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How college works
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Too true
if you have an arts degree that is
So, everyone who graduates college works at a fast food restaurant?
no, not everyone works fast food….some go to school for 6 years while raising a family and working 60+ hours per week to get a promotion only to find that the “promotion” comes with a pay cut!
thats you, isnt it?
I’m just out of college and I can’t even get a fast food job
They should have done bartender, not fast food. I’ve yet to see someone who works in fast food that has more than 2 years of college. But then, some areas of the country have a worse job market.,
Well there’s always the person with the second job.
I know a guy with a PhD who works at McDonalds.
I knew a guy with no college degree who ended up working on the Apollo spacecraft designs. My dad. I know a dropout who ended up working on tile application for the Space Shuttles, then became a Web wizard for Napa Valley wineries. My nephew. I had no art degree but
I worked for animation studios as designer for over 20 yrs. He He. Go figure.
Exactly. A college education is nothing compared to a simple desire to succeed. And if you don’t have that desire, it doesn’t matter how many letters come after your name. You’ll never get anywhere.
Are you suggesting that those who don’t succeed simply didn’t want to? Or that going to college, if a great job doesn’t follow, is never indicative of a desire to succeed?
I worked at 7-11 for 6 months after graduating as EE
This is the flow chart for Liberal Arts majors useful degrees can usually find a place to work in their field if they are smart.
I have a diploma in IT, but all I can get is the IT equivalent of fast food jobs…
Ahhhh! Tech support hotline!
I ended up quitting that line of work and going into freelance web-design. They need to invent a phone that you can slap those idiot callers through after they waste an hour because they forgot to mention something obvious when saying their problem…
This graph is too true… I have a chemical engineering degree with a 3.5 gpa for over a year and a half and I’m yet to get a single interview in the field.
Indeed, I actually took a job as a delivery boy instead of speaking to morons all day, I am now trying to get my driver’s license so I can become a train conductor…yeah don’t ask 8D
I’ve yet to find a permenet residence close to the sahara. I figure if I find the 2nd complete spino skeleton, I’ll be a millionare, seeing as the brits bombed the first one. I mean, WTF?
yap
i… wish you werent right. i go to an ivy league… but im a english major.
mcdonalds… here i come.
You go to an Ivy League but you can’t use punctuation and you’re an English major?
Um. Okay.
p.s. “a english major”? Really??
It could be Penn. That would explain it.
haha…I would be surprised if even a Penn student were that slow. And English can get you a better job than McDonalds, if you care.
Zing! ^_^
Then you should maybe work on your English a little bit more.
Not really. I know lots of people with useful, or highly advanced degrees makin’ minimum wage. Usually for one of 2 reasons.
1. The job market sucks, and an increasing amount of it is being done in places where people will work for pretty much nothing.
2. After spending so many years jumping from institution to institution, they don’t really know how to actual start their own life, and wind up staying at home and working at a drive-through until their parents basically push them out somewhere around 30.
But hey, I’m a nomadic freelance writer, so what the hell do I know about having a life, ha ha.
Let’s also take into account that absolutely everybody goes to college these days, and even if it was a good job market, it probably wouldn’t be able to keep up with the constantly growing, over-inflated demand for professional employment.
Everyone might attend college, but only about 15% have a degree in something.
Well I took a college program that had real world applications and actually landed a 40K job right out of college. Not amazing money but it sure beats fast food.
I guess this applies to programs that don’t actually apply to the business world?
Exactly Shane. This graph only applies to those in the liberal arts field. The rest of the college graduates usually can get a job because it’s in a field that is applicable.
My summer job offered to pay my college fees if I’d consider working for them after graduation. And that was for a totally non-related degree; archaeology and I was temping at a tech company.
I think it’s luck more than anything.
I don’t know where you went to school, but isn’t Journalism classified as a “Liberal Art?” I have my degree in New Media (tech journalism/web design/photojournalim/other cool media stuff that isn’t reporting) and I got a 60K job within the first six months.
