<p>Newsweek:
[quote]
Why you should ignore the grown-ups and opt for an imaginative, if not lucrative, course of study.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>College:</a> Making The Case For Useless Degrees - Newsweek.com</p>
<p>This is often discussed, but usually in the context of don't need a degree, or get one that guarantees a job. This one is a little refreshing.</p>
<p>Didn’t newsweek just proclaim the death of the Liberal Arts Education? </p>
<p>And now they’re saying Useless degrees are…good? Talk about semi-mixed messages. Ah, okay the article adresses it. Nvm.</p>
<p>I like this article but this;</p>
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<p>Isn’t true. My favorite story is that my Aunt was an Art History major who went to Med School and became a doctor. The case doesn’t entirely crumble, she could’ve easily been into french literary theory.</p>
<p>I highly recommend math, science, teaching, nursing degrees because they all lead directly into professions that are in demand and are a degree you can easily get hired for.</p>
<p>However, a lot of people aren’t cut out for engineering, science, teaching, or nursing. Some people are drawing to philosophy or art or social science or other liberal arts degrees. In that case, trying to force them to do a math/science degree is like trying to raise the Titantic. For these people, a liberal arts degree makes sense.</p>
<p>I always think any college degree is better than no college degree at all.</p>
<p>I don’t like this article. The point that it is possible to succeed with a “useless” degree is well-taken, but the implication that comparative literature intrinsically involves more critical thought than chemistry is unjustified. And chemists can go to law school too.</p>
<p>I wish that he didn’t use “liberal arts” when he means “humanities”. It looks bad when we comp lit majors are so cavalier with terminology. Also, he’s dead wrong that a [humanities] degree is inconsistent with becoming an MD. Satisfying the requirements for medical school admission takes 2-3 semesters, net. It isn’t hard at all to combine that with a non-hard-science major, and lots of people do.</p>
<p>Comparative literature intrinsically involves more critical thought than chemistry at the undergraduate level. I don’t know when you stop learning “chemistry facts” to regurgitate by rote, because few of my science-oriented friends ever reached that point in college. In literary studies, you are engaged in critical thought on Day One. That’s not to say that one is intrinsically better than the other. I admire the sequential nature of science, and the insistence of science educators that students actually know something before they start speculating. Comp lit struggles to find something to replace that, and usually winds up somewhere between insisting the everyone read everything ever written in their spare time, and tolerating the fact that many people have hardly read anything not specifically assigned.</p>
<p>I actually know a doctor that got his undergrad in philosophy.</p>
<p>The problem with saying that a liberal arts grad goes on to be a successful lawyer is that liberal arts is not a requirement for law school (as noimagination said above). Sure you can be successful with another degree. That’s like saying that the black car looks really pretty after it has been painted blue.</p>
<p>And many engineers do go on to law school and become attorneys of various types.</p>
<p>Well… the author used the term “towing the line” but I think he meant “toeing the line”. lol.</p>
<p>For me it was undergrad philosophy, master’s in psych, then medical degree</p>
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I don’t think this is necessarily true. Learning more chemistry (or any of the sciences, really) naturally provokes interesting questions in an interested student’s mind. It is true that at basic levels many of those questions will already have been answered, but that doesn’t necessarily impede critical examination of the topic. Asking “how was this principle discovered?” or “how might one have created an experiment to test this hypothesis?” is critical thought, at least in my book.</p>
<p>Mathematics and computer science obviously represent the scientific representation of logical reasoning, so those subjects are even more relevant. And I do know of a number of lawyers who started out with math degrees.</p>
<p>That isn’t to say that everyone needs to major in math and science. But passive-aggressive quips implying the lack of “insight” or complex thought in non-“useless” fields are obnoxious, and this article has a number of them.</p>
<p>I cringe when I read these articles and cringe at the “pre-professional” education vs. the “life of the mind” posts that seem to be popping up with greater frequency. I personally don’t think one path is better than another. I believe it takes “all kinds” to make the gears of a compay run. And I don’t believe that there is only one path to any career goal. That said if the entire goal and the singular purpose for a particular student at age 18 is to earn $55,000 a year right out of college, then certainly find a pre-pro major like engineering or nursing or pharm and by all means…“go for it.” If the kid is not happy in 5-10 years when the humanities students start catching up in salary then they can go back to school and take some enrichment classes. Or vice versa, if the English grad feels like they will never get ahead without a finance degree…go back to school. It’s all good. I tell my kids to do what pleases them. Consider each fork and each bridge as you come upon it and if you decide to turn around and go back and choose a different path you have that ability. As on of my favorite profs used to say “It is not knowing the correct answer that is great. It is far greater to know the right question to ask.” (Which I think should be attributed to Voltaire, but whatever.)</p>
<p>As far as the Medical School majors go, I’ve been told the last year by my Pre-Medical advisors and my fellow AMSA members that Pre-Med. majors come in all flavors, not just the natural sciences and such. Arts, Language, International, Business – anyone can be a Med. School hopeful as long as they can make the case and do well on their MCAT.</p>
<p>^^Agree for med school and law school and it’s been that way for decades. I think the crux of the issue is parents and students who want to “step out of college” and into a specific job with relative ease. Nursing, Pharmacy, Physical Therapy, Engineering come immediately to mind. Training very specific to a particular job. The line is blurred as universities and colleges have blended or added these into the curriculum or merged with Tech Schools. Three or four decades ago you went to a Nursing School or you went to a Pharm school or you went to an Engineering school. Before that a decade or two earlier were “teachers colleges/normal schools.” Now, at least in our state, many of the universities in all tiers have these types of specialized curriculum integrated either through aquisition or simply building the department and also bigger universities “sprung” from the original institutions. It’s just evolutionary. Personally I think the underlying critical thinking skills are irrelevant, all concentrations require critical thinking skills of some sort or another. And on a different tangent, true “creative” soul sees the world through different glasses regardless if they are an engineer or a poet and we need both in the world and should be able to appreciate each others unique skills be they math or be they art or be they a particular skill with the written word.</p>
<p>Our pediatrician was a polisci UG, IR masters and then went to med school. Fabulously good doc.</p>
<p>My neighbor says “work in science but live the humanities”. Her chemist hubby has made a life for them that includes a lot of theater and literature. Nice life.</p>