the humanities subjects are some of the most intrinsicially valuable subjects that exist. English, philosophy, art...that's what gives life meaning.

Don't study humanities for the money, study humanities for the meaning and beauty.

[Angry Beaver]

Slightly off topic, but:

The difference between sciences and humanities is while the graduates of the first can tell you how to clone a T-Rex, the others can tell you why it is a bad idea.....

[LouEvilSlugger]

(01-28-2015 10:21 PM)Brodiaga Wrote:  

A word about a degree in international business: it's bullshit. An empty subject.

You become "international" by living and traveling across the world, learning a new language, working and studying with people from other countries and banging international chicks, not by wasting your time and money on an education in international business.

Even business/business administration degree is not really worth it in my opinion. Study accounting or finance if you want a business degree.

If you are good with numbers, just get a degree in math, statistics of physics. It will become your stamp of quality, evidence that you are smart and hard working. Many companies would rather hire a math or physics major than a business major for a business job.

STEM or bust. Even investment banks and consulting firms are starting to recruit engineering and science students over business students.

In terms of the variety of options open upon graduation:
1) computer science, applied maths, operations research
2) physics, pure maths, stats
3) business

[tallandblonde]

(01-29-2015 09:16 AM)monster Wrote:  

I don't get the hate for Humanities.

Yes, humanities will not get you a high paying job, but the humanities subjects are some of the most intrinsicially valuable subjects that exist. English, philosophy, art...that's what gives life meaning.

Don't study humanities for the money, study humanities for the meaning and beauty.

The issue with Humanities is that all that stuff can be learned on your own time, not having to pay thousands of dollars in school tuition.

One might argue that you can teach yourself computer science or some other random Engineering subject, but that degree itself is what gets you the job.

I have no sympathy for the Americans that are up to their eyeballs in student debt after getting a BA in English with no job prospects. They brought that on themselves.

[komatiite]

Agreed Tall and Blond. If anything, learning it on your own is a better bet over having some washed up Marxist who has never worked a real job in their life trying to brainwash you.

[Americas]

(01-29-2015 11:45 AM)komatiite Wrote:  

Agreed Tall and Blond. If anything, learning it on your own is a better bet over having some washed up Marxist who has never worked a real job in their life trying to brainwash you.

How on earth is being a professor not a real job?

I can tell you don't have much experience in college, considering you think professors are there to 'brainwash' you.

BTW, the dogma of "stem or bust" is the biggest crock of shit with regards to education in current-day popular opinion.

As for the OP's question...

Like I said, economics is probably the cream of the crop for a few reasons. Economics as a discipline is fairly versatile in its applications and lots of public and private sector jobs like economics graduates. Secondly, economics does have a pretty solid mathematics component to it; courses like econometrics, economic development, and economics methods classes all have a decent math component to them; economics majors are encouraged to do calculus and statistics as well.

Sociology and political science are also pretty good. The recent trend has been the quantitative transformation of these disciplines. However, many undergraduate programs have lagged behind and don't require heavy methods or math components. Of course, you can seek these if you want on your own will. Many entry and mid-level public sector jobs do look for social science majors, particularly in developing countries.

The rest are kind of hit or miss. Disciplines like anthropology aren't great money-makers, but geography, particularly if you focus more on things like GIS and mapping, can be quite lucrative if you play your cards right.

I mean, at the end of the day you need to look at what skills you want to achieve. For example...someone studying sociology, with a background in statistics and programming can be an extremely valuable asset for a public sector job. Think about it, you know how to design questionnaires, write programs to analyze the data, and use statistics to measure policy implementation. That right there is worth a fuck load more than someone who cruised through a B.Sc in Chemistry.

[clever alias]

(01-29-2015 11:48 AM)Americas Wrote:  

(01-29-2015 11:45 AM)komatiite Wrote:  

Agreed Tall and Blond. If anything, learning it on your own is a better bet over having some washed up Marxist who has never worked a real job in their life trying to brainwash you.

How on earth is being a professor not a real job?

I can tell you don't have much experience in college, considering you think professors are there to 'brainwash' you.

BTW, the dogma of "stem or bust" is the biggest crock of shit with regards to education in current-day popular opinion.

As for the OP's question...