I think it usually is considered a liberal arts degree, most of the people majoring in journalism at my school aren’t that lucky though.
heh. I got a BA in Mathematics and work as a waitress…my bestfriend got her bachelors in biomedical science and also works as a waitress.
that’s because you haven’t gotten a teaching credential, or you didn’t double major in Economics or Finance. Of COURSE you don’t have a job.
Also, you got a BA and not a BS… why, I wonder.
My husband has a teaching credential. But apparently, no one has an opening for a teacher anywhere.
Are you saying education is only important if you are going into finances? Because current CEO’s of banks seem to lack.
I dare you to quit your job and try and find a new one. I don’t care if you have a degree in Things People Will Die Without, it will take you at least 6 months, assuming you don’t get deserpate enough to put on the paper hat first.
I landed a job out of college and I’m making less then you and still happy. 40k not a lot? You must live some place expensive.
It’s not a lot for my field right out of college.
My college sent out a bunch of statistics about graduating classes students in my program had a 95% hire rate in our field and the salaries ranged from 30K – 60K
40K being the average. You’re right though it is a fair amount of money to be making at 22
I’d LOVE it if my husband could make 40k in one job. I could stay home!
I’d love it if if I found more spino bones than teeth. even a vertebrae would do.
The pompous claim that unsuccessful job seekers’ majors couldn’t possibly have had real world applications pisses me off to no end.
Yes, perhaps this graph applies only to programs that don’t apply to the business world. Or perhaps your personal experience simply isn’t universal.
I worked as a waitress @ our local college bar when I first graduated. I put my time in waiting tables in other places as well. This graph is too true – but, extrapolate it a little, and your degree will be worth it – I promise! Your earning potential is greatly boosted.
I’ve dumped folks for not having a degree – not because of limited earning potential, but because not having a degree (from my own observations) typically limits people professionally down the line – and, they DO find themselves struggling with far fewer options…
Just my “don’t despair! Your degree and hard work WILL benefit you!”
Wow. So basically, you’re a golddigger?
At least you’re warning everyone. I guess that’s something.
And tell me, what is the difference between “limited earning potential” and “limited professionally?” As far as I can tell, the latter is just a PR version of the former.
I pity whoever you trick into marrying you…
I doubt that your cheery outlook will hold up to scrutiny. Having not obtained professional work in three years, despite graduating with honors from one of the best universities in the country, I think my earning potential is pretty shot. Every year, the job market is flooded with more people touting a similar education, and people my age who fell ass backwards into a promising career have professional experience further bolstering them. As a man in my mid-twenties, I think my degree is worth jack-all now that it is old and unused.
Or, if you really LIKE studying hard, you can go to graduate school, do the whole thing over again, and add more letters after your name when you’re done. I have a cousin who did this three or four times. I think he likes collecting diplomas.
I did it two times. It’s actually quite cool.
Have rich parents -> Learn leadership from sports in High School -> Have the time of your life at College -> MBA for more of that leadership stuff -> High paying career -> Become a rich parent youself!
Have rich parents -> Self-aggrandizement from sports in High School -> Party for seven years while at College -> Drop out of college because of realization of mediocracy -> Low paying career -> Become an alcoholic
-> Become an alcoholic -> Find Jebus -> Become president
?
Become President -> Destroy Economy -> Retire -> Blame it all on the next guy
Get blamed -> become prez -> fix economy -> get re-elected -> retire -> dont care about economy, just vote for whoever wont blame it on you. lol
I know people with Biology degrees, Criminal Justice degrees, and English degrees doing EXACTLY THIS. The only difference between them and me, who didn’t go to college because nothing I wanted to do required a degree, is that I don’t have twenty five grand of student loans.
Wonder if this applies to gunsmithing school or a master’s degree in environmental sciences…
Maybe you would have achieved more with your life if you weren’t busy making pointless graphs.
Shtup dude this didnt even happen to me I just know how stuff happens ok?
I have a Bachelors in Zoology and work in a large hospital. Not really related, but sometimes I feel like I work in a zoo.
