Philosophy major useless?
 

I'm currently an English major concentrating in writing and philosophy minor, with plans to go to law school. I'm not diggin' it that much to be honest. i've always liked economics, took a far courses, and i hear it's a very marketable degree. so i'm thinking of switching: Double major in Philosophy and Economics, and a minor in Jewish studies. I figure this would look great on a resume right? or no?

I have 5 semesters left at school, and I need 75 more credits to fulfill the 2 majors and minor. so I can pull it off but it'll be tough

I plan on working for a few years before law school, but what can I do with a degree like this?

just about anything you set your mind to.

do a search here and you'll find that there are plenty of people here and around you doing jobs with no bearing on their education. heck some people like myself don't have a degree and don't flip burgers for a living and irritate my wife with the fact that a number of her friends who don't have degrees make substantially more than she does.

a degree gets you in the door with the exception of law school, med school, engineering and a handful of others... and even then if you wanted to work in those sectors it's not that difficult to get a supporting job within them.

I really have no idea what i want to do, economics is interesting to me but i don't know if i want to work in that field, even though I know there's a lot of money in it.

Being a lawyer is interesting to me, but i don't even know what type of lawyer I want to be, and whether economics would even help. philosophy and jewish studies are primarily for law school, they will look good. but economics i don't know about, but basically my logic right now is: philosophy is for law school, and if for some reason law school doesn't work out i have economics to fall back on

go out and get some job experience in those sectors even if it's being a receptionist or mail clerk. it will at least expose you to people who work in those types of jobs and let you see if you like the work culture, lifestyle it breeds etc.

while my wife loves the idea of being in TV production she hated the lifestyle and payscale...

Does your school have a career center? Mine does and I"ve found it to be IMMENSELY HELPFUL in figuring out what I want to do with my life. Of course, it wasn't until AFTER I had graduated that I realized I had no intrest in doing what I got my degree in.... oh well, least I'm not alone.

And yeah, a degree just gets you in the door most of the time, no matter what it is. Employers really want to know that you've had life expierence (like, different jobs that you can demonstrate you learned stuff from, expierences like being in a club, a band, or studying abroad), not just that you can recite what someone else has told you (which is basically what a degree signifies anyway).

Go talk to your career center- they help a lot!

My husband has a degree in Philosophy with a minor in Religious Studies and now he sells Volvos... so what does that tell you?

The philosophy will help a ton with law school -- I don't know how much with getting in, but the skills you learn as a philosophy student are key for being a good law student. Plus, if you study a little Sartre or Nietzsche, you're really good at cocktail parties ;)

As far as working for a few years, I don't see how philosophy could hurt. You learn critical thinking skills, and most employers like those sorts of things. Econ won't hurt you at all in either endeavor, and will probably help.

If you want to work at a law firm before going to law school, a la moi, philosophy is one of the best degrees you could have. the other two are history and poli sci, but poli sci is lame and you'll have more use for critical thinking than for source material research in the working world.

or take russian, everyone loves to hear a russian speaker

I’ll second that. I was not a major, but I took a lot of philosophy. The reading skills I got from reading philosophy have been priceless in grad school (where i study American culture)

I have also found that it fills in a lot of the gabs that drive history. Understanding what the dominant philosophical thoughts of a moment in time can be very reviling when looking at the history of the time

The minor in Jewish history was what finally made me crack.

Ah. That is hilarious.

The minor in jewish studies will look very good on my application for law school, as it's a religion and involves reading of large texts


and i know russian already

theres a major fair next wednsday so i'll check that out, i really don't know what to do. maybe major in philosophy and minor in econ and jewish studies? or major in econ and minor in econ and jewish studies

confusing

what did the philosophy major say to the political scientist?

would you like fries with that?

in all seriousness, a BA rarely is a professional degree....it's intended to make you a better thinker in general, but not necessarily provide the skill set that you will use after graduation.

/has a BA in religious studies, a similarly useless degree
//somehow thinks adding a MDiv might make that situation better.

Hmmph. I took political science as a double major with journalism, and it really helped change the way I thought about the world, the real world. Of course several of the political science courses I took, even as an undergrad 20-odd years ago, involved data analysis (yes, with a computer and database) and field research. Pretty good stuff.

Not to speak against philosophy -- it'll certainly teach you how to argue, and give you good fodder for parties and cool closing argument quotes if you go to law school -- but it's not directly real-world stuff. If you want to learn _all_ the reasons why certain institutions exist or existed -- racial segregation, prostitution, the "war on drugs" that doesn't seem designed to actually win anything -- political science will give you a win on the answers.

