Science Is a liberal arts degree a useful education?

No, see, you use the STEM field of Neurochemistry to understand how people think, and THEN you get paid for this shit!

We're all just chemicals!
 
If your talking about generalized classes, sure there is some value in that. However that kind of value should only be taught early on. That should not be a core concept that should be focused on later on . Later on in life, everyone should be focused on what kind of job that the market needs.

Currently the market needs more STEM degrees, not worthless liberal arts degrees. Your right about gender studies, but my friends your still a bit short.

Who needs liberal arts degrees when we are living in the 21st century ? Outside of primary school, the need for such degrees , its fast becoming ....obsolete .
You know what the world needs? People who enjoy their job and aren't in it for the money.
Hence, some people want careers in art and writing. They are some of the worst paying jobs ever, aside from a select few.
 
I think, first of all, it depends on what your school deems a liberal arts degree. Where I go, a journalism degree is considered liberal arts. I do believe that is something you can be naturally good at, but you learn much more than just "tips" for a journalism degree. You learn AP Style writing so that everything can be consistent, you learn how to convey what might be a very complicated story in a way that the general population can easily understand. When I was a journalism major (I switched because I realized I hated doing it), I wrote several stories on a new genetics fish lab on campus. It took a lot of research and a lot of time, but I was able to break down the complicated science into something someone off the street could understand.

My boyfriend is a pre-med neuroscience major going into his senior year. He's done a lot of work with large research groups, doing things that range from concussion research to mental illnesses caused by physical trauma. These large research groups also bring in groups of journalists to convey their findings to the public. A lot of STEM majors tend to have trouble with writing and conveying ideas through the written word (not all of them though!). They want their findings to be conveyed to the public in an understanding way, so they see the purpose in writers. Before you yell at me that you can write, please keep in mind that a lot of STEM majors struggle with it. My own father (a mechanical engineer), my boyfriend, my best friend (pre-vet) and my close friend (Physics), have all struggled with it

I'm currently a creative advertising major. That's the side of an advertising firm that creates what you see on tv, on a billboard or in a magazine. Advertising is an interesting thing that combines both science AND creativity and art. We must study sociology and psychology to know what kind of phrasing persuades people, what kind of colors draws people in, etc. Advertisers often run their own experiments to figure these things out. We also learn what you could call the "Science" of art. How to take that photo with the psychology in mind and how to design a magazine cover with that psychology in mind. All of these things combine to create the designs you see every day. Whether you think it's useless or not, you encounter it nearly every day of your life and it does affect you.






ALSO WOW the first page of this is going down hill, I'm hesitantly hitting the "Post Reply" button please no one kill me I'm just trying to live my life and study my studies at my university
 
To start off, I'd like to say that everyone should try to refrain from being disrespectful and/or patronizing other users. This is an interesting discussion but it should remain focused and respectful. Everyone has their own opinion on what constitutes as useful or valuable, so no one is inherently wrong to feel the way they do.

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In regard to the original question, I feel equipped to answer as someone who's major is part of my university's college of arts & sciences (essentially, the one focused on liberal arts education). The tricky thing about liberal arts degrees is that it's less straightforward than "if you pursue X degree you will become X". In STEM fields, if you pursue engineering you'll likely become an engineer. If you pursue biology you'll probably become a biologist. In contrast to that, if you pursue philosophy you are unlikely to become a professional philosopher.

With that said, just because the outcome isn't straightforward does not mean the degrees won't be used. Philosophy is notoriously one of the best majors for students who want to pursue a degree in law and become a lawyer. The skills acquired in History and English are often useful for any job that involves a lot of thoughtful analyses and writing (archivist, researcher, businessperson, librarian, etc.). You can enter into a useful field with a seemingly useless degree. The ability to write, do research, or think critically or creatively are skills that come in very handy in a lot of professions. They're also skills that not everyone has, so it is useful to improve them though training. Public speaking is another one of those useful skills that need to be trained, since many people don't know how to do it or are afraid to do it (and if you work in an office, or as a scientist, you'll likely have to do presentations periodically).

