I'll chime in with my $.02 .
Unless you come from a rich family, or plan on becoming a trophy wife, the MOST important criteria in degree/career selection is income earning potential. While money can't buy happiness, living on the margin with no retirement, driving crappy cars, living in bad neighborhoods and no future sucks big time.
You read those horror stories about college grads being unable to find a good job, because it is true - you will have a hell of a time getting hired in an environment where your competition is people from India with double Masters in the exact field the employer wants.
Look at what the hot fields are today: IT, Health Care, Natural Resources (Oil and Gas, Mining), whatever. If you get what I call a frou frou degree (history, poly sci, psych, sociology, art, music, etc. ), good luck getting hired in a field that will pay very well. Data point: a guy I know graduated recently with his History degree from a nice private school. Spent 12 months trying to find a job -- nothing to be had. Ended up working as a greeter at a restaurant for minimum wage and few tips.
Now, he's going back to school to become an RN. Outcome of history degree? A waste of four years and $50K. He is lamenting the fact "no one told me!" frou frou degrees are essentially worthless in today's job market. He had to find out the hard way.
Sure, you can stay in school and get a PhD in psych (pretty much required to practice on your own). Can you afford the cost of school as well as the opportunity cost of *not working* during this time? Figure out the cost of school plus the cost of not making $60-80K/year in a decent field for another 4 years. On top of that, you need to be an entrepreneur; something many are not. Who's going to pay for all this? How much will it cost? What is the pay back time? You better know that going in or you might put your economic life at risk.
These days, even a business degree is less useful than before. Note: I have a BA in Business with a concentration in Finance. Do I use it in the IT field? Not much and these days, everyone I interview and hire in IT has at least a BS in Comp Sci. *Most* have Masters in Comp Sci or an MBA as well.
Times have radically changed from the era when I went to school, where most any degree was worth something. From all personal experience as a long time hiring manager in IT, that doesn't seem to be true any longer. Unless you plan on living in poverty, working crap, low-level jobs, you must choose wisely and based on market demand.
If you can combine what the job market needs with your personal skills/desires, you are a lucky person.
College is extremely expensive and for most of us, you only get one, maybe two shots (like my history major example) to do it right. If you choose wrong, it is expensive and difficult to change course.
All of the above is the macro picture. Sure, there are niches here and there and exceptions. But, you need to play to the strongest strategy and that is to select a degree in a field in high demand now and into the future.
If you can handle the math -- get a strong background in IT, math and stats, become a data scientist, collect large paycheck. Read up on what is going to happen in the next few years as far as the volume of data collected from network connected devices. The field is so new, no degrees are offered yet. But they will be.
Choose carefully grasshopper!
Unless you come from a rich family, or plan on becoming a trophy wife, the MOST important criteria in degree/career selection is income earning potential. While money can't buy happiness, living on the margin with no retirement, driving crappy cars, living in bad neighborhoods and no future sucks big time.
You read those horror stories about college grads being unable to find a good job, because it is true - you will have a hell of a time getting hired in an environment where your competition is people from India with double Masters in the exact field the employer wants.
Look at what the hot fields are today: IT, Health Care, Natural Resources (Oil and Gas, Mining), whatever. If you get what I call a frou frou degree (history, poly sci, psych, sociology, art, music, etc. ), good luck getting hired in a field that will pay very well. Data point: a guy I know graduated recently with his History degree from a nice private school. Spent 12 months trying to find a job -- nothing to be had. Ended up working as a greeter at a restaurant for minimum wage and few tips.
Now, he's going back to school to become an RN. Outcome of history degree? A waste of four years and $50K. He is lamenting the fact "no one told me!" frou frou degrees are essentially worthless in today's job market. He had to find out the hard way.
Sure, you can stay in school and get a PhD in psych (pretty much required to practice on your own). Can you afford the cost of school as well as the opportunity cost of *not working* during this time? Figure out the cost of school plus the cost of not making $60-80K/year in a decent field for another 4 years. On top of that, you need to be an entrepreneur; something many are not. Who's going to pay for all this? How much will it cost? What is the pay back time? You better know that going in or you might put your economic life at risk.
These days, even a business degree is less useful than before. Note: I have a BA in Business with a concentration in Finance. Do I use it in the IT field? Not much and these days, everyone I interview and hire in IT has at least a BS in Comp Sci. *Most* have Masters in Comp Sci or an MBA as well.
Times have radically changed from the era when I went to school, where most any degree was worth something. From all personal experience as a long time hiring manager in IT, that doesn't seem to be true any longer. Unless you plan on living in poverty, working crap, low-level jobs, you must choose wisely and based on market demand.
If you can combine what the job market needs with your personal skills/desires, you are a lucky person.
College is extremely expensive and for most of us, you only get one, maybe two shots (like my history major example) to do it right. If you choose wrong, it is expensive and difficult to change course.
All of the above is the macro picture. Sure, there are niches here and there and exceptions. But, you need to play to the strongest strategy and that is to select a degree in a field in high demand now and into the future.
If you can handle the math -- get a strong background in IT, math and stats, become a data scientist, collect large paycheck. Read up on what is going to happen in the next few years as far as the volume of data collected from network connected devices. The field is so new, no degrees are offered yet. But they will be.
Choose carefully grasshopper!
