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Can someone explain it to me why Americans are so fixated on studying arts?

busydude

busydude

Diamond Member
I'll let this picture do the talking.

college-majors.jpg


As an engineer I feel really terrible looking at the stats in the US. I also don't seem to understand the appeal of studying arts to this generation. :\

Article: http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/02/what-are-americans-studying/

More people are studying business degrees -> Economy going to shit.

Also:

There are, for example, more students studying visual and performing arts than engineering. There are more parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies majors than physical science majors. And there were fewer computer and information science majors in 2008-2009 (37,994) than there were in 1984-85 (38,878).
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There are a lot of art related degrees. As for the reason it might be partly because those majors are considered a little easier.

Kids are forced into college by their parents and they choose a major they think will be easy. The science majors and engineering majors seem intimidating because many kids struggle through those classes in high school.

I'm an Engineering major but that is beside the point.
 
i have a BofA in multimedia arts, i had to take lots of maths, sciences and programming for it tho. mebbe the degrees are starting to cross over too much, and it makes it seem like less engineering type?
 
Because sometimes people want to do something they are interested in at University, instead of something that is more inclined to sending them down a specific career path.
 
Aren't stereotypes fun? Instead of using your brain, you can coast through life working off baseless generalizations. Yeah, the OP is engineering talent alright...
 
People have a mind for engineering and math or they don't. And most don't and are doing us a favor by not majoring in it.
 
jjsole said:
People have a mind for engineering and math or they don't. And most don't and are doing us a favor by not majoring in it.
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Yup. I originally wanted to do Computer Science and Engineering but I couldnt get past Calc 1. I could write 20 page essays in one night and get an A on it. My roommate who was an electrical engineer couldnt write a 5 page essay in a week if his life depended on it.
 
A lot of people get a degree in one thing but then find out after graduation that it isn't what they want to spend their life doing. That is one of the downsides to the education system, it pushes math, science, reading, but doesn't provide a lot of hands on experience.
Instead of providing that experience students read about careers, get a degree , then try working at it to decide if they like it, really a waste of resources all around.

I was lucky to experience a charter school that offered auto mechanics, carpentry, welding, tailoring, acting, applied health, electronics, and lots of other areas of interest. The thing that made it different wasn't that they offered those classes as part of the curriculum , it was that you were required to take all of them in order to graduate. That forced people to take something like welding even if they had no interest in it and there were quite a few who found out they liked it. I had to learn to sew with needle and thread and even though I didn't want to do it for a career at least I know about it now and still use what I did learn to fix my own sock holes.
 
AznAnarchy99 said:
Yup. I originally wanted to do Computer Science and Engineering but I couldnt get past Calc 1. I could write 20 page essays in one night and get an A on it. My roommate who was an electrical engineer couldnt write a 5 page essay in a week if his life depended on it.
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Are you employed? If so.. what is your job?
 
Modelworks said:
A lot of people get a degree in one thing but then find out after graduation that it isn't what they want to spend their life doing. That is one of the downsides to the education system, it pushes math, science, reading, but doesn't provide a lot of hands on experience.
Instead of providing that experience students read about careers, get a degree , then try working at it to decide if they like it, really a waste of resources all around.

I was lucky to experience a charter school that offered auto mechanics, carpentry, welding, tailoring, acting, applied health, electronics, and lots of other areas of interest. The thing that made it different wasn't that they offered those classes as part of the curriculum , it was that you were required to take all of them in order to graduate. That forced people to take something like welding even if they had no interest in it and there were quite a few who found out they liked it. I had to learn to sew with needle and thread and even though I didn't want to do it for a career at least I know about it now and still use what I did learn to fix my own sock holes.
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I totally agree with you. Children should be taught all the subjects and also be trained in a few things which can be immensely useful in their lives.

What I can't seem to wrap my head around.. is the fact that there are not many jobs out there for arts majors.. and even if they manage to secure one.. they are grossly underpaid(In relation to college fees).
 
I got a degree in Philosophy, in part, because it was the most applicable to my future job. And I'm glad I did.

I'm about to go back to school and get a Masters in it.
 
Are foreign students exposed to culture more in the earlier levels of education? I don't really remember being exposed to much culture throughout school, so maybe that has something to do with it?
 
Some people go to school to expand their knowledge of something that they want to do for the rest of their lives (either professionally or personally). Crazy concept, but money isn't everything.
 
Because it requires the least amount of effort to get those degrees and still feel accomplished by doing so.

Edit: Okay that may not be true, but most of my friends that went to college in those degree fields told me that when I asked why they picked that.
 
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The world needs very few historians, psychologists and theater producers. People should not go into debt studying arts. They should go to a trade school, get a real job, and then study arts on their own (or take classes when they can afford it.)

Art degrees = big fucking joke because it is completely subjective and any fucking idiot can do it.
 
Because american public schools are designed to pop out blue collar factory workers? Football good, math is hard and for nerds and you can take whatever easy classes you want. If you don't have a proper math and science background form k12, you sure as shit won't go for it in college.

I came to U.S. mid highschool and was blown away how idiotic the incentive system is.
 
> Can someone explain it to me why Americans are so fixated on studying arts?

Isn't the "arts" entry 5.x % in both tables?

It's Health, Education, Psychology that differ between the US and other countries. These are referred to disparagingly as "soft sciences" not as arts (though the degree might be a BA).

Why? As Barbie tells little girls, "math is hard!"
 
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