Like I said, economics is probably the cream of the crop for a few reasons. Economics as a discipline is fairly versatile in its applications and lots of public and private sector jobs like economics graduates. Secondly, economics does have a pretty solid mathematics component to it; courses like econometrics, economic development, and economics methods classes all have a decent math component to them; economics majors are encouraged to do calculus and statistics as well.

Sociology and political science are also pretty good. The recent trend has been the quantitative transformation of these disciplines. However, many undergraduate programs have lagged behind and don't require heavy methods or math components. Of course, you can seek these if you want on your own will. Many entry and mid-level public sector jobs do look for social science majors, particularly in developing countries.

The rest are kind of hit or miss. Disciplines like anthropology aren't great money-makers, but geography, particularly if you focus more on things like GIS and mapping, can be quite lucrative if you play your cards right.

I mean, at the end of the day you need to look at what skills you want to achieve. For example...someone studying sociology, with a background in statistics and programming can be an extremely valuable asset for a public sector job. Think about it, you know how to design questionnaires, write programs to analyze the data, and use statistics to measure policy implementation. That right there is worth a fuck load more than someone who cruised through a B.Sc in Chemistry.

You greatly overestimate the value of an econ degree. At the undergraduate level, it's not very useful: think tank work requires a masters degree, and most analyst jobs can be learned by anyone on Excel in a weekend. I know guys with philosophy degrees working in analysis, it's not a hard field to break into. And the math component at the undergrad level is a joke, most schools require a "business calculus" that's watered down to pure nothing and a stats 101 that covers about as much as a physics lab manual. It's not a good major if you don't plan on continuing it at the grad level.

[komatiite]

(01-29-2015 11:48 AM)Americas Wrote:  

How on earth is being a professor not a real job?

I can tell you don't have much experience in college, considering you think professors are there to 'brainwash' you.

BTW, the dogma of "stem or bust" is the biggest crock of shit with regards to education in current-day popular opinion.

Six years with two BS degrees in geology and engineering.

Quote:

economics does have a pretty solid mathematics component to it; courses like econometrics, economic development, and economics methods classes all have a decent math component to them; economics majors are encouraged to do calculus and statistics as well.

Math, math, math!

Quote:

The recent trend has been the quantitative transformation of these disciplines

Which requires math

Quote:

geography, particularly if you focus more on things like GIS and mapping

Gotta know how to do math to do geomatics, surveying, etc.

*****

Your only defense of Arts degrees requires substantial mathematical knowledge in order to advance, so why the hate for STEM?

What I implied with regards to 'real job' is working in industry. Working in academia is a much more comfortable lifestyle than the pressures of industry. Nobody would deny that.

I had a few professors with industry experience and I thought they were much more valuable than guys who had simply done research in academia. Obviously my goals are to work in industry instead of publish papers/teach, however.

But I did take degrees with substantial technical components, so even my professors that were more geared towards academics did provide a good framework for fundamental knowledge. Just not much in terms of applied stuff. What about arts professors who teach classes with no technical component, just fluff?

With regards to the brainwashing comment, sure, maybe that was harsh, but I ask you this: Say some person takes a PhD in some subject such as sociology in the 1970s. That person developed a harsh leftist view of the world due to the perversion of leftist literature in academia. Since that person is not marketable in industry, their only option is to teach. Every year, a crop of students comes in and learns from this person who has no real world experience, just decades of Ivory Tower circlejerking at universities. And the circle continues...

[Dat ass]

(01-29-2015 11:38 AM)tallandblonde Wrote:  

The issue with Humanities is that all that stuff can be learned on your own time, not having to pay thousands of dollars in school tuition.

I have no sympathy for the Americans that are up to their eyeballs in student debt after getting a BA in English with no job prospects. They brought that on themselves.

I'm going to support the value of humanities education as something useful to develop more cultured and open minded individuals, as you people who chore against it with the same arguments that i have already seen, didn't seem to bother to even read more than the title.

Do you guys understand that public education in Europe and some Latin American countries barely cost a couple of hundred dollars a year, right?

As i said, i already have a good paid job, the kind of job that probably a lot of people from my age here would like to be doing.