Wording from Monty Python's Final Rip Off

EEEEE-manual Kant was a real pissant
who's ver-y rar-ly stable
Heidigger! Heidigger was a boos-y begger
who could think you under the table!
David Hume could out-consume
Wil-helm Fred'rich Hegal
And Wit-gen-stein was a beer-y swine
who's just as sloshed as Schlegal.

There's nothing Nietzche couldn't teach ya
'bout the raising of the wrist.
Socrates himself was permenantly pissed!

John Stewart Mill, of his own Free Will,
on half a bottle shandy was particularly ill.
Plato, they say, could stick it away
half a crate of whisky ev'ry day!
Aristotle! Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle.
Hobbes was fond of his dram.
And Rene Descartes was a drunken fart:
I drink therefore I am.

Yes, Socrates himself is particularly missed.
A lovely little thinker but a bugger when he's pissed!

So i'm thinking a political science minor would help. so either a major in Econ, minor in philosophy and minor in political science, or a major in philosophy minor in polisci and econ. i really dont kn ow

Hey! I have a B.A.! Oh, so do you... Well, I'll defend it to my everlasting presence on the mortal coil, or to you B.S. grads out there, until I dropt det.

At our school, English, Pot Science (my favorite abbreviation) and philosophy all led to pre-law. I thought about pre-law, but opted for journalism.

It may be different in other areas, but here, a four year college degree means bupkiss. I mean, it means a lot that you ACCOPMLISHED it, but the actual degree? All I want to see is talent. My last news reporter hire had a degree in art, and an amazing talent for telling a story.

I'm biased, but an English degree is the better of the B.A., because communication is becoming a sinkhole that many businesses are starting to address. People ask you to communicate, nobody asks you how to form a belief or understand the art of war.

Pretty much everyone in my friend group in college is majoring in some combination of: government, philosophy, economics, and history. About half of them plan on continuing to law school.

I personally am a double major in philosophy and government and I have plans for law school, as well. Philosophy, while it certainly isn't practical, teaches some great analytical and writing skills. Law school is all about reading complex texts and pulling arguments out from them, which is essentially what you do as a philosophy major.

I'll tell you this: after learning to understand Aristotle, reading Supreme Court opinions is a breeze!

Don't rule out the major just because it isn't practical: talk to some people in the department and decide if you think it interests you...

Oh, it's all said in sympathy. I worked my ass off in undergrad, for a degree that only qualifies me to take more classes. I'm here in a masters and professional degree...and apart from a few classes on Pastoral care, i will be doing a cakewalk through material and concepts i've already mastered. and when i graduate? i'll have a degree (an Ivy one, too) that will put me in the front running for any ministerial job i apply for...so long as they think i'm straight, but that's another matter entirely.

Point being...get the BA that helps you grow as a thinker and a human being. Be ready to get professional training elsewhere.

I'm majoring in English toooo. By itself a Philosophy degree doesn't do much but in the context of your future plans I think it'd be useful.

And what really looks great on a resume, coming from my Dad who does the majority of the hiring for his department, is work expirence.

my plan right now is to take economics, political science, and philosophy courses next semester, i will see which one I can see myself majoring in and doing well in.

i might do the semester at sea program this summer, you guys ever hear of that?

http://www.semesteratsea.com/voyages...itinerary.html

Although I have a BA(hons) in Economics and an MBA,


It was my philosophy 110 prof who taught me how to think. No, not just learn, memorize, and do well on an exam, BUT HOW TO THINK. ALL THE TIME.


Now what, pray tell, is more important than that?

College is a scam, go to a trade school.

Apparently, a BA in Philosophy is a degree in drinking, not so?

Philosophy is actually the desired undergrad degree for many Law programs.

You know, it's funny that I ran across this thread. I'm a business student, and while I'm not completely bored with the subject matter, I realized the other day that I wanted something more.

I'm planning on law school and I want to be more prepared as a logical thinker and researcher. I'm thinking of changing my degree pursuance to liberal arts, more specifically philosophy or political science.

Confusing world, sometimes, isn't it?

If you like Philosophy, do that. Don't worry about if it's useful.

For Law School: English majors and Classics majors definitely have the uppehand.

Actually, English majors have the upperhand in pretty much everything. The Forbes 100 has been complaining of late to the top Business schools that the people they are graduating lack good English/communication skills.