I used to be a college tour guide, in which I told prospective students that they could choose from over 150 different majors at my school. Apparently, 13 or so of them are completely useless — including mine. How about yours? Is your entire collegiate career a sham of actual productivity?

Earlier this week, The Daily Beast had the nerve to publish a list that finally identifies the thirteen most useless majors that college students call their own too often. The lucky thirteen was based on the undoubtedly truthful practices of science and statistics:

“This year we started with new research (PDF) from Georgetown University — which drew from two years of census data to determine the prospects for myriad majors — to narrow down our list to more than three dozen popular college majors. We also used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, equally weighing the following categories to determine current and future employment and earnings potential for our final ranking: Recent graduate employment, experienced graduate employment, recent graduate earnings, experienced graduate earnings, [and] projected growth in total number of jobs, 2010–2020.”

So basically, these were selected from the most popular majors in college, and then deemed “useless” when measuring how much money they haven’t earned past graduates and how many of them are still looking for jobs altogether. More importantly, these supposedly breakthrough findings are based on data collected over the past two years — you know, two of the bleakest years that our country has seen for quite a long time now.

And of course, which industries take a heavy blow throughout an economic recession? Without even looking at the list of overwhelming university uselessness just yet, it’s easy to guess that the liberal arts are, once again, deemed unfit for the blessed brains of science, math, engineering, etc.

I once defended all liberal arts majors on CollegeCandy, and I’ll do it again if I have to. I could continue my rant about how careers in the liberal arts aren’t as clear-cut as those in science-related fields, and I’d reiterate how so many people — more people than we think — don’t necessarily pursue careers in the fields they initially chose when they were 18-year-old freshmen in college. Because 18-year-olds don’t always make good decisions, and neither do 22-year-old graduates who are still somewhat confused by the direction of the rest of their lives, as well as 50-year-olds who undergo a career change after they’re flat-out disappointed in whatever they eventually chose to pursue.

However, I think it’s more important here to see how inaccurate the definitions of “useful” and “useless” are in this list’s context. These majors’ “uselessness” doesn’t matter at all because the definition of “usefulness” does not capture personal happiness, worldwide impact or cultural contribution — it only measures how fast YOU can pay off YOUR student loans by getting a high-paying job after graduation. But honestly, getting your money’s worth from a major and actually doing something useful with it are two different things. The nurse who majored in biology and spent a decade weighing patients on scales and measuring people’s blood pressure may not be as useful as the filmmaker who exposed an injustice through a documentary. Who has a bigger impact on the world? Who can be called more useful?

Even more so, “useful” majors would be nothing without the “useless” ones — what industry can function without artists to create advertising or language majors to publicize it…or even write a manual for that fancy scientific invention? And what will all those useful people do with their free time, if not veg out in front of the television, watch movies, listen to music, read the news, or enjoy some other product from a liberal arts major? Sure, science may save lives, but art makes life worth living.

See for yourself how “useless” the following 13 majors are, and how messed up our world would be if bright minds like us stopped majoring in them:

initiating the gallery...

Are there certain college majors that are more useless than others? Or does its “usefulness” really depend on what is done with it after graduation?

Ashley is a UC San Diego grad who is holding on way too tightly to a potential career in magazines and goes to Vegas all too often. She’s fascinated with celebrities and strawberry beer and doubles as a pathological texter/emailer/blogger. Feed the addiction with tweets @cashleelee. Thanks in advance.

We’ve all been there: just when your enrollment time rolls around, the class that you planned to take next semester is now full. Even though you need that class to qualify for another upper-division course, accept that dream internship AND graduate on time, there just aren’t enough seats. And when you attempt to crash the class, the wait list is moving at a glacial pace and you’re getting seriously desperate. How much would you pay to add that course? Would you pay more than four times the current fee per unit? Is that even fair? Is that even legal?!?

A few things are for certain: it’s happening, it’s pissing people off and, therefore, it’s the Hot Button Issue of the week.

According to the Los Angeles Times, an incredibly popular community college in Southern California will soon implement a two-tiered pricing system that offers high-demand classes at a much higher price. Class fees are currently set at $36 per unit and will rise to $46 beginning this summer. As part of the new system just approved by the school board, crucial classes at Santa Monica College will costs about $200 per unit. The new program would be offered as soon as this summer and winter — the latter of which may only offer the higher-priced classes. Hey, desperate times obviously call for desperate measures.

