Lots of people argue that philosophy, history, and liberal arts degrees are more valuable that specialized business degrees. I agree, but not for the reason you might expect.
The common argument for humanities degrees is that post-college salary numbers ignores the non-monetary value of these highbrow academic pursuits. You learn how to think. You learn about history. You learn about the great thinkers of the past. And this general knowledge helps you lead a better life. You gain something that is more valuable than a high post-graduation salary.
I think this is nonsense.
Humanities and Liberal Arts degrees are expensive and a waste of time. You would be much better off saving yourself from mountains of debt and simply creating your own liberal arts education.
You can find the reading lists for most liberal arts programs online (like the one for St. John’s College), buy the books, start a blog, and find some friends to discuss them as you read through and save $50,000 a year!!!!!!!! in tuition.
Side note: They seriously charge over $50,000 a year for a glorified (and I’m sure very fulfilling) book club. That is complete insanity. If you had $200,000, you could invest that money, retire to Thailand on the interest (as long as you can get 5% or better), and read great books for 10 hours a day for the rest of your life.
So, you’re probably wondering how on earth that could be more valuable than a business degree.
Because humanities don’t delude you into thinking your an expert in business.
Humanities graduates come out of college and face the reality that they need to get a job, and they have no marketable skills for employers.
Business graduates come out of college thinking that they are ready to take over Apple’s marketing department, to serve on Shell’s board of governors, to start a VC firm, or to lead Goldman Sachs. They are deluded into thinking they have extremely valuable knowledge when the reality is they also possess almost no marketable skills.
They keep telling people about their marketing degree, thinking it is the secret to opening doors, and can’t come to terms with all the doors that keep slamming in their faces. They turn away from valuable learning opportunities because they don’t realize how much they have to learn.
For humanities grads, it is much harder to maintain the delusion that your degree will help you with work opportunities. Of course, there is still a mass delusion and many humanities students graduate with the idea that they know how to govern the world, but thankfully that notion will be quickly slapped out of most of their heads when they realize they need to start serving at Chili’s.
Someone that has career goals and a non-business degree will be much more likely to realize that they are starting from square one and open to the valuable, but unglamorous learning opportunities that will actually help with developing valuable skills.
The obvious objection to this is that biz grads have higher salaries on average. This is true for now because employers still prefer to hire business graduates. Some because they share in the delusion, but mostly because smart, ambitious, career-oriented young people are more likely to take business degrees. As more and more employers turn away from credentials, deluded new business graduates will find it harder and harder to get the opportunities to actually learn and the hungry and humble will take the best opportunities.
Both paths are a waste of money and time, but you are better off taking the path that makes it more likely you realize you are wasting your time and money.
Note: I say this as someone who went to 4 years of business school and has a Bachelor of Commerce degree.
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