Why Your CS Degree Is Now Worth Less Than Art History
It’s 2020. You’re a high school senior trying to figure out what to major in. Your parents are breathing down your neck, your guidance counselor is showing you salary charts, and literally everyone — from your uncle at Thanksgiving dinner to random people on LinkedIn — is telling you the same thing:
“Learn to code.”
“The future is tech.”
“Computer science majors are printing money.”
Meanwhile, if you even mentioned wanting to study English literature or philosophy, you’d get that look. You know the one. The “oh honey, how are you going to pay your student loans?” look.
But fast forward to early 2025, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York drops this study that basically flipped everything we thought we knew about the job market completely upside down.
Computer science majors? The ones we were told had golden tickets to employment? They’re struggling to find jobs. Like, really struggling. Their unemployment rates are through the roof — higher than art history majors. Higher than philosophy majors.