Going to university is a huge deal. Your decision about what direction to pursue in your studies is going to massively affect the rest of your life. But it’s often an agonizing choice. Do you pick economics, computer science, or engineering to be practical? Or do you follow your heart and embrace literature, archeology, or whatever else you’re passionate about?
It’s tough when there are so many different paths you can follow. However, there are way more degrees out there than you think. Redditor u/GazelleHistorical705 sparked a really fun discussion after asking people to share the most ridiculous college majors they’d ever heard of. World domination, becoming an influencer, and being a certified pirate are just the tip of the iceberg! Scroll down to check out the rest.
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At MIT you can be certified in being a pirate if you complete the courses of pistol, archery, sailing, and fencing.
At a graduation at the University of Redlands. They have a degree whereby you basically take the classes you want and call it what you want.
The degree conferred was, I kid you not: “Still trying to figure out who I am.”
That new "Influencer" degree in Ireland. My generation keeps disappointing me...
Think about what the future might look like. Consider how the landscape of the job market will change. It’s impossible to know for certain what the future will bring, though. Degrees that are in demand now (e.g. nursing, culinary arts, computer science, business admin, and accounting, according to Indeed) might be supplanted by other majors in the years to come.
Ideally, you want to find a degree that you’re happy with. That might sound obvious, but it’s important that you’re passionate about whatever that you’re going to spend years and years studying. It means setting all the social pressure you might feel aside, and really thinking deeply about what you’re good at, what you care about, and how practical your major will be once you enter the job market.
What you’re going for is a degree that’s at the intersection of your talents, your passions, financial security, and what the world as a whole needs. Of course, you’ll need the diligence, drive, and discipline to follow through with your studies!
IIRC, like 20 years ago some college in Indiana offered a major in World Domination
My college briefly had a major in Nordic Lesbianism
An old friend majored in *post-medieval Russian music*, which is a field that can only lead back into academia.
Your parents might want you to be a doctor or a lawyer because they’re in-demand professions that pay well. And that’s all fine and dandy, but if you literally have no interest whatsoever in either of those paths, you’d be doing yourself a disservice by going down them.
If you truly hate what you do, you can’t expect to do well in your studies or, later, in your job. Nobody wants a doctor who loathes what they do or is well-paid but miserable; they want someone who sees purpose in their career.
But you have to understand why your family might push you down a certain path. They have a lot of life experience and they understand the importance of financial stability and reputation. Someone with a high-profile degree is seen as a valuable member of society. Someone with a ‘serious’ degree is going to have more flexibility and job offers than a person with an incredibly niche set of skills.
I think it was annother reddit post somewhere else, but One guy knew annother guy who had majored in egyptology, where the only way to make money was to get a masters in egyptology and teach egyptology, a literal pyramid scheme.
An old friend has a Bachelor's degree in Outdoor Activities. He was never able to explain exactly what that meant, though.
It might be worth considering whether you can combine the two in some way. Say, going for a major that’s a bit more robust, while using your spare time to focus on your other passions, whether that’s puppetry or fencing.
Depending on where in the world you live, your choice of a college degree can saddle you with student loans for decades to come (e.g. in the US), or… education is (practically) free (e.g. in many European countries). Money aside, you’ll be spending years of your life at college. It only makes sense that you don’t jump into something you’ll regret, whether that’s following a fading passion for art or giving in to massive pressure from your relatives.
At the end of the day, the choice is yours. Just make sure that you’re aware of the time and money you’ll be investing in a particular course before signing up for a ridiculous major.
somebody got a degree from just studying the Beatles
Well it’s not totally bonkers, my friend got a degree in music history studying hair metal and glam rock.
Frisbee. A friends roommate at Amherst was in some kind of “create your own major” thing and chose frisbee.
His family had momey and college was just a formality.
Golf.
It was made so the Vice Chancellor could buy a private golf course for the university, so he could play on it. I believe it had 5 enrollments ever, and one was a joke that didnt show up or pay. It got cancelled the first year, but he got to enjoy his own personal golf course for some years after.
Masters Degree in Magic and Occult Science from the University of Exeter in the UK.
No idea what the f**k they're playing at.
Indiana University in Bloomington has a program where you can create your own degree. Will Shortz made his degree enigmatology.
My university had an Interdisciplinary Studies department that served mainly to get super duper seniors graduated. They would cobble together the random credits people got because they changed majors every semester into a "degree". You get some wild majors like a BA in Culinary Traditions and Music in the Former British Empire.
Peace Studies. She works part time in a coffee shop. For the last 8 years.
Cat psychology. My college had a hippie offshoot and the rumor was my year a gal graduated with a degree in cat psychology.
This is important if you're becoming a veterinarian seeking to specialize in the treatment of felines. What's more, it also plays into zoology, if you intend to work (for example) in a zoo where you'll be tending animals like Lions, or Tigers, or similar.
My mothers best friend had a PhD in Genocide studies.
That's not really ridiculous but.
She was the happiest most chipper person I had ever met and I was always thinking.
"is she taking something to be like this? Or is she just a little crazy? Because I would be depressed."
