Are science degrees worthless in todays economy?

it depends which scientific discipline. engineering, computer science, etc. are great majors, but biology isn't.

Why don't you see if any schools in your area are hiring. You may only need to a take a few extra education courses to be a Bio teacher.

If you're not too tired of school (or too deep in debt) go to grad school. A master's should only take you two years and you may be able to get funding and a tuition waiver. You're also likely to make connections in school. Good luck with whatever you try to do.

Biology is great only if you are looking to be a doctor or get a PHD. Otherwise, you'd be luck to get a job doing mundane labwork at low pay for a pharma company.

Science degrees are not worthless - and bio degrees in particular are not worthless. You may not be doing a great job of job-hunting - which is understandable, since it's not a skill that's very well taught.

Please read _Ask The Headhunter_, or at least browse the website. Has made all the difference in the world to my job-hunting success.

Good luck.

ps PLEASE read the book.

Get some more schooling and become a PED developer.

Flatulus wrote:

Biology is great only if you are looking to be a doctor or get a PHD. Otherwise, you'd be luck to get a job doing mundane labwork at low pay for a pharma company.

Yep, my wife was a biology major and could only get lab jobs (pharma, water testing, research labs) which paid just above minimum wage. Bio is only a stepping stone to a PhD or MD. It has few practical applications.

Conveniently enough, her low earning power made it an easy decision for her to stay home and raise the kids (strangely thereby actually using her Bio degree!)

You might actually make more money getting your PhD than you would at a lab job (probably not, but who knows). If you really want a career in biology you need an advanced degree. I don't know how people go through 4 years of college without realizing this stuff.

All the people that want to be serious biologists have either an MD, a PhD, both. BAs and MAs are worthless on their own, assuming you want to do something related to your field.

If you are relatively strong in math, you could get a masters degree in biostatistics. Lots of jobs in that area.

My brother just graduated with a Bio degree and is currently working for a major company. Prior he interned for a few months at a food research lab(unpaid). He makes decent money at about $17 an hour. That being said, it is a temp job. He is getting interviews but nothing is panning out since he is being beaten out by kids with Masters or Chem/Engineering degrees. It's hard to find jobs that aren't through temp agencies in our area. Among his coworkers, only about 20% are hired by the company and the rest are temp. He has a coworker who has been with the same company as a temp for almost 3 years now. No job offer.

His old internship would not pay workers for overtime, even though they were forced(he was unpaid, still forced). At his current place, everyone is cutthroat and a rat, looking to find any excuse to report or fire a co-worker. After all this and no benefits, he is starting to reconsider. He regrets not majoring in Chem or at least specializing more in the Bio field.

Are science degrees worthless in todays economy?

Yes. You are much better off pursuing a degree in political science, English literature, or women's studies.

GET A FREAKING CLUE!

Thanks for all of the responses except for the one directly above me. Most of them have been helpful and the situation is pretty much what I expected. I do have something set up for further schooling, but I figured I would ask in case there might be some avenue I was not aware of.

kolej grad wrote:

Science degrees are not worthless - and bio degrees in particular are not worthless. You may not be doing a great job of job-hunting - which is understandable, since it's not a skill that's very well taught.

Please read _Ask The Headhunter_, or at least browse the website. Has made all the difference in the world to my job-hunting success.

Good luck.

ps PLEASE read the book.

I actually visited "Ask the Headhunter" based on a recommendation from this message board. The website was useful, and some of the strategies helped me get interviews for jobs beyond my qualifications. Seriously. I'd give it a good browse. Half the battle of finding a job is tailoring your application to what the employer is looking for.

Oil and gas related sciences are in high demand (geology, chem/petro chem engineering, geophysics, etc.). A graduate of a solid geology program can have multiple offers on graduation and will be making lawyer-esque money in a short time after graduation. A geologist friend of mine has a pretty sweet Porsche. Downside is that you get sent all over to places like Dubai, North Dakota and Malaysia. But think of the frequent flier miles.

I just graduated with a degree in biology and had several job opportunities this summer related to my degree. However, most payed very little. The one I ended up taking pays ~$15/hour with quite a bit of overtime available if desired, so not terrible. It's temporary and I will have to find something else come fall, but I don't mind at all. Summer time is field season for biology, so there are a ton of temporary fieldwork jobs.

Like others have said, degrees in almost any area of science other than engineering are pretty much just stepping stones to something higher. If you want to make decent money in science you'll need an MS, PhD, or professional degree depending on what you want to go into. If you want to work for game and fish, the forest service, or do something private related to wildlife, an MS is probably sufficient. If you want to be in research, a PhD is the minimum you'll need. You can always teach if you want, but you'll likely have to take another year or two to get certified. Even if you don't want to do any of the above, there are many jobs out there that pay alright ($30-50k) that will take someone with only a BS, but they require a good resume, effort and creativity on your part. Get on Monster or something and start looking around.

I've found that unless someone's major was something like education, nursing, engineering, accounting, etc, they really have no idea what to do with their degree. Don't feel bad about that or like you picked the wrong major. Most undergrad degrees aren't very specific to a particular job, so it's on you to be creative in finding ways to use your degree and personal skills or continue your education. The good thing is anything in science is more difficult than most other majors, and if you paid attention in school you should have a good understanding of a lot of things relevant to society and should be very good at research (in general, not necessarily science based) and critical thinking. I think my resourcefulness and thinking skills are the most useful qualities I have, but it can be difficult to figure out how to use them to make myself (and others) money.

My advice to you would be to just try and get a job. Aim first for something related to your education, but if you get something else that's fine. Your ability to work and communicate with others, show up every day on time, and be a valued member of a crew or company is probably more beneficial than a degree anyways, and having a few good references and work experience showing you're a good worker will help open up other opportunities for you.

science degree are pretty worthless at the BA level. (think chem, biochem, bio, etc) Most of those people who major into hard or soft science are going to Pre-med or some higher advance degree (but it is usually always pre-med....) Other than that, at the BA level good luck finding a good stable career. I have a cousin who major is bio chem and another one who was a chem major and they are both working hourly jobs that barely pay above minimum wage with very little chance of promotion/upward mobility (pretty much a dead end job)...sad to say...

Only a few major from the BA level will get you a good salary job, right out of school. They are: most types of engineer major and accounting/business/finance/economics. Assuming you have at least a 3.3 gpa and actively recruit/network with firms,etc,etc. If not, then you are probably screwed.

My daughter graduated in May 2021 with a BS in Molecular and Cell Biology from UC Berkeley. She has applied for hundreds of jobs, no good results. It's getting comical, she said in her last interview for a lab assistant the company decided she was too enthusiastic! Although US News and World Report rated UC Berkeley Biology Dept. as no.1 in the US, she now knows that her degree is useless. She has friends with the same results. Competition for med school is ridiculous, but she's going for it.

My brother just finished a biochemistry degree and was hired relatively quickly into Covid related lab role in Cambridge (U.K.). His firm has been on a hiring spree for grads. He’s taken the job to get some experience and relocate to Cambridge which is a bit of a hub for pharma stuff.

Overtime and a shift allowance help boost his basic salary of about £25k/year.