The University of California - Riverside

Date: Sep 28 2008
Major: Business - Management and Administration (This Major's Salary over time)
PS - A word about majors. The main reason I stayed at UCR was for its business program, which, in retrospect, was a little like staying in New Jersey for the air. Business might be tougher than most of the humanities and social sciences, but it's still a major that just about anyone can do (notice how it's the #1 major at most Cal States and DeVry, but doesn't even register at Berkeley), and still leads to a degree that carries little weight in the real world.

Whether it's even as "practical" as it's known totally depends on your plans. See, "business" is actually a world divided into five or six specialty areas, and the degree is only a specific asset in two of them: Finance and Accounting (and even then, an Economics degree is usually an acceptable substitute). The other areas of business—i.e. Marketing, Human Resources, MIS—are pretty much fluffy unskilled labor that you could get into with any degree.

If Finance or Accounting is your thing, go for it, but if not, study something else. In all my years at UCR, exactly three business classes struck me as interesting (BSAD 134, 184, 185), while all others were either totally irrelevant or excruciatingly fucking boring. And speaking as a guy who gets orgasms from writing essays and solving math problems, I don't bore easily.

Which brings me to my next point: unless the left half of your brain is completely non-functional, you're almost certainly best off at least TRYING one of the legit majors first: math, science, computer science, or engineering. These are the fields of study that are challenging, teach useful knowledge, and actually pave a path to careers (financially rewarding ones, at that). These are also the degrees that best justify the act of going to college, since the material is hard to learn solo, and the professions at the end of the tunnel almost always require degrees.

If you're not a natural born quant, I'd honestly even consider certain humanities majors over business. Yes, it's sadly true that a BA in English or Philosophy (my favorites), like a business degree, is pretty much an expensive credential for becoming a Jack In The Box toilet cleaner. But UNLIKE a business degree, at least you'll be learning stuff that's actually worth knowing and genuinely fun (maybe even fulfilling) to study! The material makes great mental training for law school, too, in case you're considering that.