I don't expect to get better paid with just by getting a degree, but i would like to learn for pleasure and at the same time try to get something that gives me another options. I thought to do a degree in languages because i'm actually paying for private courses for that, i tought like: well why i just don't enroll in school, learn it for free and at least get a diploma that would open me doors to teach or go to another degree. I would like to continue getting money independently, but it is always good to have a degree even if is a "bullshit" one. At least where i have lived.

Economics and Sociology sound like solid options too, i'm going to see programs in different schools to finally decide.

(01-29-2015 02:00 PM)komatiite Wrote:  

I had a few professors with industry experience and I thought they were much more valuable than guys who had simply done research in academia. Obviously my goals are to work in industry instead of publish papers/teach, however.

But I did take degrees with substantial technical components, so even my professors that were more geared towards academics did provide a good framework for fundamental knowledge. Just not much in terms of applied stuff. What about arts professors who teach classes with no technical component, just fluff?

Well those are your goals, i don't know why you seem to think that i give a fuck about working in your industry. I respect people following what they find interesting, but you seem to have a really childish attitude thinking that everything that is not science isn't worth it. I have news for you, the guys who make the top paper in almost all industries are not exactly the most brilliant engineers. Those are the enterpreneurs or managers.

[Americas]

(01-29-2015 01:55 PM)clever alias Wrote:  

You greatly overestimate the value of an econ degree. At the undergraduate level, it's not very useful: think tank work requires a masters degree, and most analyst jobs can be learned by anyone on Excel in a weekend. I know guys with philosophy degrees working in analysis, it's not a hard field to break into. And the math component at the undergrad level is a joke, most schools require a "business calculus" that's watered down to pure nothing and a stats 101 that covers about as much as a physics lab manual. It's not a good major if you don't plan on continuing it at the grad level.

Yeah, but you can say the bold for pretty much everything in the current educational context.

That goes for humanities, social sciences, and STEM. A B.Sc. in biology or chemistry for example doesn't get you really anything. Neither does a B.A. in political science or economics.

Remember though, we are talking about breaking into a Latin American workforce with a foreign degree (and ideally, from a renowned school). This is a whole different ballgame.

(01-29-2015 02:00 PM)komatiite Wrote:  

Six years with two BS degrees in geology and engineering.

So basically no experience in social sciences (perhaps you have some token electives but that doesn't mean anything), and hence, you have no credibility in putting forth an opinion on studying those disciplines.

Quote:

Your only defense of Arts degrees requires substantial mathematical knowledge in order to advance, so why the hate for STEM?

I am not defending anything. I am the one trying to help the OP with some actual information that is relevant to his question. I don't have any hate for STEM whatsoever. Instead, I see a lot of people coming in here and making completely irrelevant and useless, and in many cases completely unfounded, statements.

Where did I say there was anything wrong with math? Math is an important component of anyone who wants to study social sciences seriously or gain skills to succeed in the workforce. Math and social sciences is not mutually exclusive.

Quote:

What I implied with regards to 'real job' is working in industry. Working in academia is a much more comfortable lifestyle than the pressures of industry. Nobody would deny that.

I'll deny that right now. Being a professor is a very demanding job. Sure, you can get tenure and fuck off, but you can also work in industry and not do shit either.

A professor has to do productive research, he has to teach at least two courses/seminars a semester, and he has to do committee work for the university. Additionally, many professors do private consulting for the government or industry on the side as well. Chairs and institution managers have to manage entire research institutions and departments of universities.

Please, the average professor puts in way more hours and works a hell of a lot harder than your average 9-5 worker, no matter the discipline or industry.

Furthermore, the amount of shit an academic has to go through to even get tenure is mind-blowing. Think of being a TA and RA for years with little pay. Filling your requirements to get a Ph.D. Doing a post-doc. Spending hours doing regressions and crunching data. Having to publish 3-5 papers + a book to even get a sniff at getting tenure at a good research university.

Quote:

With regards to the brainwashing comment, sure, maybe that was harsh, but I ask you this: Say some person takes a PhD in some subject such as sociology in the 1970s. That person developed a harsh leftist view of the world due to the perversion of leftist literature in academia. Since that person is not marketable in industry, their only option is to teach. Every year, a crop of students comes in and learns from this person who has no real world experience, just decades of Ivory Tower circlejerking at universities. And the circle continues...