Also, I have a friend who has a Masters degree in History and works at Walmart.
Correction: if you major in some bull s*** degree
This is really stupid. The only reason jobs are hard to find at the moment is because of the recession. None of my family went to college, and the majority of them have crappy jobs, while my boyfriend’s family all went to college and have very well paying jobs. I’m going to college not only to get a better paying job than I could, but also for the experience of it. Education isn’t just about the money you make anyway, aside from this graph being completely wrong.
haha u sound like a guy and you have a bf
Sound like a guy how?
I’m assuming that it’s because this person sounds assertive. Women tend to give things a chance instead of writing them off as stupid, but the gender of the OP is unknown. Oh, snaps.
Also, if he’s a guy and has a boyfriend…
WHO THE HELL CARES?
Republicans
Now that’s as base a generalization as any I’ve heard.
Yeah, if I were a gay male, I don’t see why that would matter. I also have no idea why I apparently sound male by my writing, but I don’t much care. I am female.
Uh-huh. I’m a girl and I talk like this. Why does everyone on the entire f*ing Internet assumes everyone else is male?! AUGH!
Girls have a lower IQ than males, therefore they avoid complicated stuff like the computer.
By IQ, you mean “Idiocy” rather than “Intelligence” Quotient, I presume. And by “complicated stuff like the computer”, you mean “inane video games”, of course (judging by your name and its link). You do know that the person considered to be the first computer programmer was a WOMAN named Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace, right? Grace Hopper, another WOMAN, helped write, refine and standardize the the FORTRAN and COBOL programming languages. The manual for ENIAC was written by yet another WOMAN, by the name of Adele Goldstein. The list goes on and on, but since you think males have such high IQs, I’m sure you knew all that history already and therefore your comment was meant to be taken as sarcasm… Are you a male or a female? If you are a male, please go back to your online game before your avatar gets creamed – if it’s not too late already (hope hope). If you are a female, your sarcasm is noted and appreciated!
I like how you’re fighting for ‘equal’ rights, but your response is conditional depending on gender. Gender shouldn’t matter at all, because women and men hold the same potential for sexism.
Gee, looks like someone has an inferiority complex. You sound just a wee bit scared that your degree is going to turn out to be no match for the recession.
At the end of the day, determination gets you where you want to be. My dad never finished college and wound up making 70K (in the early 90′s) doing coding and other IT related stuff that I don’t understand.
And he quit his job, so he could make 10 bucks an hour selling and restoring antique books. Because that’s what he enjoys. And you only get one life.
And as someone who has flirted both with university and extensive amounts of travel, I would really debate your definition of an education.
Yes, I realize you can get an ‘education’ by going out and traveling the world, but that isn’t what we are talking about here. I made a direct response to a chart that is about college, which quite obviously fits into the definition of education. I was essentially saying exactly what you just claimed that I didn’t say, which is that education is about learning and building yourself, not the money you make, and the college experience is included in the ways of bettering yourself along with other experiences like travel and whatnot. I didn’t need to say anything about other means of education, because that wasn’t the topic.
All my argument is that the premise of this is wrong.
This is a link to the US Census Bureau’s information on education vs. earnings, and it shows that people with a higher formal education make more money, which is all I am arguing.
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/earnings/call1usboth.html
“… aside from this graph being completely wrong.”
And how the hell would you know, if you haven’t finished college? I find that people like you are a dime a dozen, who conveniently write off indicators that their plans might not go as smoothly as they expected, because it’s simply more convenient to not entertain that possibility until you absolutely have to.
It doesn’t have to be entirely from my own experience. You can look at the numbers that are out of there of the difference of income between those who have received a higher education and those who have only graduated high school. Besides the studies, I also have direct experience with friends’ families and the differences in income according to the amount of education, which I mentioned in my original post. I know plenty of people who have never went to college and make a decent income, but on average, the people who get a degree do indeed make more money. My own father never attended college and is a successful business owner through his own hard work, so I am well aware that you CAN make a living without a degree.
