Why do so many people in the military have useless degrees?

I don’t think an English degree is useless. Have you even seen how some of our senior enlisted leaders write. Young officers too. So what degrees do you see as not being useless? My daughter has an electrical engineering degree and is an artillery officer. My History degree got me a one way ticket to flight school. The army thrives in diversity. We don’t put all the square pegs in the square holes.

For the same reason so many civilians have useless degrees.

They go to college with no idea of what they want to do in life, and they've never had to bust their hump in a hardworking skilled trades job, or done factory work. Then someone tells them that a degree in Romance Languages, or Philosophy, or Art Appreciation is their ticket (for maybe 1% in those studies it is.)

Best thing my Dad ever did for his two boys. At age 14 we had to start paying room and board, buy our own cloths, school supplies, and entertainment. I never drove a car that belonged to Dad, and Dad did not pay my auto insurance.

Back then there weren't many jobs in Tucson for healthy juvenile boys during the summer, that weren't essentially "sweating your ass off in the red hot Arizona sun. By the time I was 18, I already had a skilled trades job, and growing side business of my own, with 3 part-time employees, that would have provided a respectable blue collar lifestyle for me, a wife and a couple of kids." Fortunately, I didn't have the wife or the kids yet. But I knew I wanted more than the red hot Arizona sun.

PS Dad invested the money, and gave it to us on our 18th birthday. Then, he gave us notice that we had one week to move out after HS graduation.

Not just in the eyes of our Army but the eyes of our society as well, a degree puts you above your peers without one, regardless of what its in. In my opinion, this happens because a degree shows a dedication to something and the base skill level that comes with completing a college course. I have my first degree and I am working on my second at this very moment. I cannot explain the time management skills that I have sharpened and learned from doing this. I juggle being a recruiter full time, a family with two babies, a side business, friendships and my college all at once. Doing so and being successful teaches extreme time management. That is a trait that any leader at any level should have. Simply just one example, but IMO that is why. Its more than a degree, its a commitment to bettering yourself and being a soldier past the typical 9:00 to 5:00 mindset.

Worthless degree Vs. degree that one does not use! Pretty much the same. Bottom line is the soft skills that are attained. The ability to research, evaluate, assess, write, time management, creative thinking, networking etc.

I do not care to look for a study, I would venture to bet the vast majority of persons who hold degrees do not work in that field.

What a lot of people do not understand about college is it is more than just the degree, it is what you go through to obtain it and the person you become. Some degrees admiringly are a joke but a good many developed the person in so many ways. My bachelorette made basic training seem a like a long summer camp and when you take multiple experiences and put them together, you achieve a product. I can remember studying my last semester until 0230 or 0300 certain days and at clinical by 0630. I missed the days of AIT where the DS went through the barracks and made sure you were in bed by 2130.

I'm not sure what your personal vendetta against interdisciplinary studies is. I earned my IDS degree online while active duty infantry. I also blended it with political science and history. Now I have a completely different way of thinking about and approaching problems because of this "useless" degree. I also got mine from an accredited university, and no it wasn't easy.

I also had a 1sg who got his degree online while making his wife do his work. Maybe it's not the degree that's useless, just the person who holds it.

IMHO, the Military tend to just look at Batchelors Degree and don’t really care about the actual field of study

Because a degree is CHECK THE BOX. Soldiers probably chase their interests OR choose the path of least resistance. Generally, an Officer career only requires "a degree" not a specific one (except lawyers, chaplains, and doctors). My professional credentials and graduate degrees are entirely useless in the military. I have a Masters in Finance and a CFA with 20 years in finance, but I'm not in the Finance Branch. I could have direct commissioned as a Finance CPT (there are regs for that), but that window wasn't open to me at the time I needed it. So the paths we choose in life don't usually line up perfectly to be the singular branch that leads directly to the first root in the tree of life.

It's why I tell my soldiers, anyone standing there in formation in their mid 20's currently only holding a high school diploma, that the path to FULL COL has not been closed to them yet. The deal breaker for ever getting the first step toward that path is a 4 year degree, and it generally doesn't matter what it is in or even where it came from.

If a soldier can do an active duty contract, and knock out as much on-line General Education course work as possible (essentially a year's worth). Then, when they get out the GI bill should carry them through the rest of a 4 year degree if they don't squander it.

When I was in Intel school the local community college hooks up soldiers in the 35 series MOS to get 20 SEMESTER units of "intelligence operations" college units. These units could be used for electives (and are nearly an ENTIRE YEAR'S worth of units), OR if the soldiers already had their general education knocked out they could transfer them to the school, and then get an Associates Degree in Intel Operations (which I did) for ONLY $50.

I was banging my head against a wall trying to get all the kids to BUY into this because if you don't have a degree, and in the future you are trying to get those last few units of electives it sure would be nice to have 20 semester units floating around to apply to anything for the sake of filler units.

I would submit to you that all bachelor degrees are a useless variety unless they are part of a licensing requirement, like Nursing, Accounting, or Engineering. The purpose of a degree is to show that you are capable of getting one. Most jobs that require a bachelor degree as a hiring prerequisite don’t require the studies to be in any specific area.

I have a completely uselss bachelor's degree. It is in "General Studies." But it was the quickest way to a BS. And my BS doesn't matter, it was a means to an end, that end being Grad School. I am now working on a Master's of Adult Education, which will NOT be useless.

And even the "useless BS" still means I can put down a degree on my resume.