Is College Worth the Investment if You are a Liberal Arts Major?

[TheDev]

A lot of the classes required for a college degree are all about getting a well-rounded education like english, litt, psychology, socialogy, logical reasining, math, economics, statistics, foreign language, non-western classes, art, music, etc.

I guess spelling was never a very good skill.

That's what gen eds are for.

 

[TheDev]

A classical liberal arts education frees the mind to think, to discern, and to reason.

I'm so tired of hearing nonsense like this. Do you truly believe that a STEM degree wouldn't require thinking, discerning, and reasoning? Of course it would. I love how the liberal arts people always act like their degrees set them on some special path to enlightenment. If they are so enlightened, then why aren't they able to realize that being in massive debt with no serious job prospects isn't such a great idea?

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

That's what gen eds are for.

I see you skipped reading. Is that a liberal art or a stem class?

 

[TheDev]

I see you skipped reading. Is that a liberal art or a stem class?

lol I've read every post in this thread. What in the world are you talking about? I don't think that even the looniest liberal arts universities have "Reading" as a major. That would be pretty funny if they did. Maybe they should also have "Talking" and "Breathing" as majors. I'm sure it would give you such a well-rounded education.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

lol I've read every post in this thread. What in the world are you talking about?

Yet, you've understood so few.

 

[TheDev]

Yet, you've understood so few.

lol, here we have a liberal arts person making random attacks instead of offering any meaningful insight pertaining to the subject of the thread.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I understand this is an extremely difficult mental exercise for you or, anyone who views the value of education as only worth what someone else will pay you for but, try to imagine a world in which everyone thought as you do...

The world would be controlled by corporations, no governments, no protections for those without the means to pay for them, no art, music, theater. No distinctiveness, no culture beyond that of corporate greed. There would be no innovation. There would be a rigid class structure and only way to get recognition would be to earn greater profits.

One more time for the STEM impaired.

 

[TheDev]

I understand this is an extremely difficult mental exercise for you or, anyone who views the value of education as only worth what someone else will pay you for but, try to imagine a world in which everyone thought as you do...

The world would be controlled by corporations, no governments, no protections for those without the means to pay for them, no art, music, theater. No distinctiveness, no culture beyond that of corporate greed. There would be no innovation. There would be a rigid class structure and only way to get recognition would be to earn greater profits.

Wow, you are trying to say that liberal arts people are responsible for innovation? There is a lot of technological innovation being made, and it's not being made by art history majors. It's being made by people with useful degrees that led to useful jobs, not by the unemployed/underemployed liberal arts people.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Wow, you are trying to say that liberal arts people are responsible for innovation? There is a lot of technological innovation being made, and it's not being made by art history majors. It's being made by people with useful degrees that led to useful jobs, not by the unemployed/underemployed liberal arts people.

As I said, you've understood few of the posts here. Let's take a stroll down a parallel timeline. In a world where everyone bases their decisions on ROI. How many tech companies do you think would continue to fund research in any meaningful way? Research is a poor investment. At least in the short run, which is all any hardworking STEM graduate cares about, right? I mean, once you got yours, who cares about anyone else, right?

Tech companies would be happy to refine someone else's work but, who would initially do the research? There'd be no government to fund anything. There'd be no lazy noncontributing liberal arts types to invest in cures for the balding of pygmy industrialists. There'd be no art to inspire except for competitions between architects for who could build the ugliest corporate hq. There'd be no protections for the scientists and techies who did do research (in their spare time) from industrial spies or corporate assassins.

 

[Fenixgoon]

As I said, you've understood few of the posts here. Let's take a stroll down a parallel timeline. In a world where everyone bases their decisions on ROI. How many tech companies do you think would continue to fund research in any meaningful way? Research is a poor investment. At least in the short run, which is all any hardworking STEM graduate cares about, right? I mean, once you got yours, who cares about anyone else, right?

Tech companies would be happy to refine someone else's work but, who would initially do the research? There'd be no government to fund anything. There'd be no lazy noncontributing liberal arts types to invest in cures for the balding of pygmy industrialists. There'd be no art to inspire except for competitions between architects for who could build the ugliest corporate hq. There'd be no protections for the scientists and techies who did do research (in their spare time) from industrial spies or corporate assassins.

research is a long term investment, not a short one. and any corporation that ignores research is stupid, because they will ultimately have no new/innovative products.

you research new ideas and technologies which ultimately lead to new applications and products.

one of my metallurgy professors said one of the biggest reasons US Steel ended up going under is because they got rid of nearly all research activities.

 

[DCal430]

IMHO most STEM major do not take enough classes in english, art, social sciences, and the humanities.

I was required to take only 2 English classes, 2 Social Science Classes, and 2 Humanities. That isn't really enough at all. I wasn't even required to take any art classes, or language classes.

 

[TheDev]

IMHO most STEM major do not take enough classes in english, art, social sciences, and the humanities.

I was required to take only 2 English classes, 2 Social Science Classes, and 2 Humanities. That isn't really enough at all. I wasn't even required to take any art classes, or language classes.

Most universities require way more gen eds than that.

 

[DCal430]

Most universities require way more gen eds than that.

Not really, some might require 3 classes form the Humanities and Social Sciences.