A journalist's median starting salary in 2009, according to Payscale, was $35,800. That's not much money, especially when you have college loans to pay off. In addition, the field of journalism is hard to break into, even more so now with the rise of the Internet. CareerCast included newspaper reporter on its list of worst jobs for 2010. This seems like a major to stay away from if you want a job and a decent salary.
This field includes dance, drama, and art. Music can sometimes be considered part of this field, but it has separate statistics, though equally as grim. A “fine arts” degree gets you a little over $35,000 a year as a starting salary. There are generally few open positions in performance and fine arts, and many people pursuing them. It is extremely difficult to make it in the fine arts world, so a degree like this never guarantees you a post-graduation living.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, this is one of the most popular majors at the moment, meaning the competition when you graduate is going to be fierce. What’s worse is that your starting median salary is only $35,100 with an education degree. Even more depressing is that according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, education majors experience the lowest job offer rates, along with political science, English, foreign language, and history majors. This major fulfills all of the criteria for a useless major.
This is probably the least career-driven of all the majors on our list. Each major, though listed as “useless” has a definitive job that goes along with it. But theology does not. This field garners you a median starting salary of $34,700 per year. While you can work as a professor or in other related fields if you double major, directly using your divinity degree requires you to be in some way involved in a church. However, churches are not soliciting new ministers. This is why theology/religious studies as a degree by itself is fairly useless.