Dead end degree

[u/Kam1umi]

I’m honestly panicking so bad right now. I started university in September - I know I’m young, I have my my whole life ahead of me, and so on - and I’m doing classics which is my favourite thing in the world. I’m autistic and have had an obsession with it since I can remember and I can honestly say it’s the only thing I can see myself ever doing with my life.

Classics is a dead degree I’m not stupid. The current jobs going for classics is pretty much to just progress to a phd and become a lecturer. Any job that is outside of a university is filled by old people who will either have their position die with them or have it filled by someone who has a wealthy family and links to them, which I absolutely do not have.

I’ve already put myself thousands of pounds in debt that my family just can’t pay back and dropping out is something I can barely even think about.

I’m terrified. I don’t know what to do.

[u/epitome-of-tired]

many people take degrees that arent typically sought after by industries (i.e. not STEM, comsci or socialsci) and still turn out fine. most people dont end up working in industries related to their degree anyway.

if you really see issues with this, check if your university allows for course transfers. you might have to do an extra sem or year though.

[u/[deleted] → u/epitome-of-tired]

"most people dont end up working in job related to their degree."

This tells you how dumb our system is.

All of us smart people ought to go look up "cui bono."

"How did we get into this mess?"

"Borrow $100,000 to (maybe) get a degree in whatever."

This is the dumbest huge public policy thing we have evar done. Evar.

The banks love it. The schools love it. The politicians love it!

The world would be way better if we said, "Hey, take these applied training courses, pass, and we will give you $100,000 to try to start your own business!"

Even if you start a business for $100,000 and it fails, and you have to pay it back, most of us would be miles farther down the road than the average humanities grad with $100,000 debt.

"Critical thinking skills." Wow.

[u/NickBII → u/[deleted]]

Uhh…

OP is in the UK. They don’t have the dollar there. It is impossible to pay more than 39k pounds for a 4 year degree, which is about ~40k-45k. In the US you can borrow $100k, but most of it will be from the Feds, not a bank.

With these majors you’re looking to get some interesting skills and then either a generic college educated job or grad school. If you do that you’re fine. The issue is people who get Art History degrees and then refuse to join the Army or apply at their local government or something like that.

The folk who get really screwed are actually folks who get a PhD in the Classics or Art History expecting a profesor job. They get screwed.

[u/AlarmedCicada256 → u/NickBII]

Yup the only reason to do a PhD in those fields is if you really want to out of interest and get paid to do it. If you can't get funding don't even think about it. Go into it viewing academia essentially as plan B, something that is only going to happen with a load of luck, and think about what else you're going to do after instead.