computer science/engineering/STEM is the only thing worth it.

It’s mostly engineers who make money. The actual sciences are basically a low paying career for how much knowledge it requires, and pretty much require much more than a 4-year degree to climb that ladder, or they just go into the same category as everyone in the humanities and the arts: go get a job that requires a 4-year degree but doesn’t care what your major was.

Most of us have many different parts of the job, and like certain parts more than others.

A doctor may be passionate about actually solving medical issues but might hate communicating with difficult patients, dealing with paperwork and recordkeeping software, dealing with insurance companies, marketing his practice, managing staff, etc.

Programmers may actually love coding but hate dealing with customer requirements, or the office politics of sales versus delivery, or even the way their team is run.

It’s like that everywhere. If anyone is only able to do work they’re passionate about, that person is gonna have a rough career.

I graduated with a philosophy degree. I’m a lawyer now. So are a huge chunk of my classmates from undergrad.

Even the ones who didn’t go on and get more schooling tended to find white collar work in some kind of business, same as the people who majored in business administration, finance, marketing, other business school fluff.

There are plenty of majors that are interesting and help students learn how to think, how to write, and how to research. And there are plenty of career paths that don’t care about major, just want to see a 4-year degree for their entry level people.

A bachelor’s degree isn’t a vocational degree. It’s ok to major in something you don’t intend to work in, because at the end of the day more than half of college educated workers aren’t working in their field of study. Part of the reason is because the typical 4-year degree teaches only barely enough to scratch the surface of what actually happens in industry, and those entry level workers need to learn a ton on the job anyway.

Here’s a helpful chart of career outcomes by major. Note that many of these undergrad majors tend to be feeders into graduate or professional programs, and that a lot of the joke majors in the humanities and liberal arts have long term outcomes that are better than the sciences. Compare biochemistry to philosophy, for example. Both of those majors kinda expect people to go get graduate or professional degrees after, but the unemployment and underemployment rates are pretty similar.

Have a plan for getting a job. Whether that plan involves a specific major or not is up to you, and isn’t strictly required. It’s mainly engineering that provides a specific pipeline from undergrad degree to specific career in that field. All the others are much looser about which degree is required, or require additional schooling to enter (and once you have a graduate or professional degree, your undergrad basically doesn’t matter).