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Next time you’re in a classroom, look around. You’ll notice that there are very, very few people who always sit with perfect posture. Especially students. We spend such long hours sitting in class and studying that it’s really tempting to slump. I know I do.

So for this week’s workout, I’ve put together a few exercises that will engage the muscles in your core and back that contribute to your posture. You don’t need much room, so if you’re really daring, just do them right in the library. No shame.

1. Tripod Balance

Begin on your hands and knees, with your hands directly under your shoulders and your knees directly below your hips. Engage your abs to support your lower back, and imagine your shoulder blades gliding down your back as opposed to hunching up toward your ears. Lift your right arm off the ground and hold it in line with your back. Hold for 30 seconds, then do the same with the left arm.

2. Contralateral Balance

Lift your right arm and your left leg off the ground. They should be in line with your back, making a long straight line from your right hand to your left foot. Really pull your bellybutton toward your spine to maintain the alignment of your back. Hold for 30 seconds. Repeat on the other side.

3. Moving contralateral balance

Start the same way as in exercise 2, lifting your right arm and left leg off the ground. Next, pull your right elbow and left knee in toward the center of your body. Imagine drawing them in toward your bellybutton. Then, extend your right arm and left leg back out into a straight line. Do this 10 times and then repeat on the other side.

What I’m wearing: top by Zobha, pants by Soybu, shoes by New Balance.

Garnet is a student at Columbia University in New York City. She is “that person” who starts dancing at a party when everyone else is standing around, and if there were a Facebook stalking Olympics, she would be a gold medalist. She also loves cheesy 90s music, and almost died of happiness when Vanilla Ice retweeted her. Once. Follow her on Twitter.

A new year, a new semester, a new slate. Sounds pretty great, right? There’s no reason why you shouldn’t seize the day and prepare to have the best semester of your college life! Plus, you know what they say — it’s easier to start off on the right foot than it is to change course later on. In the spirit of good habits and even better grades, we’ve pulled together a list of the academic resolutions we should all be making this January. It really is all about adapting a few small, simple changes to your lifestyle…talk about an easy-A! Read More »

I can’t study in the library because it’s SO quiet that any amount of noise annoys me. Someone is eating? So annoying, even if he or she is attempting to do it quietly. But, the guy and girl in this video create a really cool interruption for the people studying. They go totally Glee and start singing a library song. Everyone seems confused at the end, but you know they enjoyed it. Read More »

With finals season fast approaching (or maybe it’s already here for you unlucky few), CollegeCandy would like to issue a public service announcement. Yes, classes are officially over. Yes, you will face a series of tests that test the knowledge you acquired in said classes. Yes, obviously, they’re a big deal. But should you ignore the rules of civilized conduct and go balls-to-the-wall crazy in your efforts to secure the best grades possible? Ummm…please don’t.

For your safety, please follow the few simple rules we’ve collected here for you. You’ll thank us later when you’re not 20 lbs heavier and missing teeth.

1. Eat properly. We both know all that Red Bull isn’t good for you. We also know that Gummi worms don’t count as a serving of fruit and awesomeness. Grab some carrot sticks and a eco-friendly bottle of water.

2. Get some sleep. Real sleep. Not in the library.

3. Pace yourself. Devise an organized approach to studying that doesn’t leave you cramming at the last minute. Then stick to it.

4. Stay of Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc. Ten minutes of “let me just see what people are up to” can quickly turn into three hours of reblogging, live tweeting and stalking exes. That’s embarrassing and unproductive.

5. Avoid any/all crazy situations resembling this scene that arose at William & Mary.

Does it feel like October slapped you in the face? I was unaware that time sped up, but apparently it did. You know what this means, don’t you? Midterms are almost here. Campus is about to get chaotic: Freshmen will be flipping out about their first big tests. Sophomores are going to try to act cool in the library and be really noisy. Juniors will curl up in the fetal position as they realize it’s the hardest year. Seniors like me will be banging their heads against the wall because that class was supposed to be easy. Everyone is going to be cranky and sleep deprived. Prescription drug deals will be happening at every bus stop. This is real (college) life.

