Name a college/uni course that links to a career but is pointless for that career

Reply 20

Gorwell

14

Media Studies? doesn't exactly put you at an advantage at getting a job in the media

Business degrees at the undergrad level. Unlike their (good) MBA big brothers which help prepare middle management for senior management, they don't really help people who want to "go into business", and many companies don't require such degrees for entry to their various business functions either - in fact many prefer graduates of other, more rigorous disciplines to fill such positions as it is, generally, easier to teach an intelligent person who has good people skills to work in, say, sales or marketing.

Reply 22

jelly1000

21

A politics degree doesn't help you become a politician or give you an advantage in any other politics related job.

Reply 23

Dursty

10

Pretty sure most people are misinterpreting the thread.
Ex:
Economics is obviously respected and well versed in its career prospects, however the theory of most areas within economics aren't directly applicable to a profession such as Investment Banking where only low level maths is required for the actual job (along with financial knowledge, although much of this is picked up whilst working within the industry).

Reply 24

im so academic

15

Original post by Levingne

Media Studies? doesn't exactly put you at an advantage at getting a job in the media

I'm surprised it took that many posts for Media Studies to be mentioned. I'd thought that would be the obvious! :p:

Reply 25

im so academic

15

Original post by jelly1000

A politics degree doesn't help you become a politician or give you an advantage in any other politics related job.

Says the person doing a degree in international politics. :p:

Reply 26

skotch

16

Drama at university isn't particularly useful for becoming an actor/actress. Doing it at a drama school is, however.

Journalism degrees (however often do you hear of journalists having done journalism degrees? They've always studied English/history/philosophy/languages then occasionally you hear of people having done masters courses.

Often media degrees are pretty vilified, but I can see the attraction and career prospects available there.

Law is another one that doesn't seem to necessitate a law degree, in fact, most law students I know don't want to do anything to do with law. Wouldn't say it's pointless for a career in law, but there are still many more things you have to do to actually become a lawyer and often a law degree isn't a prerequisite.

Reply 27

im so academic

15

Original post by skotch

Drama at university isn't particularly useful for becoming an actor/actress. Doing it at a drama school is, however.

Journalism degrees (however often do you hear of journalists having done journalism degrees? They've always studied English/history/philosophy/languages then occasionally you hear of people having done masters courses.

Often media degrees are pretty vilified, but I can see the attraction and career prospects available there.

Law is another one that doesn't seem to necessitate a law degree, in fact, most law students I know don't want to do anything to do with law. Wouldn't say it's pointless for a career in law, but there are still many more things you have to do to actually become a lawyer and often a law degree isn't a prerequisite.

So say if you wanted to be an actress/actor, is that the only viable route to becoming one? BA Drama at a drama school where the application ratios are 1000:1?

Reply 28

albee

3

All the lawyers I know say they would sooner employ someone who hasn't done a law degree - their advice is to do a subject you love - it makes very little difference to the training if you need to do a conversion. Same with accountancy.

Reply 29

PurpleMonkeyDishwasher

13

Original post by Levingne

Media Studies? doesn't exactly put you at an advantage at getting a job in the media

I'm starting to change my opinion on this actually. Media Studies actually, most of the time, at least gives students contacts within the media.

Reply 30

Principia

8

Law A-level - I have friends who are lawyers and they reckon it's totally pointless.

Reply 31

im so academic

15

Original post by PurpleMonkeyDishwasher

I'm starting to change my opinion on this actually. Media Studies actually, most of the time, at least gives students contacts within the media.

What kind of contacts? Being a cleaner at some random bankrupt studio?

Reply 32

skotch

16

Original post by im so academic

So say if you wanted to be an actress/actor, is that the only viable route to becoming one? BA Drama at a drama school where the application ratios are 1000:1?

I never said it's the only route. Those that do drama degrees at university, if they want to go into acting, tend to go to drama school afterwards. Heck, you don't even need to get a degree to go into acting.

Reply 33

tengentoppa

18

Original post by TheBigJosh

Law, useless or Law degrees, even frowned upon.

Maybe if you'd taken Law you would have been taught how to write in coherent English.

Original post by alow

Law is no where near as respected as medicine. I'd put it below all STEM subjects and most humanities (english, history, etc.) in terms of how respected it is. You don't need to do undergrad law to become a lawyer.

I think that's a bit of an exaggeration. Law is still highly respected and I would certainly consider it more respected than English. Moreover, employment prospect are better for Law than for any non-STEM subject apart from Education. Finally, commercial law firms tend to have a 50/50 split between law and non-law graduates so law firms definitely don't look down on them.

Reply 34

im so academic

15

Original post by skotch

I never said it's the only route. Those that do drama degrees at university, if they want to go into acting, tend to go to drama school afterwards. Heck, you don't even need to get a degree to go into acting.

Stupid question: how do people get into acting?

Reply 35

jelly1000

21

Original post by im so academic

Says the person doing a degree in international politics. :p:

Lol I know but I chose my degree out of interest and because I knew I wanted a job that required a degree, not because I needed a specific degree,

Reply 36

jelly1000

21

Original post by im so academic

Stupid question: how do people get into acting?

As far as stage acting goes, whenever I've been to the theatre in the West End I've bought a programme and in the bios its said nearly all if not all the cast have attended some sort of drama school whether saturday classes or full time one at or post degree - names I've seen include Old Vic Bristol, Rose Bruford, Rada, Lamda and for the kids NYT, Sylvia Young, Stagecoach, Theatretrain. They are in the know about when auditions are so they go along and if they are good enough/in the right place at the right time they get the role. Many of those attending these schools will never make it though.

Reply 37

im so academic

15

Original post by jelly1000

As far as stage acting goes, whenever I've been to the theatre in the West End I've bought a programme and in the bios its said nearly all if not all the cast have attended some sort of drama school whether saturday classes or full time one at or post degree - names I've seen include Old Vic Bristol, Rose Bruford, Rada, Lamda and for the kids NYT, Sylvia Young, Stagecoach, Theatretrain. They are in the know about when auditions are so they go along and if they are good enough/in the right place at the right time they get the role. Many of those attending these schools will never make it though.