The Daily Beast has just come out with a list cattily entitled 13 Most Useless College Majors based on two years of Georgetown University’s census data and the post’s potential for personally vexing people with interests in interesting things. Fine Arts tops the list at 12.6% unemployment list, in the company of English Literature and Language, Journalism, Architecture, and Anthropology.
Almost the same data was used for TIME’s earlier list of most lucrative majors. So put down your easels and notebooks and get to… Mining and Mineral Engineering, Metallurgical Engineering, Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Administration and, uh, Petroleum Engineering. That’s what you should be doing because, clearly, whether your college education is ”useless” or not is measurable by yearly income only, and not the graduate’s contribution to society or self-fulfillment. If you’re not good at math, too bad.
It’s catty to discourage all creative institutional pursuits — especially those that can benefit from training, education and a mentor network — just like that, as “useless,” especially since surely there’s a few critics and writers in the Daily Beast’s art section with degrees in things other than Engineering.
But then, granted, you don’t have to go to art school to survive commercially as an artist and, with a bit of business sense, to flourish. Let’s just agree that in these tough times, it’s craftiness over student loans and being good at math might actually help. And savviness! Like setting journalistic content viral with catty titles! Ohh. This post just ate its own tail.























apart from the ridiculousness of any articles pertaining to the usefulness of majors – you've used a stock photo sample… reallly?
Are you kidding?
How is it NOT brilliant to so blatantly use a stock photo sample of some random ass dude "painting" his "painting" on an easel?
And look at those smudges on his hand. That passion is really flowing and he just doesn't care about cleanliness. A true painter.
no no no this is all wrong… I can just simply find these rich oil engineers or whatever they like to call themselves, and sell them my art super pricey
A Fine Arts degree is only useless in the sense that it will likely never help you feed yourself, keep a roof over your head or you know, move out of your parents house. Theres always a chance you could get a job teaching Fine Arts courses to other people!