As for being ‘scared’ of not being able to use my degree, I am not afraid of not making ridiculous amounts of money when I graduate. For one, almost all of the money I use to attend is given to me in grants that I don’t have to pay back, so I am not certainly not worried about being able to pay back loans. Also, I grew up incredibly poor, living in horrible houses with only just enough food, so I know how to appreciate even the lowest paying jobs a degree would get, which is certainly not as low as the jobs you can get without a degree. My entire family works at those jobs, and out of all of those people, only my father makes enough to live comfortably. None of the people I know that have went to college work at fast food restaurants at all. Most of them, if they were laid off, found jobs elsewhere in the same field that paid less, but not 6 dollars an hour like a McDonald’s, which I have worked at, by the way. The majority of the people I know that have graduated recently have found jobs. They may be lower paying than they were expecting, but they still pay well enough to live comfortably and pay off any loans they may have in a few years, if they don’t live above their means like so many people do.
As to Edward’s ‘people like you’ comment, you don’t know me, and I would prefer you don’t make assumptions as to what I am like. I am well aware that jobs are hard to find at the moment, but I also know that they were not hard to find before the recession, because *gasp* the unemployment rate was lower before and less people were complaining about the lack of jobs for people with degrees.
All I suggest is that instead of arguing with me about it, you should maybe look up information about it from a source that isn’t the sensationalist media that is making it sound like nobody has or can find a job, especially those with degrees. It just isn’t true. I have absolutely no fears about not finding a decent job when I graduate, because this recession won’t last forever. Maybe I won’t find one immediately, but I’ll live. Either way, claiming that college is a waste of time and money, based solely on what jobs you can find when you graduate, just isn’t true.
All this discussion makes me want to play Life. I can not go to college, have 4 kids, and still be a millionaire. Hoo ra.
Haven’t hundreds of people done just that in reality?
you forgot to add “pay for college”
Haven’t you heard? Most of these people want to go to college for free! Student loans are so oppressive!
i actually got paid to study. scholarship + inexpensive school =
Oooh, hang on, let me contribute like everyone else:
LOLOLOLOL LIBERAL ARTS DEGREE USELESS GET A REAL JOB
That being said, I have a degree in music education, which almost certainly qualifies as one of the aforementioned ‘useless jobs’. I might have a rough time finding one and I’ll never make much money but by gosh do I love my work (and it certainly seems applicable enough).
Umm… How about paleontology?Or mathematics?
math is not useless. It is much easier to find a job as a math major than some liberal arts major. Sure it will not be in “industry”, but nonetheless, it is very useful.
On the flip side, engineering (or pre-med) is like the antithesis of a liberal arts degree
yes, if people who want math degrees know a specific field they want to get into, or double-major in something else, they actually have a one-up on other majors. It shows employers that you are highly analytical and willing to take on a challenge.
(I’m a math major who hasn’t even graduated with my BS yet and I’m a financial planning assistant, so you can bet I won’t be working in fast food when I graduate.)
(Also, there is still a great need for math and science teachers, so if you really can’t find a good job, get a credential)
premed is useful only if you go to med school. and most schools don’t want a bs in premed, they would rather see some diversity in its students.
A lot of schools don’t even offer pre-med as a major anymore for that reason but rather as a track program in other majors. I am pre-med, but my major is biology with a pre-health focus. My minor is math with a pre-med track (focuses more on calculus for life sciences, etc). However, medical schools do require all applicants, regardless of your major, to take specific classes as prerequisites. So even if you’re a dance major applying to medical school, you still have to take organic chemistry.
I went into music ed, and I realized after student teaching that I can’t take the union, parents, and wise-a$$ kids. I had a job doing sales support, which I left for anything better, and found nothing. Now I’m going to school part time for an MBA while I look for anything. If I could do it all over again, I wouldn’t bother with college. I could have worked my way up from cashier to manager in the four years I was in college, and wouldn’t have been $30K in debt
Hmm, I never went to college but I have also never worked in the food service industry, be it fast food, bartender, or other. And I make $42,000/year. I believe this graph is only applicable if you are too lazy to look for a better job.
