What’s The Best College Major?

Kids are getting accepted to college and making plans to attend.  What should they major in to give them a better chance at success in the future?

It’s easy to tell kids not to major in soft majors like sociology.  Given the times we are in, and what virtually everyone sees happening in the future the majors tied to sociology make no sense.

Most people will tell kids to major in a science or math.  Engineering is great.  The US has a gigantic demand for technical talent that can write code, and solve problems.  People that have these backgrounds will have a technical base to problem solve from.

However, pushing every one into the same major is giving a one size fits all solution.  A lot of kids aren’t cut out for STEM or Engineering.  Their brains are not wired that way.

Undergrad business programs might be a good place for them.  They learn a skill and can get a job when they graduate.  Economics might also be a good place-because at least they learn some math skills to critically think about things.

However, I find most economic programs at colleges lacking.  They don’t teach economics, but preach Keynesian economics. Keynes was as wrong about the way to view the economic world as Karl Marx.  Only classical economics works in the real world.

Another track that I think is extremely viable and valuable is humanities.  If taught correctly, humanities gives a person a canon in which to flexibly problems solve and critically think.  Of course, Humanities programs in the US have become highly politicized.  Instead of teaching kids to critically think from the perspective of the great philosophers of Western Civilization, they are force fed pablum that is of no use when they get into the real world.

Humanities majors can become excellent candidates for entrepreneurial ventures if they desire.

I have seen this with my own kids with certain classes they have taken.  However, I found the recent story on Bowdoin College very very interesting.

Bowdoin is indoctrinating kids, not teaching kids. But they aren’t alone. Walter Russell Mead has written extensively on the decline of humanities at US colleges and universities.

The colleges and professors that try to induct students rather than give them the tools to critically think and problem solve are doing a disservice to the kids, and society.

Related articles

• Bowdoin College: Come For The “Diversity”; Stay For The Liberal Cocooning
• Bowdoin College “dominated by progressive ideology,” scholars say
• How Not to Defend the Liberal Arts
• IS-LM is bad economics no matter what Krugman says
• Is Keynesian Economics Really Economics? (by Don Boudreaux)

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