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[quote]
According to the U.S. Department of Education, more than half of all college undergrads now choose business, engineering or nursing. Business is the nation's most popular B.A., at 22 percent of all degrees awarded. Humanities and the liberal arts now account for fewer than 10 percent of all majors a steep drop from three decades ago.</p>
<p>Some colleges and universities have already made changes they hope will tie Shakespeare and Socrates more closely to 21st century life. They're embracing experiential learning programs - courses where students work to solve real-world problems in local communities - and other new approaches to the four-year bachelor's degree that challenge a model of education that's prevailed for more than a century.</p>
<p>Education experts say elite, private liberal arts schools generally feel the least pressure to change. Selective, sought-after schools with strong endowments can cling more easily to tradition. But colleges lower on the ranking charts - and liberal arts programs at public colleges and universities are more vulnerable. If they can't attract enough students they can't pay the bills.
<p>and we still have too many non STEM majors when compared to the rest of the world</p>
<p>Dear Unviersity of Michigan, please do not try to “tie in” Shakespeare or Socrates into my Mechanical Engineering degree. I don’t think I could care less about them</p>
<p>I really don’t “get” the animosity some people display towards the liberal arts on this board</p>
<p>It’s as if they want college to be vocational training. </p>
<p>Truly educated and sophisticated people can see the value in both the sciences and the arts and the greatest of all, for example da Vinci, loved both. One of the main things Steve Jobs wanted to do with his work was always, every time, cultural, to use his technology for culture… Music, literature, art. These were the areas he most wanted to use his technology.</p>
<p>this is why he was a truly great man. Not just because of the technology, but because he saw the use in the technology for enriching the cultural (liberal arts) lives of his customers. I can promise you he knew his shakespeare.</p>
<p>Yes, it is somewhat discouraging, particularly when one of the definitions of high intelligence is the ability to hold two seemingly opposing ideas at the same time without resorting to simplistic binary categorization.</p>
<p>I’m surprised that Engineering is so popular. It seems like an incredible amount of work, especially when compared to Business, one of the more lax majors.</p>
<p>It’s one of the most depressing, dispiriting things on CC – what epiphany aptly termed STEM triumphalism. Before coming to CC, I had no idea so many narrow minded people existed. I guess I was used to STEM people who valued liberal arts too and were well rounded and could appreciate the value in all different fields.</p>
<p>^^Perhaps “narrow minded” people are depressing. </p>
<p>But I prefer to look at the possibilities: the simple fact is that STEM and business majors can get FIRST jobs easier than lit/hume majors. ALL parents want their kids to do better than them, so majoring in something that increases the odds of the college grad not moving back home can be a good thing, IMO. Sure chem/accounting may not be exciting/fulfilling as French Lit, but there aren’t a whole lotta jobs for French Lit majors.</p>
<p>But I whole-heartedly agree with the need for well-roundedness, and particularly like liberal arts colleges with a strict Core curriculum: Columbia, Chicago, Boston College. STEM major with a minor in French Lit or philosophy?</p>
<p>I get the distinct impression that most (not all) of the most virulent STEM-for-everyone posters are kids who go to techie schools where the humanities and social sciences are given short shrift. I cannot imagine any intelligent person who has had a well-taught course in literature or history or music appreciation or political science and then comes here and posts the garbage that we see everyday.</p>
<p>I run with a well-educated and highly successful crowd, plenty of STEM people and MBAs and MDs in the group, and not one of them would say these kinds of things. It’s bizarre and perhaps these are the very same STEM majors who are unemployable?</p>
<p>I don’t know, but I would never discourage a kid from studying in the sciences or technology, nor would any of the successful tech types I know, including those with graduate and undergraduate degrees from MIT, ever devalue shakespeare or the arts.</p>
<p>It’s a sad and narrow view, and I doubt it leads very far in the long run, personally.</p>
<p>I would never discourage a kid from studying sciences or technology either, but I would want to make sure that the kid was going into it with their eyes wide open - and I would strongly discourage a kid from going into any field solely because they think it will lead to a lot of money.</p>
<p>An example: I have for a number of years had the opportunity to observe a lot of civil engineers at work. You know what civil engineers do? Yes, they design stuff and have chances to be creative problem solvers, but they spend a lot of their time doing things like dealing with government bureaucrats, writing huge reports and grant requests, sweating out budgets, dickering with contractors, dealing with lawyers, stroking the egos of the municipal officials who hire them - not to mention getting their hands dirty in sewers and treatment plants. And right now, the market for new civil engineers is very poor.</p>
<p>And I imagine it’s pretty much the same for every tech job, with only the detail differing.</p>
<p>So should a kid go into a tech field? A kid with his or her eyes open as to the realities and with the talents and real interests, absolutely. A kid who only thinks it’s a fast track to riches? No way.</p>
<p>The man across the street from us is a civil engineer. He currently works two states away and only comes home on weekends. That’s where he can find work. </p>
<p>Some people here seem to assume that those who don’t enter STEM fields are suffering from lack of ability. My S is in fact the proverbial French Lit major. He is an extremely intelligent kid, who took the full series of AP sciences and calc in HS, and got 5s on most of the corresponding AP exams. He also took two languages through the AP level, with 5s on all three corresponding AP exams (lang and lit in one, just lang in the other). The same deal in history. He was a Presidential Scholar semifinalist in our state, and an NMF.</p>
<p>Clearly, he is fully capable of entering a STEM field if he had any desire to do so. I’d be perfectly happy if he did. I think that fascinating things are happening in science, and it would be great if that floated his boat. But it just doesn’t turn him on intellectually. And my one desire for this highly intellectual kid’s college experience was that he fall in love with something that engaged his considerable intellect. In his case, it appears that it will be linguistics, which he discovered late, so he will be minoring in it, with an eye to eventual graduate school.</p>
<p>I, too, find the “STEM triumphalism” and outright hostility to the humanities rampant on CC disturbing.</p>
<p>D is very, very good in math. People were always suggesting she go into engineering but she has no interest in it and is majoring in a liberal arts field with my blessing. Interestingly, in the last month alone I have heard about 2 students I know who were majoring in STEM fields who are no longer doing so. There is nothing wrong with STEM, but it’s not for everyone and not even for everyone who is talented in math.</p>
<p>I don’t see the point of the whole discussion. My daughter who is interested in STEM is going to continue to do so, and my son who isn’t isn’t going to suddenly force himself into a path that’s of no interest to him. They would never think of tearing down the other’s major. When I see a STEM person on here who feels the need to disparage liberal arts and can’t see any value in it, I conclude that I’m dealing with someone who either isn’t very bright or who is geeky beyond belief and has little inability to interact with others.</p>