This doesn’t apply unless you get a high-demand degree. Go, Go Computer Science!
Bitter much?
In case no one determined this about me from my numerous above comments: Yes.
WOW. comments are fun…ya a degree in the sciences (mathematics) got me nowhere. So now im spending my time in grad school…just so when i wait tables, i can go up to people and say “Hi my name is Lauren PhD, would you like to start off your meal with a coke?”
lol Hi, Lauren
because you’re not smart and only got a degree in Mathematics. I have a hard time believing you couldn’t get a real job if you really applied yourself (in a better economy than the one we’re in now).
Again, Finances, Economics, or credential, to go along with that degree might have helped. And I hope you people are STILL applying. You should never stop applying to jobs, even if you have one, if you don’t like it.
I don’t know. To me, the 19-month mark is just about “give up” time.
oh ps….real “rocket scientist” NEVER call themselves that…they all say aerospace engineering, and sometimes not even that.
Maybe those who are dead inside.
I’d barely consider economics a liberal arts degree, actually…I know technically it is, but it has more practical applications than say, philosophy.
Go to law school –> –> Profit
going to law school = going in debt. Most people can’t afford the ‘high’ degrees.
In my case it was “go to small Christian college–>four years of tests & exams–>go a fifth year because some requirements for the major weren’t offered that year–>graduate–>default on student loan due to spending too much on luxuries like food and rent–>watch alma mater lose accreditation and close its doors due to financial mismanagement–>watch school get bought out by large university, then close again due to recession–>try to job hunt with diploma from college that no longer exists.
I majored in Literature and got a job right out of college. Not all people with liberal arts degrees work at fast food restaurants!
what job? i’m hopelessly in love with the english major and refuse to give it up for something everyone thinks is more practical, but i also have no idea what i’ll end up doing with it. because i really dont want to teach.
now now. ignore the poor mans graph. he probably is just letting out his feelings of failure in a popular form of modern art, the graphjam. let him say whatever he likes.
THANKS GUYS! If it werent for you this wwouldnt be here. Merry christmas, and thanks again. Keep leaving comeents. I read these all the time.
The trick is to only admit to a degree when applying for a job that necessitates one.
Really, are they still hiring? I was a double major and Sallie Mae wants my other kidney.
The graph is missing the route I took:
Graduate High School -> Don’t go to College -> Work way up to 6 figure salary.
Don’t forget about the crippling debt.
Dude, it’s just a graph. If you a stick *that* far up your ass, what are you doing on a humorous website?
Someone sounds bitter…
Luckily i found a job after i graduated, but it doesnt start for a while due to protests
Summer internships help a lot and sometimes you have to look outside your field for a job. I graduated with an Aero degree and will be working IT instead. So dont forget that there are options out there outside your neighborhood fast food restuarant. however, i may need to get a fast food like job just to make some cash before i run out when my job actually starts lol
“…but it doesnt start for a while due to protests”
Man. What a sign of the times, eh?
DANG that makes me mad! Seeing obvy gifted/talented/trained folks NOT getting what they deserve! Hope it’s only a stop on the way to something better, friend!
I am so with all of you. Not only are the young/mid-aged hurting in this clime, but I’m one of a bunch who were “downsized” in late ’90s, possibly bcs of age-ism. *NO we do not favor Lawrence Welk* We suspect the for-profit health ins. companies (only since late ’80s) pressure employers to dump the likes of us. Let’s stand in solidarity against such injustices, as well as those perpetrated on YOU the young! Cheerin ya on!
I think by “college” he meant “humanity major”.
It is amazing how quick you can get a 50k $ job with an engineering degree.
I walked into a $50k job fresh out of college with a BS in Computer Science.
This is clearly written by someone who didn’t get into college. Whoops did I say that?
Yes, because it’s so damn hard to get into college.
