Top 10 degrees you DON'T want your child to study towards!
Friday, October 19, 2007 at 6:08PM 
This list of degrees was drawn up by the folks at ScholarPoint ... There are the 10 degrees that you WOULD NOT want your child to do!
1. Master Ranching - Showing up to college wearing spurs and riding a horse probably isn't the best idea, unless you go to Texas A&M-Kingsville's Institute for Ranch Management. The university is offering the first ever master degree program for ranchers. What was once a profession passed on from generation to generation is now getting sophisticated enough that it may actually require an MBA. Go figure. Graduates can expect salaries in the $50,000-$75,000 range.
2. Astrobiology - ET phone home. The University of Glamorgan in the UK offers a degree in Astrobiology, which is the search for life beyond earth. So if hunting for alien life is your thing consider a career in Astrobiology.
3. Retail Floristry - I bet you never thought working at your local flower shop required a college degree. Well, it probably doesn't, but that doesn’t mean you can't major in Retail Floristry anyway. Career opportunities are a step above working the cash register and include wholesaling, special event designing, and display gardening. This program is offered through Mississippi State University and graduates can expect a 90% job placement rate.
4. Professional Nanny - Sullivan University in Louisville Kentucky offers a professional nanny program, which prepares graduates to work in private residences, day care centers, children's hospitals, and country clubs. This is a perfect career for those girls who grew up babysitting all the neighborhood kids that now want to make more than $2 per hour.
5. Sports Ministry - Graduates from this program are prepared for positions in non-profit organizations seeking to use sports as an avenue for teaching religion. This program is offered through Campbellsville University in Campbellsville Kentucky.
6. Adventure Recreation - Do you like snowboarding, scuba diving, ice climbing, or whitewater rafting? If you answered yes, perhaps you should consider doing what you love for a job and start by making it your college major. Green Mountain College in Vermont is offering major and minor programs in Adventure Recreation, which aims to place graduates in a variety of outdoor recreation careers such as those listed above.
7. Golf & Sports Turf Management - Just because you were never good at football doesn't mean you can't make it your job. Only you'll be repairing the grass they tear apart every week. The course curriculum offered by Mississippi Sate University will prepare you for a career as a golf superintendent or a sports turf manager at city, school, and professional sports arenas. Graduates in this field also enjoy a 90% job placement rate.
8. Comedy: Writing and Performance - Here's a degree program that actually requires "a great sense of humor" as an admission requirement. Humber College in Canada offers this program to help naturally talented students hone their craft and learn the commercial side of the business. Students learn stand-up, improv, scriptwriting, and sketch comedy.
9. Organic Agriculture - Organic foods make up more than 2.5% of all food and drink sales nationwide and have been increasing by 20% per year since 1990. This makes organic farming an attractive career opportunity. This is the first organic agriculture major in the nation and is offered through Washington State University.
10. Fishing Sciences and Management - This masters program is offered by Colorado State University and focuses on fish populations for recreational and commercial fishing purposes to ensure adequate conservation and utilization. If nothing else the courses on fish psychology should at the very least help you catch more fish.
So, anybody heard of, OR GOT, any other strange degrees! I have another hilarious one! Did you know that I actually have TWO PhD's!? Yup, it's true! I have that silly old PhD in Theology and science that took be 4 years to complete at a REAL University... But then I have THIS ONE! No studying needed! Just a copy of Photoshop!!!
You too could have THIS AMAZING [fake] PhD! In fact I know that Gus(working towards a REAL PhD, one step at a time...), Wessel (Wes, also happens to have a REAL PhD, like me...), and Pete (some people don't NEED a PhD... They're just naturally clever!) have the same degree! Why? Well, because I photoshoped their names into it and sent it to them! Impressive isn't it?
Ha ha! Dr [Jedi] Forster.
Reader Comments (5)
What parent doesn't want his/her child to make a starting salary of $50,000 to $75,000?????
That sounds like a great degree to me.
What are you saying here?
If you want to eat regularly, you had better hope and pray there are educated farmers and ranchers that direct this nation's very complex food supply chain.
Food doesn't just magically appear on supermarket shelves, you know. It takes a lot of skill and commitment by a lot of educated people to bring the multitude of product choices we have in our mega-grocery stores to us.
I work at Texas A&M-Kingsville, so I know the master's in ranch management degree is an excellent program. The students are top-notch.
I don't understand why you would cite a degree that gives your kid a starting salary of up to $75K as one "you don't want your child to study towards" (sic).
Wait a minute!
I just read your bio -- I am AMAZED that a fellow academician would SLAM degree programs at other colleges!
What happened to professional respect among members of the academy?
Well. I guess it died in South Africa.
I'll say one thing for ya -- to be so bold as to criticize other members of your profession, you must have, as we say in South Texas, big cojones.
Hey Jill,
Thanks so much for your honest comments! Very much appreciated! I'm afraid to say that I know almost nothing about the degrees mentioned here... This was simply a funny list that came from ScholarPoint - which I found through digg.com (as linked at the start of the post).
Please don't take offense! It was intended to be in jest (hence the bit of fun I pocked at myself at the end of the post).
Heck, I would LOVE my child (in fact any South African) to earn $70 000 per annum!
Thanks again for posting! It was great to hear from you! I'll certainly take a look at your profile and read your blog.
Best regards from sunny South Africa (where all is not perfect yet).
Dion
While some seem frivolous, I think things like fish conservation could be vital to the future of the planet.
the organic farmer degree sounds great and im intrested in anything growing at 20 % a year i hope u and your cancers are happy