Are liberal arts degrees inherently less valuable than math, science, and technology majors?

[winginson]

I think both Art and Science are important. It's just for top science and engineering jobs you need a degree, while a lot of artists just decided to follow the dream and didn't get any art qualifications. I do however recognise that there are lots of technical jobs to make TV shows etc. actually look and sound good.

This is of course coming from an engineer who thinks any analysis of Art past "I like reading/seeing/watching/listening/playing this" is complete BS.

 

[bojackx]

Well, people should be able to study whatever the heck they want if they're paying good money for it, but I do agree with him. Maths and Science are much more useful than liberal arts, because well, they just are.

I'm personally going off the study either Zoology or Computer Science. Now the way I see it, I either do the degree that seems like lots of fun, or the one that will more likely get me a job, so yeah clearly Maths and Science are more valuable than most other degrees.

 

[Stu35]

What are your views on the subject? Is a civil engineer more valuable to society than a philosophy major?

Culturally? No.

In real, tangible, progression and maintenance of our standard of living terms - Yes, absolutely.


In England and Wales they recently raised tuition fees for students (as I understand it)... I think this was a bad thing. I think they should have raised them for the arts, and kept them low for those subjects considered pinch-point trades in Britain - medicine, engineering, etc. etc.

Personal opinion - I don't believe that arts degrees are worthless, and I believe strongly that culture has value, but I think that in this day and age, there are too many University graduates running round working at McDonalds because they only took fashion or creative writing in Uni because they thought it was fun.

And this is coming from someone with a History degree, now on government dollar doing work completely unrelated to my degree - so I'm SPECIFICALLY targeting myself and people like me with this opinion.

 

[Logiclul]

Okay, so a few things:

1) There are more job openings in mathematics and science

2) A "liberal arts" degree is pretty useless, anthropology is not as lucrative a degree, as someone mentioned, as neuroscience or micro biology, but it can get you a job.

What the Governor is doing here is attacking a very taboo subject; that is that there are a lot of people pursuing degrees and doing things in college which aren't in their best interest from a financial standpoint. Also has anyone done the research to see how many anthropologist job openings are available in Florida compared to Science related jobs? I know for almost fact that the latter is in abundance in Florida whereas the former is not. He's just trying to create jobs in his state to boost the economy, but unfortunately we live in a world where taboo topics aren't analyzed properly.

That said, we do need some people to grab the less desired degrees generally, but what he should be attacking are those damn General Studies majors; god damn why are you even in school! Same goes for liberal arts majors, come on! Not to say that anthropology is very important.. I love philosophy, but in my opinion it is a hobby, and I think I can contribute to that field without even having a $90,000 degree in it.

Finally, the Dense_Electric strawmanned the governers argument; get over yourself; his speech makes perfectly logical sense, even if it doesn't draw on peoples' emotions like most government speeches.

 

[Dansen]

Okay, so a few things:

1) There are more job openings in mathematics and science

2) A "liberal arts" degree is pretty useless, anthropology is not as lucrative a degree, as someone mentioned, as neuroscience or micro biology, but it can get you a job.

What the Governor is doing here is attacking a very taboo subject; that is that there are a lot of people pursuing degrees and doing things in college which aren't in their best interest from a financial standpoint. Also has anyone done the research to see how many anthropologist job openings are available in Florida compared to Science related jobs? I know for almost fact that the latter is in abundance in Florida whereas the former is not. He's just trying to create jobs in his state to boost the economy, but unfortunately we live in a world where taboo topics aren't analyzed properly.

That said, we do need some people to grab the less desired degrees generally, but what he should be attacking are those damn General Studies majors; god damn why are you even in school! Same goes for liberal arts majors, come on! Not to say that anthropology is very important.. I love philosophy, but in my opinion it is a hobby, and I think I can contribute to that field without even having a $90,000 degree in it.

Finally, the Dense_Electric strawmanned the governers argument; get over yourself; his speech makes perfectly logical sense, even if it doesn't draw on peoples' emotions like most government speeches.

Anthropologists can actually serve as advisers to crime scene investigations. I hardly think they are irrelevant and pointless, I doubt anybody could walk in and do what they do without a proper education in the field.

 

[Logiclul]

Okay, so a few things:

1) There are more job openings in mathematics and science

2) A "liberal arts" degree is pretty useless, anthropology is not as lucrative a degree, as someone mentioned, as neuroscience or micro biology, but it can get you a job.

What the Governor is doing here is attacking a very taboo subject; that is that there are a lot of people pursuing degrees and doing things in college which aren't in their best interest from a financial standpoint. Also has anyone done the research to see how many anthropologist job openings are available in Florida compared to Science related jobs? I know for almost fact that the latter is in abundance in Florida whereas the former is not. He's just trying to create jobs in his state to boost the economy, but unfortunately we live in a world where taboo topics aren't analyzed properly.

That said, we do need some people to grab the less desired degrees generally, but what he should be attacking are those damn General Studies majors; god damn why are you even in school! Same goes for liberal arts majors, come on! Not to say that anthropology is very important.. I love philosophy, but in my opinion it is a hobby, and I think I can contribute to that field without even having a $90,000 degree in it.

Finally, the Dense_Electric strawmanned the governers argument; get over yourself; his speech makes perfectly logical sense, even if it doesn't draw on peoples' emotions like most government speeches.

Anthropologists can actually serve as advisers to crime scene investigations. I hardly think they are irrelevant and pointless, I doubt anybody could walk in and do what they do without a proper education in the field.

Fair enough I suppose, although that doesn't really counter my point that the Governers' speech is just and logical and getting upset over it is simply rejecting discussion of a taboo subject.

 

[Xhoyl]

As a Creative Writing major, I have to say...maybe. I know, it's a strange answer considering, but if you're being technical, my degree on its own will not get me many jobs. I'm getting it to help me improve as a writer so someday I can make a living off of it. But at the same time, I hate math, and I enjoy learning about science, but not practicing it.

In the end it's about doing what you enjoy, and are preferably good at, and hoping you can somehow carve a path in the workforce with it.

I realize trying to make it as a writer is a much harder path than getting an engineering degree and getting a job right out of college. But I don't care. I'm not an engineer, and I never will be. Neither am I scientist or a mathematician.

Forcing me into those fields would have yielded one of two results. 1: I somehow make it and I'm miserable for the rest of my life, doing something simply for the money with no sense of joy, or 2: I fail and end up with no dreams or hopes whatsoever, and end up living in a gutter somewhere.

At least this way I have a chance at something.

 

[Helmholtz Watson]

snip

Thank you, thank you. Really thank you. I never thought I would be able to to use this video but I believe this video is relevant......

Spoiler: The video cuts off the end part where Archer is supposed to say, (quote)equally pointless(unquote)