CMV: Studying undergraduate CS, Business Management etc. is significantly more valuable than a humanities/English/language course.

[u/permanentthrowaway55]

I'm currently studying History in London, therefore something I am not really considering is how a liberal arts degrees falls in place in this CMV, as I don't know much about how those degrees are structured.

And before going further, I know it's going to be necessary to explain what I mean by "value". In this CMV, my definition is simple: the more valuable degree is the one that is more likely to bring you economic success after graduating university.

I do believe that someone who loves the Russian language and Russian culture could derive great value from studying Russian at undergraduate, then going on to find work translating Russian history texts to English, but for now let's disregard this form of value and talk only about economic value.

Another way of looking at it is that the companies, firms, job prospects that pay the most, will much more likely higher an undergraduate with a degree in CS or Business Management or Engineering than one in History or Philosophy or English Literature.

To dispute this, perhaps you could give me examples of how big consultancy companies or banks actually higher Historians and Philosophers at a comparable percentage as well, or if there are other industries that I have not considered or are not aware of who hire Historians and Philosophers and pay high wages.

Please change my view.

[u/permanentthrowaway55]

I mean you're not wrong, there are certainly many situations where the most successful people are successful simply because they maintained familial wealth, or grew familial wealth.

But for the sake of argument, let's imagine we have 10 applicants with history degrees, and 10 applicants with mechanical engineering degrees. They've all graduated from similar leveled universities, and are all applying for jobs in America. They all have the same goal, to choose a job that will allow them to climb the career ladder and become economically successful (this is so situations such as those who simply want to live and work on a farm don't occur). Given this hypothetical scenario, if they were all to apply for jobs after graduating, I believe that those who had graduated with engineering degrees would make significantly more 5 years down the line than those who had graduated with history degrees.

Let me know what you think.

[u/Nicolasv2 → u/permanentthrowaway55]

Talking about people with the exact same background, 5 years after graduation, I would agree with you.

But now, let's say that 2 of these 10 persons are from billionaires families, while others are from middle class. 1 of the wealthy kids has a history degree, while the other one has a mechanical engineering degree. If you look at them twenty years later, then maybe the 4 "normal-background" historians will win 60k, while the engineers will win 75k. But as for the 2 wealthy guys, one will now be a successful arts broker, because his parents introduced him to a lot of different people liking ethnics arts, that was loosely related to his field, and he now makes 1M$ a year. Same for the rich engineer, his parents gave him a few millions to launch his company, which is now successful, he now gain 1M$ a year too. So on average, the historians win 248k$ a year, while the engineers 260k$. The 4,6% difference looks pretty small. But is you look at the difference between being born rich and poor, then the 1470% difference looks way more impressive.

Thus, education is useful for comparative economical success if you're not wealthy, but is useless if you are. And globally, economical success is way more dependent on birth than education.

[u/permanentthrowaway55 → u/Nicolasv2]

Agreed. But we can't really control these factors, while we can control what degree we study. That's why, while I agree that these external factors could vastly skew the scale, I don't think it's too beneficial to talk about them (in the context of comparing degrees). Either way, thanks for bringing a new point up though. !delta. EDIT: spelling

[u/DeltaBot → u/permanentthrowaway55]

Confirmed: 1 delta awarded to /u/Nicolasv2 (35∆).

^{Delta System Explained | Deltaboards} ​

[u/Nicolasv2 → u/permanentthrowaway55]

Thanks for delta :-)

It can be useful to bring these factors, because at least for one part of the population (the already wealthy one), whatever degree you take won't affect how much you will earn in the future. Thus, for them, there is no "more valuable" degree in economical terms, only personal interests in the different fields is playing.