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Most overrated degree in your imo?

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Law. There are so many people doing it nowadays for the money but nowadays its hard even get into a Magic circle firm.
Original post by Underscore__
Take your pick of any degree that isn't medicine, law, maths, proper engineering or a few of the sciences


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But law actually is overrated.

Edit: Also I'd add Aerospace engineering. Mechanical engineers can get into virtually all graduate schemes they do. But Aerospace engineers can't get into all mechanical engineering graduate schemes. Despite that, people think aerospace is the most prestigious engineering discipline.

And apparently it's not the hardest either (contrary to popular belief). My friends in 3rd and 4th doing various engineering disciplines claim that electrical engineering becomes so difficult that it's ridiculous. It becomes even more horrible if you're doing it at a good uni.
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by GradeA*UnderA
I'm intrigued as to why physics/chemistry don't get the same level as respect, because they seem to be much harder. I mean, from some of my taster days, medicine seems like A Level Biology on steroids; there's excessive memorisation in every topic!


I actually found Medicine to be a considerably harder degree than Physics, for that very reason. Physics is conceptually more difficult but the volume is manageable, so even if you're struggling to understand things, you have time to work through it and wrap your head around it. Medicine involves memorising such a ridiculous amount of information that I really struggled (and still struggle) to contain it all. There's also the practical and social elements of Clinical Medicine that don't feature in other courses. Sitting down with a difficult equation is a very different challenge to telling a parent that their young child is going to die
Original post by CJKAllstar
Awkward moment when you want to do PPE/Politics and Econ...

Tbf though it's because I have a serious interest in politics and econ above any other subject, and though I'm not aiming to be an MP, I do want to work in politics.

I'd agree though that people who take these subjects thinking it's a blagger's degree to power are probably overestimating just how useful PPE is or politics for that matter, it's one of the few courses that as the quality and prestige of your uni decreases, it becomes a lot more soft and probably a lot more useless, which is why I sorta have to get into a top uni...

With that in mind I'd still say finance. In my experience, people who do finance or accounting of some sort think it's a one way ticket to become a successful entrepreneur, banker, accountant or whatever. In my school it's the single most popular choice for people without any actual serious interest in a subject who don't really know what they want to do. Realistically maths is a lot more useful for banking and accountancy, and entrepreneurship or management of some sort does not in themselves require a degree. Finance has its uses but from personal experience, it's highly overrated.


How is learning galois theorem ever going to help you balance a financial statement? Or set up a very simple DCF model that a 12 year old could probably set up?

Finance is quite helpful actually.


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Original post by Princepieman
How is learning galois theorem ever going to help you balance a financial statement? Or set up a very simple DCF model that a 12 year old could probably set up?

Finance is quite helpful actually.


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Not saying it isn't useful, but it's not a one-stop shop to instant entrepreneurship or success in banking, accountancy, and everything money-related like a lot of people portray it as.
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Original post by SalazarSlytherin
medicine easily

who the **** wants to examine penises for a living


You do know that you dont have to be one of the doctors that "examine penises for a living" 😑
Most intellectually overrated: medicine by far. A degree where most of the holders consider themselves the cream of the crop but it really is more about memorisation than difficult concepts.

Most overrated in terms of employment prospects: maths, engineering and any science degree in general. There seems to be the attitude that doing one of these subjects at a decent university if you can get a decent grade gives a high probability of well paid lifelong employment. That is far from the truth.
Law, psychology and history and biology

Original post by SalazarSlytherin
medicine easily

who the **** wants to examine penises for a living


If you think that's what all doctors do then you're very misinformed
Law.
Original post by CJKAllstar
Not saying it isn't useful, but it's not a one-stop shop to instant entrepreneurship or success in banking, accountancy, and everything money-related like a lot of people portray it as.


Still more directly helpful for all of those careers than Maths.

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Original post by CharlieGEM

Most overrated in terms of employment prospects: maths, engineering and any science degree in general. There seems to be the attitude that doing one of these subjects at a decent university if you can get a decent grade gives a high probability of well paid lifelong employment. That is far from the truth.


True. Amazes me when people say this stuff.

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Original post by Chwirkytheappleboy
I actually found Medicine to be a considerably harder degree than Physics, for that very reason. Physics is conceptually more difficult but the volume is manageable, so even if you're struggling to understand things, you have time to work through it and wrap your head around it. Medicine involves memorising such a ridiculous amount of information that I really struggled (and still struggle) to contain it all. There's also the practical and social elements of Clinical Medicine that don't feature in other courses. Sitting down with a difficult equation is a very different challenge to telling a parent that their young child is going to die


But do you think medicine still deserves all the praise it gets? I'm sure as a physics graduate you know how underrated it is by friends, family public etc.
Most overrated: Law, History, Geography, English and Biology.

Most underrated: Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics.
Original post by CharlieGEM
Most intellectually overrated: medicine by far. A degree where most of the holders consider themselves the cream of the crop but it really is more about memorisation than difficult concepts.

Most overrated in terms of employment prospects: maths, engineering and any science degree in general. There seems to be the attitude that doing one of these subjects at a decent university if you can get a decent grade gives a high probability of well paid lifelong employment. That is far from the truth.


Your second paragraph is utter ********. I'm pretty sure all the maths/science related courses have the highest employment and salary out of all degrees. Computing, engineering, maths and medicine all have high starting salaries
Original post by GradeA*UnderA
Your second paragraph is utter ********. I'm pretty sure all the maths/science related courses have the highest employment and salary out of all degrees. Computing, engineering, maths and medicine all have high starting salaries


Salary has nothing to do with what he's saying, and a degree itself doesn't afford one a salary. He's saying that the degree alone is not a meal ticket to a job and that you need other things to actually get through recruitment processes.

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Original post by UWS
STEM students be like "anything but STEM"


Nah, because they don't rate other subjects, so they cannot be overrated.

I would say law and computer science at anywhere other than a top uni.
Original post by jake4198
Most overrated: Law, History, Geography, English and Biology.

Most underrated: Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics.


Chemistry isn't underrated. Even my old chemistry teacher called it an overrated degree. Only 52% get employment 6 months after completing their degree. 32% either have to do further study or take a second degree. That's not as bad as other subjects but it's still awful compared to other courses that have around 80% in employment right away.

And English and Biology aren't overrated. But that's purely because no one cares about them enough to rate them in the first place (aside from people studying them.
Original post by Princepieman
Salary has nothing to do with what he's saying, and a degree itself doesn't afford one a salary. He's saying that the degree alone is not a meal ticket to a job and that you need other things to actually get through recruitment processes.

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Having those subjects as a degree exponentially improve your chances though. In some circumstances, it really can be a meal ticket. In fact, medicine literally is a meal ticket to a high salary, if you just do your job well.
Original post by XOR_
Does anyone actually rate this highly though?, it's literally considered the bottom of the bottom of degrees.

I guess you could say any rating > 0 is too high :tongue:.


What about Harry Potter studies? :/
In terms of prestige?
Medicine is by far the most overrated.

In terms of work prospect?
They all are. Everyone thinks they can get a degree and walk into a job. You need other things like extra-curricular, being good at psychometric tests etc etc to get you through. For that reason I would say they are all over-rated.

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