Yahoo Says Agriculture is #1 Useless College Major

http://education.yahoo.net/articles/most_useless_degrees.htm?wid=7&svkid=1KWNU&partner=1946&usid=10ffad70-42de-11e1-ba4e-0022195be248

Pretty brassy of Yahoo to claim that Agriculture is the #1 useless college major in 2012. Also making the top 5 are Horticulture(#4), and Animal Science(#5).
I guess they don't think that we need educated people producing the food that keeps us alive.
Looks like Newsweek agrees - top 20 useless degrees include Horticulture (#2) Agriculture (#3) and Animal Science (#20)

I for one am proud I chose Agriculture as a college major, and irregardless of what these sites claim, would still choose it again. I would also encourage my kids to pursue Agriculture if it is what interests them.
I think this is a prime example that you should not believe everything you see or read on the internet.
Cyfarmer

Better relook at animal science... that's not the ASCI that we think of.. it's scientists: who look at animals...

Although we all will disagree with this- if you read the caption-- I tend to agree. farms are becoming less dependant on managers-- so yes I agree going to school to be a manager, is useless...

Looking back to my college days- I might not agree with this- but I would agree that some of the ag students were a worthless bunch...  and even more high school students taking ag classes.

Here's my list of top 3 useless majors and not in any particular order.

Race based studies , ie Latino studies, black studies
Sex based studies ie, women's studies, communications studies (for male athletes)
Environmental studies because the core classes are so lame (my wife has a degree)


There's  a few others.

And don't forget Communications, Sports Psychology, Sports Medicine and Political Science majors.

Well put Knabe. I have 2 college degrees, political science (is worthless) and criminal justice (also worthless) college as a whole is a scam (unless you are studying medicine or law). it has been dumbed down down so much because the liberals wanted everyone to have a college education. Also include Sociology as WORTHLESS.

http://youtu.be/VpZtX32sKVE

No offense to anyone, but Philosophy and History should be in the top 5 for sure.  You don't see help wanted ads for philosophers and historians. 

I majored in Ag Business, worked on farms and ranches, and smoked the regular business students when I went back for an MBA.  The emphasis on practical use of economics in the Ag Biz curriculum was the difference...and good old fashioned work ethic.  Although, Cut the BS is right about the Ag classes having their fair share of knuckleheads.

GM said:

No offense to anyone, but Philosophy and History should be in the top 5 for sure.  You don't see help wanted ads for philosophers and historians. 

I majored in Ag Business, worked on farms and ranches, and smoked the regular business students when I went back for an MBA.  The emphasis on practical use of economics in the Ag Biz curriculum was the difference...and good old fashioned work ethic.  Although, Cut the BS is right about the Ag classes having their fair share of knuckleheads.

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i love that word... fits me to a T sometimes... and quite a few people i can name off the top of my head...  I also think it fits some of the 'regulars' on here as well... <rock>

Cut the BS said:

I would agree that some of the ag students were a worthless bunch...  and even more high school students taking ag classes.

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(clapping)

I think its all in how you apply it. Unfortunately some of the kids get these degrees and have no working knowledge of how to apply them. I worked in hospital for years but because of my BS and my BA i was able to get a job in medical industry. Kids taking Ag as a major should also be encouraged to minor in sales, marketing etc. I have a problem when you pay some of these schools and they don't council you on the applied side of the degree. I was extrememly luck to attend good schools with excellent placement programs.

Without re-reading everything, I believe Sonny is the Dean of Oregon State University;
http://www.facebook.com/events/#!/betsy.hartley/posts/10150703995081258
This is the letter he wrote to the yahoo writer

I think ag is changing. They are talking about shutting down our coop feedmill cause it doesn't make money......that puts the closest feedmill 100 miles away. It is essentially the premier feedmill in about a 4 county area. Overhead on the good feedmills is horendous.

1000 employers is not a very big sample, especially considering the diverse amount of majors.  This is pretty much bogus in my mind.  Regardless of the major, if you are talented and hardworking you will succeed.  The fallacy that so many people think is that college = success.  WRONG! 

Apparently this guy doesn't like to eat, have clothes or housing!

Ag jobs offer incredible opportunity, especially in today's economy.

- About 58,000 jobs annually

- Only about 39,000 Ag graduates nationwide including advanced degrees

- Ag placement rate w/in six months of graduation is above 90% as compared to national average below 50%.

(from Cari Butcher of Indiana Assoc. of Ag Educators)

Makes me wonder what the author's degree is in and how many with that degree end up in that field. Funny he doesn't mention that in the article.

And when some mysterious comes and wipes out the crops, and the people who wrote that article begin to starve, they'll look for the Agriculture and Horticulture grads to find out whats wrong.


Hopefully nothing like that happens, just using it as an example.

Ive never seen the agriculture industry get a multibillon dollar bail out!!!!!

brs5 said:

Ive never seen the agriculture industry get a multibillon dollar bail out!!!!!

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careful.  that would be subsidies, subsidies for non-farming owners, nrcs grants, the allowance of monopolies, conagra, adm, big oil and a host of policies that favor consolidation at the expense of smaller producers who don't have the budget to fight against monopolies and their enforcement vehicles like the USDA and other agencies who can't stand small operations.

Good luck finding a job that has any stability and that pays a decent wage without a college degree.  I have a BS in Agriculture.  I also have a pretty good career in the oilfield because of my degree.  I wish however that I would have majored in engineering.  There are alot of companies hiring engineering grads and they grads are starting out around 200k/year.  Just my 2 cents. 

IMO, this all boils down to the general public not understanding what agriculture does for them on a daily basis.  I had this conversation with a lady that works at the place I get my cell phones the other night, she's a self proclaimed city girl from Chicago but moved to my hometown (not sure when or why) but she told me, "we need people to go back to the farm, take care of the cows and raise corn, how else are we supposed to eat??"  It was really nice to hear someone appreciate agriculture and toot it's horn, other than a farmer or rancher!  This article is just one more push to educate the people who aren't involved in agriculture why it's important!