Out of Business
Why an Undergraduate Degree in Business is Worthless (and the new Undecided)
Many fields face the humiliation of being deemed worthless by society. From anthropology to philosophy, there are degrees that simply don’t lead to jobs.
The college landscape has changed so much: from bastion of intellectual curiosity to glorified vocational school.
Students that attended university in the mid-20th century could major in almost anything because those with a college degree were few and far between, and companies valued people that had the means to attend college and the experience it came with. A solid education meant a well-rounded individual with skills on how to think, synthesize, write, research and communicate. These skills could be applied to virtually any white collar job (so, yes, even an anthropology degree or philosophy degree could lead to a comfortable job). In reality, even thought they could lead to jobs, they weren’t supposed to. Those fields were academic and were meant to produce academics. They were meant to uphold the field, research and teach it, and produce publications— or else the field would die. Note: being an academic was once a very cushy job: well-paid, high job security, wonderful and undemanding environment, summers off (that is a whole other conversation).
So why did we start making fun of those fields? Because the price of a college education could no longer justify studying for studying’s sake. It could no longer be a part of one’s life journey (need I say education) but had to have a commercial connection, a professional outcome, and a return on investment.
Naturally, students starting shifting away from their passion and interest toward degrees that led to higher paying positions and job security: law and medicine dominated for decades until falling out of fashion by the end of the 20th century due to an over-saturation of lawyers (and a general societal disdain for them) and a overcomplicated, messed up health industry full of burnt out and unfulfilled health workers.
During this time, business was taking over the world more and more, and, with the proliferation of the corporate class dominating every fiber of society, students started to see business as their best option. Today, it often seems like the only option. But like many fields before it, it has become oversaturated. We are not in need of this many marketing majors. The value of a degree in “business management” is continuing to fall.
Higher education in America was borrowed from Europe. The principle was simple: create well-rounded, thoughtful individuals in touch with humanity. In turn, we’ll have a better world being run by better leaders. The system was not meant to be a vocational school; it was not a job training program; and it certainly wasn’t meant to be an internship finder. But that is where we’ve come. With tuition criminally expensive, students are forced to think on those terms. For many, studying business seems the best route.
Where business wins is where business education fails: it is dynamic. The business world is always changing and evolving. It is run by the innovations of thinkers and moved by the needs of customers. So many undergraduate majors provide a foundational course of study: English, physics, math, political science, history etc. These fields do not change because they don’t have to. Yes, they are always producing more research and discoveries— that is the job of academia— but they provide a focused and intensive program. Students in these fields may be interested in finding internships, planning for graduate school, or mapping our a career but they’re not consumed by it. They are free to study and, in doing so, are more or less what college students are supposed to be.
Undergraduate business students are so focused on the rat race— finding the best summer job, internship and postgraduate position— that their “studies” are deprioritized. Their classes are often an afterthought (source: undergraduate business majors).
Furthermore, they often lack the skills that higher education was so focused on producing. Their academic rigor simply isn’t there (this is routinely evidenced by data showing the most difficult majors based on various metrics: physics and philosophy are routined at the top).
Business is the round peg that was made to fit into the square hole of academia. Colleges saw a big opportunity to take what is essentially vocational training and took full advantage of it to make money.
And this is where my personal viewpoint comes in. I am disheartened by seeing the amount of students who choose business as a default because a) they don’t know what else to do/ have no other interests and b) college is too expensive to goof around and they believe that studying business is their best/only option for a secure future. I’ve already discussed how those that let society choose for them often end up taking longer to reach their goals (and often never find their purpose or goal). Chestnut State’s mission to provide vision to young people. When young people take the time to understand themselves deeply, they understand what moves and drives them. When they understand that, they then can know what they want out of life. For some, that may well mean a career in business. For many, it might not.
Business is a suitable and appropriate career choice for many. Business moves the world round (whether we like it or not) and my hope would be that our biggest and best business leaders are good people that want to solve problems and improve people’s lives (I, unfortunately, don’t think that is the case at present).
It is my recommendation that for individuals that are interested in pursuing the study of business, they are best served doing so at the graduate level. The MBA, while not nearly what it used to be in terms of value and attractiveness to the job market, is still the only real legitimate business degree program. Students should hone their academic skills as undergraduates, and provide themselves with a foundational course of study, then attend an MBA program or similar type of graduate/professional program after a few years of employment. Note: most American business schools do not admit students to their MBA programs right of out college (that should say something).
For those students that choose business as a default major because they don’t know what else to do (business is undoubtedly the new undecided), or because they’ve been reminded too often that they’ll need to find a job in four years, I ask you to explore all of the opportunities that are out there.
If you are going to attend college, your obligation to yourself is to know what college offers.
