The "Useless" Degree

So while I was trolling around on the web of world wide proportions I stumbled across this picture. 

The Today Show had recently discussed the topic of useless degrees. Now there is some sort of mathematical and scientific equation that figures out the median income of graduating students added to the circumference of the earth times the latitude of a straw divided buy Shaquille O'Neal's shoe size to come up with a plausible basis for determining the best majors to strive for in college. 

I have a huge problem with this. I've always felt that a career in the arts or degrees in the arts have been deemed as unimportant in society's eyes. As if being an art major was merely just a dreamers sense of false importance. My main gripe is that some people feel so unaffected by these creative people when in all actuality everything we touch, see, hear, and wear are all products of creativity.

Most of my friends have gone the route towards the holy grail of parentally accepted professions; being a nurse. Stable job, stable pay, always a demand. I get scoffed at for picking a major centered on the arts. "What good is that going to do for you?" "Dreams don't pay mortgages."

They feel so isolated from artists and designers, but in all actuality everything centers around art. A fashion designer designed the scrubs you wear to work everyday. A product designer made sure that your syringes and tools were the most efficient use of materials and space. An architect designed the hospital and the halls that you walk down everyday. If we didn't have people pursuing these "useless" degrees, we'd all be naked in the middle of the woods with caves as our shelter.

I think the biggest irony that I see is that the actual Today Show would not be functioning if it weren't  for the skills of the people whose degrees they call "useless".

I'm just taking this out of context of what I see in the picture. I didn't watch the segment, but this has been a sore spot for me for a while now. Taking into consideration the term "useless" in the picture, the list could be implying that you wouldn't actually need a degree to succeed in these fields. Now that, I sort of understand with the whole film school thing. The other degrees I'm not sure that this mentality holds true. But there has always been a debate of whether film school is the answer for people to break into the industry. That's a topic for another post.

All in all, I'll leave you with this. The products of creativity are all around us, no matter how secluded we believe we are. Every time you change your clothes, or watch that movie, or pick up a box of cereal at the grocery store, art and design are forever a presence in our lives. So it's about time we stop overlooking the art and appreciate it.