Psychology is effectively today's basket weaving. There is an excess number of students receiving those degrees with no intent to work in the field. It's widely perceived as an "easy" degree which makes it worthless unless you continue on and make it into the limited space for a graduate program.
So... I got an undergrad degree in psychology, but then went on to a doctoral program and got a PhD.
I'm not actually disputing your suggestion that a lot of students obtain the degree as a placeholder--it's a problem--but depending on the university, it's far from easy, and I know lots of students who obtain lots of degrees as placeholders. Students perceive that the degree is easy based on introductory psychology, but in a lot of programs, it quickly turns into statistics, neuroscience, and cognitive modeling with upper-level classes. Students coast for their first year or two and then sometime by their 3rd year start struggling.
Anyway, one of my frustrations after my doctoral degree is the stereotypes about the field. I've certainly had more experience with computer science, math, and statistics than most undergrads with those degrees (math might be different). I've worked with comp sci undergrads, and without meaning anything negative, I felt like I was teaching them about programming most of the time, rather than anything the other way around.
And yet, because of my degree, somehow people just assume that I'm interested in past lives therapy or something like that. What I do is closer to ML/AI/epidemiology than anything else. I've published papers in the areas of information theory and statistics, and coded in a large number of languages across various paradigms.
One shift that seems to have occurred since I was in undergrad is this idea that you are your degree. It's pernicious. The liberal arts philosophy is sort of along the lines of "get a degree in philosophy," take your advanced maths and statistics, and then learn more of it later, because the specific degree doesn't matter. But now we see college as an advanced job training program, and people assume that you are only qualified to do what you got your undergrad in. It's absurd.
I admit there's some limits--I'd wonder if an BFA could get deep experience in computer science, but who knows? I've seen all sorts of art projects that involve heavy coding, statistics / ML, and low-level hardware stuff, and know history faculty who are basically doing signal processing research. Coetzee, a nobel prize winner in literature, used to code.
At some level, the problem isn't these degrees all the time, it's the stereotypes about them and the people getting them.
Psychology is a superb background for both marketing and design. Possibly better than a marketing or design undergrad. It’s also a great lead-in to an MBA. Heck, I think it’s put you in good stead to get finance jobs. Have you studied psych before? I got a minor with my CS undergrad and all my psych classes were invaluable.
Yes, when I first looked at this data I tried my best to lump it into categories. (Was in an discussion about ROI on "free" college)
about 65% of grads are in what I would consider, employable categories. STEM, Healthcare, Business, applied sciences (production/manufacturing type stuff), there are more but I cant remember now
about 25% of grads in what I would consider, employable but less so. Things like psychology, social sciences, histories, social work degrees, etc
then 10% are in the liberal arts/basketweaving area
While I will be the first to admit that degree is not necessarily an accurate predictor of success. I still think it is fair to say that even in the age of abundant student loans, in general most students ARE trying to pursue jobs that will make them employable. Even if they are misguided in some way, or don't hit the mark.
