Would you recommend your college major?

[Camerus]

In academia history is an incredibly immature subject, several centuries behind more mature fields. Historians are clueless about how history works and don't even realize that they are playing at doing serious research and don't actually do it.

Do you want to know more?

How should history work and what would serious research look like?

[The Brain]

I considered studying history, but I realized in high school that history isn't being done seriously in the academic world. We have the historians we have and not the historians we wish we had. They are clueless about their subject. So history, for me, was out.

What exactly do you mean by this?

In academia history is an incredibly immature subject, several centuries behind more mature fields. Historians are clueless about how history works and don't even realize that they are playing at doing serious research and don't actually do it.

Do you want to know more?

Yes. Enlighten me.

Fuck!

Historians do not seriously attempt to understand the processes at work in history and use the understanding to make predictions. Machiavelli pointed the way, but hardly anyone listened. NB in high school I hadn't read Machiavelli yet so I didn't know that there had been someone who had in fact shown the way and been ignored. Obviously the knowledge wouldn't have improved my opinion of historians.

[The Brain]

In academia history is an incredibly immature subject, several centuries behind more mature fields. Historians are clueless about how history works and don't even realize that they are playing at doing serious research and don't actually do it.

Do you want to know more?

How should history work and what would serious research look like?

Like science.

[Brazen]

I did an IT degree, one of the first in the country that was actually business-driven computing rather than pure computer science. In fact, the syllabus was part-set by corporations. Back when I graduated, I wouldn't have recommended it, as at the time, any graduate could walk into an IT job and be trained up from scratch, so I wish I'd done something more academic and enjoyable. Nowadays, it can't hurt to do a vocational degree.

[grumbler]

Yeah, Swedish historians suck, but then Swedes suck in general at disciplines requiring intellect, and, face it, Sweden doesn't have enough history to attract any but the dumbest of Swedes (who are pretty dumb, indeed) into its study.  The Brain did what all Swedes should do, which is get into a field that is very concrete, has definite answers, and doesn't require much imagination.  They should leave history for those capable of undertaking and understanding it.

[Sheilbh]

I did an IT degree, one of the first in the country that was actually business-driven computing rather than pure computer science. In fact, the syllabus was part-set by corporations. Back when I graduated, I wouldn't have recommended it, as at the time, any graduate could walk into an IT job and be trained up from scratch, so I wish I'd done something more academic and enjoyable.

I think lots of vocational training is still done in your job. In my old job I had to do some basic programming. After a couple of years I was probably going to end up in either a consultancy or a programming role.

[CountDeMoney]

Yeah, Swedish historians suck, but then Swedes suck in general at disciplines requiring intellect, and, face it, Sweden doesn't have enough history to attract any but the dumbest of Swedes (who are pretty dumb, indeed) into its study.  The Brain did what all Swedes should do, which is get into a field that is very concrete, has definite answers, and doesn't require much imagination.  They should leave history for those capable of undertaking and understanding it.

  He's going to need a Control post in order to use this as an Experimental post.

[Valmy]

So you are upset that statistics that aren't aimed at taking into account the unemployed...don't take into account the unemployed?

Does that upset me?  Not really they just seem laughably optimistic and divorced from reality.

Now granted I did not exactly pull a 4.0 GPA but four years after I graduated I got a job paying $30,000.00 a year and that was luck and I was glad to get it.  I mean seriously I applied for dozens and dozens of positions and I got one interview that I just happened to nail.  I just happened to check every single one of the boxes they had, but that had everything to do with my work experience in sales and tech and nothing to do with having a fancy history degree.  If somebody  offered me a job today for 39.7 I would take it in a second and I  have years of experience, that is well above the national median average salary by more than $10,000.00.  That is a great salary for a Bachelor's degree.  So I just do not get how getting an undergraduate history degree from Nebraska Lincoln with a 2.5 GPA is going to put me in the upper levels of the work force with zero skills or experience.  And supposedly I am in a hotbed of employment where young people from across the country move TO.

Heck if I was offered a job for my Engineering degree in Austin for 39.7 I would be pretty grateful to have that offer, even though supposedly EEs are walking out of here with $69,000 (http://www.engr.utexas.edu/ecac/).  To that number I have to say: cool story bro but I will believe it when I see it.

[garbon]

So you know that isn't what the stats show and then insist they are misleading because...there are people who read them the wrong way?

[CountDeMoney]

So I just do not get how getting an undergraduate history degree from Nebraska Lincoln with a 2.5 GPA is going to put me in the upper levels of the work force with zero skills or experience. 

Especially if the hiring manager has Sooner shit all over his office.

[Valmy]

So you know that isn't what the stats show and then insist they are misleading because...there are people who read them the wrong way?

Yes, the way the stats were used in that article were misleading.  They listed degrees and then listed the average starting salaries, which to any reasonable reader would suggest the average person graduating with that degree can expect that salary.  But that is false.  The stats themselves do not even claim that.

[Ed Anger]

So I just do not get how getting an undergraduate history degree from Nebraska Lincoln with a 2.5 GPA is going to put me in the upper levels of the work force with zero skills or experience. 

Especially if the hiring manager has Sooner shit all over his office.

[garbon]

So you know that isn't what the stats show and then insist they are misleading because...there are people who read them the wrong way?

Yes, the way the stats were used in that article were misleading.  They listed degrees and then listed the average starting salaries, which to any reasonable reader would suggest the average person graduating with that degree can expect that salary.  But that is false.  The stats themselves do not even claim that.

I think any reasonable reader would recognize that the average start salaries where of those who got a job. I think a reasonable reader would know that a person isn't guaranteed a job post college.

[The Brain]

Yeah, Swedish historians suck, but then Swedes suck in general at disciplines requiring intellect, and, face it, Sweden doesn't have enough history to attract any but the dumbest of Swedes (who are pretty dumb, indeed) into its study.  The Brain did what all Swedes should do, which is get into a field that is very concrete, has definite answers, and doesn't require much imagination.  They should leave history for those capable of undertaking and understanding it.

[DGuller]

To be fair, grumbler is best-placed to evaluate how good historians are.