Psychology is a very useful major (though I'm biased in that regard) because it's both open ended and prepares you for better understanding the people you will potentially work with or work for. In my case, I'm a psychology major who intends to pursue a PhD. I'm going from a liberal arts major into a field that is scientifically oriented, and my major has been good preparation for that. Psychology, being a social science, is about more than learning psychology becoming a psychologist. It's about learning to do research, learning to mediate conflict, learning to understand statistics and forensics, and learning enough about people to go into Human Resources (and what business doesn't have an HR department?). Psychologists are needed, but there's a lot more use for a Psychology degree than opening up your own practice. Plus, in regard to those who do become a psychologist, it is important that they're properly trained and vetted because there are a lot of practicing psychologists out there who are less than therapeutic to talk to, and the field is working towards fixing that. As such, it's necessary to have students who are well informed about the current psychological theories and practices.

Consider the field of market research. Many are marketing majors (which I believe is a professional degree) but they also have their fair share of psychology majors. You need people who understand the field of marketing, but also people who know about statistics and about how people think. All those people come together on a team in order to increase the impact of a company's marketing, thereby increasing their profits. The varied skill sets of the professional and liberal arts degrees diversifies the field and makes it more effective.

I think that's what it comes down to really. Having a diverse population means having more kinds of minds to tackle the same problem, yielding more solutions. If everyone pursued a more technical major, then we'd have too many people who all have the same exact training. I do think more people should pursue more technical degrees, but that doesn't devalue liberal arts education. Those majors are still needed. It's just important that students find something to do with it, because it's less obvious what type of job to pursue, making things more difficult post graduation.

As for things like art not being useful because one should just be able to figure it out on their own, professional guidance often helps. My university has a performing arts program, and a lot of acting/dance/music majors. Now technically they could get a job without going to college, but it does help their resume, and the teachers are able to give them connections that they otherwise wouldn't have. Plus, it doesn't hurt their career to start networking with the up and coming directors, producers, and managers that they might end up working with in the future. The professional guidance of an art teacher is also very helpful in developing one's skills, and my roommate's brother (a film major) has produced even greater films thanks to the guidance of his professors and the talented students he met while in a university setting. Collaboration and intensive training are ideal for a budding artist, particularly since they might not know where to begin otherwise.

Now art in and of itself may not appear to be inherently useful to society, but (as I learned in an aesthetic based philosophy class) art is the mark of a successful society. If a country is stable enough to support professional artists and have opportunities for the citizens to relax and indulge in these forms of entertainment, that is evidence that the nation is a well developed one. As such, to get rid of art training would be to limit out ability to leave our mark as a civilization. After all, what do most people remember of the ancient civilizations? Generally, it's the artistry and craftsmanship they display through their artwork, rather than the technology they developed (though that is inherently fascinating for me personally). That's what gets displayed in museums, and talked about by each subsequent generation.

I think humans have an inherent drive to leave an indelible mark on history, and that is what fuels artistic drive. Hence, the existence of art as a profession is a manifestation of the need for self expression and the need to produce things rather than simply consume them. Artistic thinking in some cases leads brilliant technological minds, and in others it leads to artwork and music and performances for society at large to enjoy and feel fulfilled by. Art makes people feel important, and it makes people who consume art feel entertained and proud of what their society has produced. Thus, since it is possible to train and improve skills more efficiently with the help of art instructors, it is useful to have an art major and other art based majors in universities.

A lot of what might seem possible for anyone to do turns out to be a lot harder than you'd expect it to be. Especially since a lot of the most creative people have difficulty focusing and finishing what they start. Having a structured schedule (at least for when they're first establishing themselves) is ideal, so liberal arts education is also useful in that sense.
 
Having a diverse population means having more kinds of minds to tackle the same problem, yielding more solutions. If everyone pursued a more technical major, then we'd have too many people who all have the same exact training.

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This is probably the biggest take away, to me that is . Its like with Rping .... If say the site ( take for example this one ) almost always concentrates on one specific RP ( say most people only promote only doing fantasy RPs that involve school and magic and they're only elementary schools students who are trying to outwit a bad group of students or a an antagonist school teacher ... toss in a love triangle in there as well. ) .

Something as specific as that .....constantly .. and only in that ONLY said situation .... will the RPs continue and all ... the site will stagnate and slowly die off because it isn't diverse enough. You'd have people that would join the site, only to see that ONE specific RP that's done the most , it'll get boring...fairly quickly . The same can be said of indigenous populations for anything ( plants , people , animals, etc ) only concentrate on a few genes , don't promote diversity and said population can quickly collapse if a new disease springs up .

Its the same with society , in at large . There needs to be diversity . The same when your investing, just dumping it all 100% on one stock is risky even if its google or amazon .
 

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