In order to get a Ph.D. in something like sociology you have to take at least a couple survey courses in sociology (plus a B.A.). Survey courses are broad and you will spend most of the time reading classic texts like Weber, Spencer, Durkheim, Hegel, and Parsons. These are not 'leftist' publications by any means. I think you gravely overestimate how much 'circle'jerking' goes on in academia. If you don't have some original ideas you are tossed in the waste-bin.

What people decide to sub-specialize is their prerogative, considering that is the core of research: to become an expert in a specific sub-field and devout your life and research to it.

---------------

My problem with a lot of the STEM 'hoo-rah" crowd is they criticize social sciences and they don't even know what the fuck they are talking about. Similarly, a lot of people criticize academia and they don't even know it's basic functions and what it entails.

Buzzwords like "not a real job" and "the real world" are common among this crowd. Funny enough, if you talk to an academic about the 'real world' he probably has a better idea of how it functions than any other average person among the population.

The ironic thing is that a shitload of knowledge and innovations come from people in the 'ivory tower.' You wonder where many of the technological and natural science innovations come from? A lot of it comes from incremental research down by people with Ph.D.'s either working for universities or private companies. You wonder where a lot of the policies of government come from? It's from researchers who learned fundamentals from university working in academia and for the government. How's your perception of the "real world" now?

[monster]

(01-29-2015 11:38 AM)tallandblonde Wrote:  

(01-29-2015 09:16 AM)monster Wrote:  

I don't get the hate for Humanities.

Yes, humanities will not get you a high paying job, but the humanities subjects are some of the most intrinsicially valuable subjects that exist. English, philosophy, art...that's what gives life meaning.

Don't study humanities for the money, study humanities for the meaning and beauty.

The issue with Humanities is that all that stuff can be learned on your own time, not having to pay thousands of dollars in school tuition.

One might argue that you can teach yourself computer science or some other random Engineering subject, but that degree itself is what gets you the job.

I have no sympathy for the Americans that are up to their eyeballs in student debt after getting a BA in English with no job prospects. They brought that on themselves.

ANYTHING can be learned on your own time. However, a good teacher of great novels or philosophy can really make those subjects come alive and offer perspectives that you can't get on your own. It's a bit like masturbation vs sex. It's always better with someone else.

In my original post I said I just don't understand the hate for it. If I had my way it's be required to have a major in a STEM and minor in a humanities degree, or vice-versa.

[komatiite]

Whoa now boys lets just cut it off here, we are all shaped by our own experiences... I have my opinions on academia and degrees and you have yours, some flame war on the board isn't going to change anything. Carry on...

[Cattle Rustler]

STEM or bust, until the chinese and indians take your job for 1/10 the pay.

I know bankers who studied philosophy or sociology. What matters is GPA and school brand.

Dartmouth BA Sociology > Texas Tech Mech Eng

If finance stuff could be learned in Excel then anyone could work in high-finance.

[Deluge]

(01-31-2015 12:36 AM)Cattle Rustler Wrote:  

STEM or bust, until the chinese and indians take your job for 1/10 the pay.

I know bankers who studied philosophy or sociology. What matters is GPA and school brand.

Dartmouth BA Sociology > Texas Tech Mech Eng

If finance stuff could be learned in Excel then anyone could work in high-finance.

Anyone with half a brain can do Finance. The big banks don't really care about how good at Math or how smart you are once you reach a certain academic cut-off ( in the U.S, a 3.0 ideally 3.5+ GPA from a target school). Saying they're hiring STEM over business guys is pretty fucking funny, once they know you're smart enough to do the job all they care about is your work ethic, discipline and how enjoyable you are to actually be around. The perfect investment banking recruit is a veteran who grew up poor. They'll hire that guy over a 4.0 STEM major any day of the week.

The Humanities vs STEM debate at the individual level is pretty fucking useless. There aren't many people who'd equally enjoy doing both. It doesn't matter if you've got the quantitative chops to do an Engineering degree, if you don't truly want to be doing that degree you're not going to do well in it and vice versa. It doesn't matter so much if your degree is in a genuine interest of yours or not, but it does matter if you have the drive to apply yourself to it.