To help you fight the good fight this semester, we’ve rounded up some of the best and worst ways to help you stay awake while you’re studying: Read More »

If you want to go to graduate school, then it’s time to start thinking about the Graduate Record Exam (GRE). But before ruining weeks of your life studying and then wasting four hours of your life taking the test, make sure you even need to take it. Do your research! Some schools don’t require it, some care more about certain parts of your score, and some require extra sections. Whatever the case, just make sure you need to take it.

Great. Now let’s say you do need to take it. Unlike the ACT/SAT, which a lot of people didn’t bother studying for back in the day, the GRE tests you on what Educational Testing Services think graduate students should know before grad school. This means you will actually have to study. Remember probability, slope-intercept form, and all those equations from math you thought you were done with years ago? Remember analogies and memorizing flash cards and five paragraph essays? You better hope so, because the GRE brings it all back with a vengeance.

There’s four sections on this bad boy:

1. Verbal – Vocab. Lots and lots of vocab. Go buy some flash cards right now – they will be your best friends soon.
2. Quantitative – Not calculus, thank gosh. But they’re talking all the way back to math you learned in middle school. This includes arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and quantitative comparison.
3. Analytical Writing – Haven’t taken a writing class since freshman year? You may want to refresh your writing skills because you’ll have to write two essays in one sitting: one argumentative and one issue.
4. Experimental (maybe) – This experimental section might show up on your GRE exam, but it won’t count toward your score. ETS wants to do research on future questions on you, and they unfortunately do not let you know. So basically, you might end up taking two Verbal sections and not knowing which was the random experimental part that didn’t count. I was devastated to hear that I would be wasting my time in this manner, but there’s really nothing we can do about it.

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The school year is back in full swing, and before you know it, it’ll be time for your first test. While I’m sure a lot of you are probably great at studying, if you’re anything like me, it’s not your best skill. But with the help of StudyBlue, studying just got a lot easier and more efficent.

StudyBlue helps you study by giving you a place to store all your lecture notes online and make free online flashcards. What’s brilliant about this is that since everything is stored online with StudyBlue, you don’t have to worry about carrying around all your books and notes with you wherever you decide to study — you can pull it up on any computer!

The flashcards on StudyBlue are easy to make and use — and their digital format allows you to put more than just words and phrases on them! StudyBlue also allows you to add photos or audio – perfect for art, architecture, language or music classes! Also, when you study with flashcards, StudyBlue keeps track of what you know and don’t know, making your study more efficient by focusing your time on what you actually need to learn. Read More »

Almost every college student suffers from a bad study habit or two (or 1,237….) – something you just can’t seem to break or get over. But fear not, I’m here to help! As a reformed terrible studier, I feel like I’ve got the experience and know-how to lead you all on the road to a better GPA before it’s too late.

Trust me, I know how hard it is to break these habits, especially the ones you’ve been working at for 4 years, but it’s definitely worth it. Keep your eye on the prize and get moving.

Bad Habit: Neverending Facebooking
Ever since this little devil popped up in 2003, vulnerable college students have spent their valuable study time creeping that hot guy down the hall or following the drama currently happening on the quad. Seriously, you might as well just pack up the books and go see for yourself because you will not get anything done when Facebook is on. Now, I have some friends who recommend completely de-activating your account for exam season, but I think that’s a bit extreme, especially when some people (myself included) use Facebook as the sole form of communication between cousins all over the world.

The Fix: I’ve found keeping my laptop on the other side of the room or turning off my internet connection to be useful. By doing that, you make it way more difficult to get your creep on. Seriously, just having to get up or switch on Airport gives you more time to consider if changing your status is really a good idea. However, if you really can’t resist, let yourself “creep” to your heart’s content on 15 minute breaks. This is going to be something you need to wean yourself off of, so set Facebook breaks in between study intervals that get longer and longer each time. Example: Break after half an hour, then 45 minutes, then an hour and so on until you’ve realized that you’re not really missing anything. PS – This goes for any website you seem to addicted to (even CollegeCandy!).

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