Worst-Paying College Degrees

Yahoo ^ | 10 May, 2010 | Charles Purdy

[throwback]

There's no denying the value of a college education: According to recent U.S. Census surveys, the median salary for college grads is more than $20,000 higher than that of people with only a high school diploma. And the unemployment rate for people with bachelor's degrees is almost half the rate for people without.

But some degrees are worth more than others, as PayScale.com shows in its 2010 report on the earning power of bachelor's degrees.

[Mom MD]

still one of my all time favorite tag lines.

[Mom MD]

Of course, the article is deceptive on what you do with the degree as well. My undergrad degree in biology - practically worthless. As a stepping stone to the MD degree - provides a nice living.

Sometimes it isn’t what the degree itself brings, it the other doors it opens for you. Even a bachelors in social work or communication or whatever will allow one to apply to graduate school.

[rarestia]

I guess there are several angles to it. I’ve been in the position where I had to train a replacement, and the threats from management to train or lose severance packages, etc. was just enough to keep me in line. Strong documentation skills, on the other hand, make other departments notice when someone is potentially out the door due to departmental budget cuts, and I was snatched up by Education and Training before IT could kick me out the door.

Soft skills mean the difference between unemployment and new employment, in some cases.

[throwback]

That's a fact. I have BSCS and been doing this shtick for 20 years. It's easier to write something in a computer language than it is in English. Invariably you'll see some of the most elegant code that has absolutely no accompanying comments. They say if the code is written properly, it requires no comments. I think that reasoning is just an excuse because it's too difficult to abstract the logic into English, so no one does it. Well written documentation is the road map to figure out where we've been and how to make changes to get where we want to go. The stuff is gold.

[throwback]

I’m sure that’s often true. I don’t know if it fits with your argument, but the best software engineers I’ve met (better than me) were always Math, Philosphy or other type majors. Actually I was a physics major and dumped into CS because I found I liked programming when I started taking it as a tool for Physics. I think many people jumped into CS for the money, and didn't really like it.

[rarestia]

I couldn’t put together code to save my life; that was my biggest issue in college programming courses. If, however, you put a load of code in front of me, I could figure out what it does. My brain works well in reverse, and I’ve actually commented the hell out of some PHP, XHTML, XML, and C# in my day. All in all, the programmers look at me like some sort of usurper, but once they see I can speak their language, they accept me into the circle.

And yes, I’ve learned through several courses in my Master’s program how abstract and nonsensical the English language is and can be. Part of me enjoys it for that reason alone!

[rarestia]

I learn programming at a much slower rate than what they expected from me in college. After all-nighters trying to write something ridiculously simple, I gave up. Nowadays, I can program a website in PHP and edit canned-code from SourceForge without an issue. I actually enjoy debugging. It’s getting the code down on a blank slate that I struggle with. If someone gets it started for me, I can fill in the blanks.

[throwback]

Yeah, getting your arms around the big picture is difficult. It's stone age, but I still have to flowchart. I'm visual, and a flow chart lays it out in front of me so my brain can follow the paths. IBM assembler was a nightmare in school, but I still flow charted the whole thing. I had a flowchart that ran back and forth through the hallways of my townhouse. People thought I was nuts, but heck the code was close to functional on the first run because the underlying logic was sound. Unfortunately, my skill set is obsolete now, and I've run myself into a cul-de-sac.

[rarestia]

I’m a visual learner as well, but I tend to get lost in my head while I’m writing something. Object Oriented Programming was my downfall, but seeing how functional it is now, esp. in PHP, makes me wonder what I didn’t understand back then. Probably too much socializing and pot!

I have a lot of respect for folks like you. You have that resolve to stick to something. I suppose I’m much the same way with writing. I can start writing a short story or an essay and wind up with 50 pages of prose. I’m sure you could do the same with coding.

[OldDeckHand]

"Median salary for a teacher in New Jersey is 75,000, not including benefits. The pension is quite generous too."

And, there's something that Chris Christie has highlighted recently when looking to make some state budge cuts in NJ - MOST NY teachers pay NOTHING for their health care benefits as the negotiated teacher contracts stipulate that teachers NOT bear the burden of employee contributions.

Can you imagine that in the non-government world? GM's benefits to the UAW weren't even that good.

[ichabod1]

The worst paying degrees start in the mid thirties now? Wow. Have we had THAT much inflation?

[ichabod1]

It’s not a PhD. It’s an Ed.D. There is apparently a real difference. Like, Doctor of Nursing, Dr of Public Health, Dr of Social Work, they’re doctorates, I guess, but you can get PhDs in most of those fields and they take more hours and more research. Kinda sucks for them.

And, while I’m wound up, PhDs get the shaft all over the place. I think they take more classes, do more research, and have a longer apprenticeship than medical doctors, but people don’t even think of them as being real doctors.

[Little Bill]

Retired Shift Manager in Power Generation, as close as I ever came to stealing money. Education helps to a small degree but it was the most interesting 40 years I ever spent.

[Huebolt]

Lt. from California right?

No doubt!