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Discussion: About whether or not it "helps your career", I think the counter-argument would be not so much that it doesn't help, but the opportunity cost of your time/money. What else could you be doing over that time.
In other words, compare "Music vs What Else I Could Do", and not Music vs Nothing
I double majored in the two most irrelevant degrees, philosophy and mathematics. The main skill this has imparted upon me is superhuman-like bullshit detection. While useful, this has proven to be rather depressing, as bullshit is in no short supply. If I could do it over again, I would have majored in music.
I would not classify mathematics as irrelevant. Math serves as the foundation for all of science and engineering. I would bet that most CS and Engineering grad students (and industry professionals) wish they had a stronger mathematics background ... even those with strong mathematics backgrounds ;-)
I have heard your argument very often though, it seems about as popular as the one that states painters benefit from knowledge of Chemistry[1] ;)
[1] http://www.idlewords.com/2005/04/dabblers_and_blowhards.htm#...
First off, I don't think the lack of a degree brands at all someone as dense or slow. Also, depending on the degree and school it's received from, the holder's persistence and/or determination can be generally deduced. However, I would not choose to hire someone who didn't have a clue about the general area the job offer was on, regardless of what the job specifically required. I would rather try and judge her suitab…
My point was more than the percentage of people with degrees who might be considered "dense and slow" is going to be significantly lower than of people without education, and I would imagine the difference is further highlighted when the degree is from a university like Oxford.
I'd never suggest that person A who went to Oxford is smarter than person B who went to a less-popular university, or none at all, without knowing more about both people, I just think as an overall it works out that way (you don't have to get a degree to be clever, you do have to be [reasonably] clever to get a degree)
Real answer: Follow your passion. If music moves you, go for it. Discussion: About whether or not it "helps your career", I think the counter-argument would be not so much that it doesn't help, but the opportunity cost of your time/money. What else could you be doing over that time. In other words, compare "Music vs What Else I Could Do", and not Music vs Nothing
I'd love to get a degree in Music, but balancing that fact with the amount of time it uses up I'm on the fence, so really the reason for asking the question was to see how far over the fence people would push me.
Degrees are for signaling. If you want to signal that you're as smart as a typical CS or Business student, pick a program they would drop out of (Math instead of CS, Economics instead of Business). If you just pick music, it's not a strong indicator of your skills. I used to work as a recruiter, and the candidate for whom I got the most interview requests ever had a triple-major: music, physics, and math. You don't h…
Not business -- you can pick that up in grad school if absolutely necessary; they have special graduate programs just for it.
Physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, statistics, engineering.
Thankfully, I've been flying since then. So if you habitually choose your life based on what you think is best not easiest, and you have some reasonably well founded confidence that you can make it work out regardless, study whatever you want to study. Just don't expect anyone to give you credit for it until sometime after you don't need their regard.
I've hired a lot of programmers, and a music degree from Oxford is something I'd view as a plus, provided you could demonstrate that you also have the necessary technical skills. Personally, I was a philosophy major.
Personally, I was a philosophy major. As was I, along with Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Physics. Philosophy was by far my most important and relevant major. It taught me how to think and express myself logically and to identify specious reasoning - two things which are invaluable in life. In fact, I know of at least one Philosophy major that Apple hired as an iPhone engineer. They should really teach Philosop…
http://epgy.stanford.edu/ohs/courses/core.html
One of the things that high school muffs up is not having an asynchronous online forum for the students, who are enrolled from all over the world. That's crazy that the school doesn't have a pan-school channel for interaction among all the enrolled students.
Got for it - if you have the drive to get into Oxford and through the degree then, to be honest, I suspect the exact content of the course isn't that important. (I know very successful people who did degrees at Oxford in classics). Actually, I personally would look on someone who does a music degree rather positively as it is the kind of course that only someone who has a passion for the subject is likely to do, rath…
Isn't that like half of the UK cabinet for the last few hundred years?
If you love music and like the degree structure go for it. You'll be able to do plenty of things with your time and talents that will look good if applying to marketing or business jobs. Have you ever tried to organise rehearsals or land gigs? It takes a lot of work. And if someone won't employ you because you didn't do management courses or some other silly criteria, trust me you don't want to work there. The other…
As much as I love music, I don't want a career in that area, not any more, just looking to do the degree as something I've wanted to do since I was 8.