The Bachelor’s Degree Hustle: When the Cap and Gown Come with Crushed Expectations 

So boom. They said go to college, get a degree, and voilà, you’re financially set. Only nobody mentioned that a bachelor’s degree in “You Tried Real Hard Studies” was a starter pack for the $28K Club, not a key to the C-Suite.

You know the type: They barely slipped out of undergrad with a GPA that required CPR, bless their hearts. Their major? IDS. Interdisciplinary Studies. That magical Frankenstein degree built from leftover credits. IDS is what happens when the registrar sees you’ve been on campus longer than the trees and says, “Let’s patch this mess up and get you gone.”

Then you’ve got degrees in Liberal Studies, Pop Culture Theory, and “Whatever Was Open at 3 PM.” No internships. No certifications. No LinkedIn. Just vibes and a diploma they framed with hope.

Now they’re out here clutching that degree like it’s a winning lottery ticket, demanding $60K from jobs that pay in “experience” and coffee runs. Truth is, unless they get a master’s or win the career lottery, the starting salary says: Enjoy your boxed wine and roommates… for a while.

Meanwhile, in Tech Land…

Now the tech folks got next. Or so they thought.

They majored in Computer Science, learned all about algorithms and data structures, then couldn’t write real world code to save their lives. Job interview comes around and they fumble a CRUD app like it’s astrophysics. They blame the university, but really? They skipped Hackathons, ignored free bootcamps, and spent refund money on Jordans instead of certifications.

Applied degrees mean you need to apply them. The word’s right there. You can’t major in CS and graduate without at least knowing how to configure a router or automate something. If I were in tech, I’d come out with a CompTIA A+, Security+, maybe even a CCNA. And guess what? I’m not even in tech, and I still got A+ and Security+ as backups. Because why wouldn’t you invest in yourself if you know the game is rigged?

Psych Majors, Come Forth…

Then there’s the Psychology crowd. Dreams of therapy and big words like “neuroplasticity,” yet zero research experience. I had a friend, brilliant, 4.0 GPA, Rutgers alum parent. Still got the “Thanks, but no thanks” letter. Why? No summer research. No lab work. Just vibes and textbooks.

She asked me what’s next. I said: find a program that accepts your pretty transcript without substance, then double back to Rutgers for your PhD once you’ve got receipts. She didn’t like that answer… but neither did the admissions committee.

Moral of the Story

Look, this isn’t shade. It’s sunlight. If you’re in school for four years and leave with nothing but a diploma and vibes? You wasted the refund, the summers, and the access. You gotta bring something to the table for jobs and grad programs to take you seriously. Certifications. Research. Internships. Projects. Hustle.

Because a degree without direction is like owning a Ferrari with no engine. Looks good… but you’re not going anywhere.