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You think an undergraduate degree in neuroscience was a waste of money.. that might be true for you but not universally. You could have used it as a basis for

You think an undergraduate degree in neuroscience was a waste of money.. that might be true for you but not universally. You could have used it as a basis for a career in pharmaceutical research, medicine, investing, venture capital, science journalism, psychology, machine learning, etc. If you had an engineering degree, you could say that is useless because your current job as a stage actor doesn't utilize any of those learned skills.

outlace 7y ago
I went to medical school. I'm now a resident physician in psychiatry, which is becoming more and more a kind of clinical neuroscience. And I still think my undergraduate neuroscience degree was a waste of time and money. Neuroscience isn't a skill. I would have been much better off with a math or computer science degree. I re-learned all the relevant neuroscience I needed in medical school and am learning more specialized knowledge on my own as it pertains to my career. I'm not trying to make a subjective point that neuroscience was bad for me. I turned out ok in the end, I'm a physician now. I'm making the distinction between knowledge-based degrees (which are easily learned outside of paying for a degree) and skill-based degrees, which may include stage acting. You can't learn stage acting from a book, you can learn neuroscience facts from a book. If I had a math degree, I could have still gone to medical school, and could still become a psychiatrist. But I would have also been able to appreciate Einstein's theory of relativity (as a recreational endeavor) or been able to contribute to the burgeoning field of computational psychiatry as a clinician-researcher. Now consider an alternative path, I majored in mathematics, joined a quantitative hedge fund and realized I was losing my soul and wanted to do something more fulfilling. So I take my spoils and enroll in some stage acting classes, and eventually land a nice role at a local playhouse. Is my math degree useless? Perhaps not very useful to my stage acting career, but at least I can appreciate the beauty of Einstein's theory of relativity. Or go back to a quant hedge fund if acting doesn't work out. Or many, many other things, because I have a skill that is foundational to many other areas.
- drblast 7y ago
  This makes a lot of sense. If I might restate it: There are certain fields of study that lend themselves to a college format, where you'd benefit from doing things hands on with lectures and instruction. Not every field of study, including those that can be extremely valuable, has this feature. Acknowledging that the one-size-fits-all college lecture/homework/test format is not the ideal way to learn everything might help us figure out how to learn more efficiently.
- bradlys 7y ago
  As someone who did an undergrad degree in Mathematics, I can tell you that you're not really doing any worse than math. Is there really some undergrad level math barrier to understanding Einstein's theory of relativity? I don't know if you'd be able to contribute to computation psychiatry with a math degree either. You'll have a hard time getting into any heavy-cs field with just a math undergrad. You might learn some skills and ways to think mathematically but it's not gonna help you in the real world - lol. After all, my math college counselors would ask me, "Ok, so, what do you want to do with your math degree? Grad school or actuary?" (And those were the only options they presented) Most of my time in undergrad was spent memorizing theorems. Probably not much different than neuroscience. It's really no different than many classes. A lot of bullshit memorization because you need to remember a bunch of one-off shit to solve a lot of problems. Theorems are the jeopardy trivia of math degrees. You know how psychological thriller movies have subtle hints through them that things are not what they seem? It's like, you'd be able to guess what's gonna happen next if you picked up on that super subtle clue 2 hours ago. Most math exams and homework are that. Hope you remember that stupid theorem from 15 chapters ago that was subtly referenced and never mentioned again! > Now consider an alternative path, I majored in mathematics, joined a quantitative hedge fund Very unlikely unless ivy league, strong connections, and were working hard outside of your math classes. Job prospects for math majors are grim. You don't learn employable skills in many math degrees. (Speaking mostly of undergrad degrees)

outlace 7y ago

I went to medical school. I'm now a resident physician in psychiatry, which is becoming more and more a kind of clinical neuroscience. And I still think my undergraduate neuroscience degree was a waste of time and money. Neuroscience isn't a skill. I would have been much better off with a math or computer science degree. I re-learned all the relevant neuroscience I needed in medical school and am learning more specialized knowledge on my own as it pertains to my career. I'm not trying to make a subjective point that neuroscience was bad for me. I turned out ok in the end, I'm a physician now. I'm making the distinction between knowledge-based degrees (which are easily learned outside of paying for a degree) and skill-based degrees, which may include stage acting. You can't learn stage acting from a book, you can learn neuroscience facts from a book. If I had a math degree, I could have still gone to medical school, and could still become a psychiatrist. But I would have also been able to appreciate Einstein's theory of relativity (as a recreational endeavor) or been able to contribute to the burgeoning field of computational psychiatry as a clinician-researcher. Now consider an alternative path, I majored in mathematics, joined a quantitative hedge fund and realized I was losing my soul and wanted to do something more fulfilling. So I take my spoils and enroll in some stage acting classes, and eventually land a nice role at a local playhouse. Is my math degree useless? Perhaps not very useful to my stage acting career, but at least I can appreciate the beauty of Einstein's theory of relativity. Or go back to a quant hedge fund if acting doesn't work out. Or many, many other things, because I have a skill that is foundational to many other areas.

drblast 7y ago
This makes a lot of sense. If I might restate it: There are certain fields of study that lend themselves to a college format, where you'd benefit from doing things hands on with lectures and instruction. Not every field of study, including those that can be extremely valuable, has this feature. Acknowledging that the one-size-fits-all college lecture/homework/test format is not the ideal way to learn everything might help us figure out how to learn more efficiently.
bradlys 7y ago
As someone who did an undergrad degree in Mathematics, I can tell you that you're not really doing any worse than math. Is there really some undergrad level math barrier to understanding Einstein's theory of relativity? I don't know if you'd be able to contribute to computation psychiatry with a math degree either. You'll have a hard time getting into any heavy-cs field with just a math undergrad. You might learn some skills and ways to think mathematically but it's not gonna help you in the real world - lol. After all, my math college counselors would ask me, "Ok, so, what do you want to do with your math degree? Grad school or actuary?" (And those were the only options they presented) Most of my time in undergrad was spent memorizing theorems. Probably not much different than neuroscience. It's really no different than many classes. A lot of bullshit memorization because you need to remember a bunch of one-off shit to solve a lot of problems. Theorems are the jeopardy trivia of math degrees. You know how psychological thriller movies have subtle hints through them that things are not what they seem? It's like, you'd be able to guess what's gonna happen next if you picked up on that super subtle clue 2 hours ago. Most math exams and homework are that. Hope you remember that stupid theorem from 15 chapters ago that was subtly referenced and never mentioned again! > Now consider an alternative path, I majored in mathematics, joined a quantitative hedge fund Very unlikely unless ivy league, strong connections, and were working hard outside of your math classes. Job prospects for math majors are grim. You don't learn employable skills in many math degrees. (Speaking mostly of undergrad degrees)