Seriously. Every retard I know got accepted somewhere, if they wanted to go badly enough. You don’t need to be smart to do well in school. You just have to be obedient, and well-disposed towards repetitive motion and thought.
Schooling, education, and ambition are three completely unrelated concepts. I know a dude with a PhD working at McDonalds, and I know a high school drop out who did so well in IT consulting that he retired at 40 and lives on a sail boat in the Bahamas.
One was motivated. The other was not. The letters they may or may not have had after their names meant nothing.
But you’re precisely the kind of snobby jerk that people do online courses to avoid.
Getting into college isn’t hard- anyone can do it- even you cat!
Graduating college is different. If graduating were soooo easy, then EVERYONE would have a degree right? Except only 15% have a degree. It’s an elite class now.
You can have ambition and sometimes don’t need a college degree to do well. The truth is, most people won’t. Why? Because most live in a vicious cycle of poverty and classism.
I’ve known people who have succeeded without college degrees- like, 2. They are the few and the lucky.
lol. glad i joined the air force then.
My mom was an immigrant who only got to finish middle school in her country. My father moved here at the age of twelve and dropped out of high school. They’re now both making over $150,000 a year.
I’m planning on going to college and into the engineering field.
I HATE ALL YOU IDIOTS AT THIS SITE! I BET THIS IS HOW YOU FINISHED YOUR “EDUCATION” BUT I BECAME A DOCTOR! YEAH THATS RIGHT FREAK, I DONT WORK AT AN F’N FAST FOOD JOINT!!!!!!! WHAT A LOOOOOOOSER! WHOEVER CREATED THIS NEEDS TO GET OFF THE COMPUTER AND GET A LIFE!!!!!! MOFO!
I don’t want any part of a profession that leaves me half as angry as you appear to be, sir.
No kidding!
Hahah yeah! I am not even old enough to get into college but I know what happens dumbass!
I agree with everyone that says it is more about motivation. Plus, I hate the college stigma that it’s “cool” to go for the drunken parties and frequent casual sex. THOSE are probably the people that are working at McDonald’s. College shouldn’t be something you feel like you HAVE to do, but rather you WANT to do for the personal enrichment. I didn’t start my bachelor’s degree until I was in my mid-twenties and had two kids, and now I realize that college really is wasted on the young (the ones fresh out of high school and are there because their parents are paying for it). Now I’m 31 and in medical school, and I totally agree that determination is just as important as your grades.
i totally agree sorry for my freakout (lol) but i am just fed up with young people today, wasting their time when they could be great…. i look at it like this, if everyone who went to college now works at mcdonalds then why are their so many successful people???
The truth is, there aren’t that many successful people. The elite jobs that we all want making over than 100k a year are very few and far between.
People need to realize that most people are not middle-rich class. Most people are poor.
I went to college fresh out of high school and my parents paid for it. Why? Because there was no way in hell I was going to afford it myself. Especially if I were to wait till now, being 25- with the 23% hike in tuition that just occurred. I appreciated it- I loved it, and I didn’t get wasted and have sex every second like most people think college students do (funny, non-college students do that too! So do adults!)
People who are older and go to college are there because yes, they want to be there- but notice there aren’t a lot of older people in college. Thus, the reason for pushing young people into college after HS, because they are more likely to attend then graduate. If you wait, the chances of you going to college, get smaller and smaller, because you (hopefully) have a job. It’s the same reasoning for teens who drop outta high school-
“well, I work at starbucks and make 9 an hour, what’s the point of high school?”
I’m getting a degree in Sociology… should I quit now and start apping for Jack in the Box?
This is exactly true in my experience, even including the ulcers. Graduated with my BA cum laude, then worked the drive-thru window at Burger King for months before finally landing a minimum wage office job where I also had to scrub the toilets.
I am currently doing a project for my Information Media class about How many people actually find jobs within their major. Would I be able to use your graph for my presentation. (professor wants us to learn about copyright laws and therefor makes us ask permission.)
Too bad that doesnt apply to me. I will have a job for the next 30+ years out of college. Gotta love being in the military.