As for OP, I agree with Brodiaga that International Business is pretty fucking useless. What you choose to do really depends on what kind of person you are. If you want to pursue your passion in the humanities and don't mind taking the pay cut, then by all means go for it. If you want to "work to live" and pursue your interests outside work then do that. Same deal if your goal is to be a millionaire by 30. Come out of your degree with the best options in your field as possible. That means graduating from the best school with the best grades you possibly can. As well as internships, relevant work experience, extra-curricular's and so forth if that's necessary in your field. Just pick something that's right for you and be a fucking superstar at it.

[Lemmo]

It isn't clear what you're asking. In your initial post, you ask which humanities degrees are "valuable" but when posters suggest fields based on their likelihood of leading to employment, you reply that you are mainly just learning for pleasure. You seem to suggest you want the degree to help you get a job eventually but also say you have a job and that studying is just something you want to do while you're pursuing potentially profitable side projects. I think as an initial matter you need to clearly know why you're studying. Even if you aren't paying much, it will cost you a lot of your time.

[Aer]

A lot of people glance over the importance of eloquent speech and writing here. While you are able to teach yourself philosophy, English, politics and psychology, getting a degree in humanities teaches you how to write well for others.

I'm slightly biased because I was able to have small classrooms with attentive professors who would absolutely tear my papers apart, details and grammar included. Being able to analyze and decipher work from 20th century political scientists gave me an insight into politics and group behavior that a STEM or Finance degree wouldn't have. In our classes, we were also forced to present for a full class (1hr 20min) and were rated on how attentive the rest of the class was and how prepared you were. It translates a lot to how good you are in a group interview setting, along with presentations and meetings in an office setting.

Learning how to read and write properly at an elite level are well worth the degrees in my opinion, but with the caveats that you need to be attentive and have the professors know you and you have to ask for more feedback on your writing and presentation skills.

I have some great friends in finance that are able to do math like a wiz but their social ability and writing skills are that of a 6th grader.

An honors degree in a small, well known program in political science or public administration is on par with a STEM degree.

[Dalaran1991]

Sociology major here, 4 years BA with best student in the department distinction, Honor thesis. Master in Sociology at La Sorbonne.

In the middle of a search for internships, and I gotta tell you, it's pretty useless. Even here in France, where Sociology is born.

I've been applying to both quantitative and qualitative positions in Marketing and Market Research, in big private corporations. Didn't get anywhere even when I can easily answer all questions during my interview and impress the interviewers. In the end they always get an intern who studied exactly that field and who comes from a top private school.

All they care about is how your degree is on par with the job, and if your school name is something that give them a blink. They don't give a rat's ass about how smart you are. The people who interviewed me, they asked stupid questions "Can you read and write in English/French" I was like "bitch did you actually read my CV?" "Have you ever given an oral presentation in your education?" More like every week. And TBH most of the jobs nowadays don't really require that much qualification. It's all in the capitalist system to deepen someone's pocket.

Even if you have a good quantitative background, if there's another guy with a degree in quantitative math they will pick him over you anyway. For qualitative positions they pick Marketing majors from the top private schools.

I'm not happy about it but I would be miserable if I had to study finance. I did a finance internship for summer and it was soul-crushing. At least in Sociology you get to discuss something that has some meaning to you.

Oh, and the Humanities are leftist beyond repair nowadays. I had a good department where professors were cool and taught cool subjects, like Sociology of War for ex. But recently they HAD to recruit a black female professor in Gender studies who everyone agrees is even dumber than a freshmen. I've heard the same with History and Archeology. Any discovery about ancient athlete eating meat is "lost", while a hint that Roman gladiators were veggie got blown up all over the journals.

[bojangles]

I have a BSc in Economics and I can tell you right now that most of the information that I learnt during my degree was in no way applicable to any job I held. I believe the economics taught at university level is futile and bullshit. (My university at the time was also ranked number 1 for the subject)

[mastauser]

I have read Jim Rogers and he recommends his students asking what to study in order to make wise investments / financial success to study philosophy and history. But beware-- this could mean other philosophy and history than universities teach, depends on the schools and teachers I guess.

But he means it in a way that looks at the financial system in a historical perspective, maybe his book "Street Smarts: Adventures on the roads and in the markets" would be a good introduction in his way of thinking.

He earned billions, got Guinness World Records in motorbiking and car driving around the world.