I am very grateful to the people who are able to do the really awful things that would have the rest of us wanting to bleach our brains. A friend was a lawyer who worked with children who had been abused. There is no way I could do her job - I'd fall apart mentally, but I am very glad people like her exist to help those who are in terrible situations.
I once worked at a pharma company, and worked with a guy with “Dr.” in his name on his door.
Later found out his phd was specifically in “decision making”. Sounded insane until he explained it was related to ethics in the field of philosophy.
Right. So his PhD was in Philosophy. And he wrote his dissertation on decision making.
Not sure if still available, but in Japan you could get a degree in making tea. Admittedly the whole traditional process is very much like a dance or performance rather than just boiling the kettle and using a teabag but when I first heard of it I was like wtf, kids these days.
Tea ceremony is an art form. It is an extremely detailed ritual, there are tea masters who have been studying the subject for decades. In japanese history, society was extremely hierarchic, but in the teahouse the social rules were totally different. While sometimes resembling a dance, it is more like getting into a specific mindframe while establishing a host-guest-hierarchy and executing traditional processes. Nothing in this resembles the act of using a teabag (which should be a crime in itself, and no, I am not british). Japanese tea (matcha, which many people only know as a milky Starbucks drink, but really is a very fine green tea powder) is foamed in a special cup using a bamboo brush, using hot water from a coal basin, not a stove... Neither the Brits nor the no-less tea prone Fresians (northern Germany and Netherland) ever have developed something of a similar complexity, and even the Chinese tea rituals (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_tea_culture) are less evolved.
PhD in general studies
Even in the 80s, the US produced more journalism majors than there were journalists.
Edit: To clarify, more majors every single year than journalists employed.
P.E.I. Bonewits got an B.A. from UC Berkley in "Magic."
There are many different traditions of magic. I would definitely be interested, myself.
Non-Violent Studies. A friend majored in it. I never figured out exactly what it was but he eventually became a professor of American Studies.
I am guessing non-violent studies would be something like poststructuralism/postmodernism applied to social constructs around online narratives, e.g. analysing the various forms of microaggression, cultural appropriation, mansplaining, etc.
Did some pre reqs at a school that offered Storytelling as a degree. Also had a Bluegrass major. I actually think they're both really interesting fields, and I appreciate Appalachian culture being preserved that way. Sadly, surviving late stage capitalism doesn't leave a lot of people time to study things because of passion. It's all about the grind.
I met a guy from Texas A&M who said all the jocks and meatheads majored in "poultry science".
It sounds like a joke, but keep in mind, in the name Texas A&M, the A&M part stands for Agricultural and Machinery. Poultry science is a pretty interesting degree, in that it teaches sustainable and cruelty free farming practices for raising turkeys, chickens and egg producing birds. Furthermore, it also plays into human immunology, as many vaccinations are first developed using poultry embryos. So there's a hell of a lot more to it than what the poorly chosen image, would imply.
My college in Florida offered a major in Canadian-American Relations.
Edit: Wow, really struck a nerve with the CAR majors of reddit
Alex Keaton was going to invade Canada once. Cute episode.
Wasn't there a school that ended up doing a e sports degree? Guess if you wanted to start a league or team it would be nice but kids just joining to "get good" is not good lol
Note: this post originally had 45 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Most of these are not ridiculous majors. The purpose of learning is to become a better person. College/university is not supposed to be a vocational training program. The reason why so many employers want to hire people with college degrees is NOT because they think a history/psychology/english major is just what they need. It's because they think that going to college (and graduating) means you are a better thinker than others.
College should prepare students with the basics & theory for their future employment.
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Universities are businesses too: if it sells, they will offer it. Whether it's useful or not, that's a problem of the ones who study it.
I think it's ok to study something and get a degree for it even if it is ""useless"" to the capitalist meatgrinder. Life is about more than just working as an indentured servant until death. If you are interested in something obscure and fringe that has no value to the capitalist meatgrinder, that's 100% ok with me. You do you. The only issue is the cost of it. In USA it seems to me that the cost of such a degree is prohibitive because there's no way you'd be employable to pay it back. If you want to do a degree with mere aesthetic or identity-culture value, maybe enroll in Germany where it's free.
Most of these are not ridiculous majors. The purpose of learning is to become a better person. College/university is not supposed to be a vocational training program. The reason why so many employers want to hire people with college degrees is NOT because they think a history/psychology/english major is just what they need. It's because they think that going to college (and graduating) means you are a better thinker than others.
College should prepare students with the basics & theory for their future employment.
Load More Replies... Universities are businesses too: if it sells, they will offer it. Whether it's useful or not, that's a problem of the ones who study it.
I think it's ok to study something and get a degree for it even if it is ""useless"" to the capitalist meatgrinder. Life is about more than just working as an indentured servant until death. If you are interested in something obscure and fringe that has no value to the capitalist meatgrinder, that's 100% ok with me. You do you. The only issue is the cost of it. In USA it seems to me that the cost of such a degree is prohibitive because there's no way you'd be employable to pay it back. If you want to do a degree with mere aesthetic or identity-culture value, maybe enroll in Germany where it's free.
